Topline
Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk, urged the 350,000 remaining people to leave the province just one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in Luhansk, a separatist region key to his wartime goals.
Ukrainian soldiers attend their positions, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Saturday, July 2, 2022. … [+]
Key Facts
Kyrylenko told reporters people must evacuate for their own safety and so that the army can better defend the area from the Russians, according to the Associated Press.
The governor added that Russia has been shelling without “a specific target,” and cities in Donetsk like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk are being hit hard because they hold important infrastructure like water and filtration plants.
The Associated Press estimated that Kyrylenko’s evacuation is one of the biggest recommended evacuations of the war.
Key Background
As of June 30, The United Nations Refugee Agency recorded 8.4 million border crossings from Ukraine, as well as 5.5 individual Ukrainian refugees around Europe since war broke out. The agency called Ukraine’s refugee crisis the largest human displacement crisis in the world today.
Tangent
Donetsk and Luhansk are disputed territories in Ukraine’s Donbas region, which Russia has claimed since 2014. Since April, following the war’s weeks-long stalling, the Russian army has targeted the Donbas instead of the nation’s capital, Kyiv. On Sunday, Ukrainian forces confirmed they had left the city of Lysychansk, the country’s last holdout in the Luhansk region, and on Monday Putin claimed Russia had taken full control of Luhansk.
Further Reading
The Ukrainian Army Retreats In The East, Advances In The South (Forbes)
Ukrainian governor urges evacuation of 350,000 residents (Associated Press)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliecoleman/2022/07/05/donetsk-governor-calls-for-immediate-evacuation-amid-russian-advance/