
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that civilians in Ukraine's Kherson region should be evacuated from the conflict zone, the Kremlin chief's first acknowledgement of a deteriorating situation in a region he claims to have annexed.
"Now, of course, those who live in Kherson should be removed from the zone of the most dangerous actions, because the civilian population should not suffer," Putin told pro-Kremlin activists as he marked Russia's Day of National Unity.