Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved the evacuation of civilians from parts of Russian-occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine.
Kyiv’s forces continue to advance on the strategic port city.
Mr Putin said people living in dangerous areas should leave because “the civilian population should not suffer”.
At least 70,000 people are said to have already moved out of Kherson – the only major city Moscow captured after its troops invaded in February.
During the Solidarity Day holiday in Moscow’s Red Square, Mr Putin said civilians at risk of shelling and attacks should be “removed”.
Kyiv accuses Russia of forcibly deporting Ukrainian citizens – considered a war crime – although Moscow denies this.
Russia’s intense missile and drone attacks on civilian infrastructure across Ukraine have caused heavy casualties and property damage, forcing Kyiv to repeatedly cut off electricity.
Mr Putin’s comments came after reports on Thursday that Russian troops were also leaving Kherson – in what would be a massive withdrawal.
Kirill Stremusov, a Kremlin-appointed official in the region, told Russian media that Moscow was “likely” to withdraw its forces from the area.
Ukrainian officials remained cautious, warning that the move could become a trap for their troops to be trapped in dangerous areas.
Kherson was arrested shortly after Russia attacked its neighbor on February 24, but recently Ukrainian forces have permanently retaken territory on the city’s outskirts.
Civilians were first urged to leave Kherson in the middle of last month, as the Russian military put the city on the defensive.
Military commanders later said they had completed operations to evacuate the city’s residents, ahead of an expected battle there.
Russia claims the Kherson region and three other regions of Ukraine as its territory, although it does not have full control over any of them. He hastily organized a local “referendum” to validate the claim – a move condemned internationally.
Russia also annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
During Friday’s speech in Red Square, Mr. Putin also said that some 318,000 military recruits had signed up for duty during the mobilization, which has now been completed – exceeding his target of 300,000. Is.
Of those, Mr Putin said 49,000 were already in active combat – a figure not independently confirmed by JEE News.
Meanwhile, Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, has opened its first official headquarters in St. Petersburg.
Its fighters are reported to be active in the Russian campaign in Ukraine, and have recruited prisoners to fight there, in exchange for commutation of their sentences in Russia.
