Under the Treaty of Pereyaslav of 1654, the territory became part of the Russian Empire. In 1774 Prince Grigori Potemkin was appointed governor of Novorossiysk Governorate, and after the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich, he started founding cities in the region and encouraging foreign settlers. The city of "Yekaterinoslav" was founded in 1776, not in the current location, but at the confluence of the River Samara with the River Kil'chen' at Loshakivka, north of the Dnieper. On May 8, 1775, after the end of the Russian-Turkish War, Russian authorities opened a postal station and track which linked Kremenchuk, Kinburn foreland and Ochakiv, all locations of the Imperial Russian Army.