The Russian army has vowed to "fight to the death" as tens of thousands are evacuated from Kherson in Ukraine.
Civilians and Russian -appointed officials are fleeing from Ukraine's southern Kherson region and Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed head of the Kherson region, said 50-60,000 civilians would leave four towns on the west bank of the Dnieper river in an "organised, gradual displacement".
Russians are trying to cling to the captured city before a Ukrainian counteroffensive and Mr Saldo said the movement of civilians would be tied to a decision “to build sizeable defensive fortifications to repulse any attack”.
Kherson was the first major city to fall to the Russians at the start of the war and remains the only regional capital under Moscow’s control, so retaking it would be a huge victory for Ukraine.
A senior Ukrainian official has accused Russia of staging a “propaganda show” in occupied Kherson after Russian-installed officials said they were preparing to defend the city from imminent Ukrainian attack and urged civilians to evacuate.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, wrote: "The Russians are trying to scare the people of Kherson with fake newsletters about the shelling of the city by our army, and also arrange a propaganda show with evacuation. Propaganda will not work."
A Kherson retreat would have both positives and negatives for Putin's troops.
It would allow the Russian military to pull back across the Dnipro River on their terms, thus preserving its equipment and saving the lives of soldiers.
But such a retreat would be another humiliating defeat in the war and would hand a second major victory to Ukraine in one month.
It would test his stated commitment to defend what he claims as Russian lands with all available means including nuclear weapons.
Russia said on Tuesday that four Ukrainian regions, including Kherson, are under the protection of its nuclear arsenal.
General Sergei Surovikin, the new commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, made a rare admission that the situation in Kherson was “not easy”.
“Further actions and plans regarding the city of Kherson will depend on the developing military-tactical situation, which is not easy. We will act consciously, in a timely manner, without ruling out difficult decisions,” he added.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to President Zelensky, mocked the Kremlin, saying it was only a month ago that Putin had declared that Kherson would be part of Russia forever. “Reality can hurt if you live in a fictional fantasy world,” he wrote on Twitter.
Since Surovikin’s appointment 11 days ago, Putin's forces have unleashed a storm of missiles and Iranian “kamikaze” drones targeting Ukrainian infrastructure and the civilian population.
Kyiv recently introduced a news blackout in the south of the country, causing many to speculate over whether it was preparing a new major offensive on Kherson.
“When the Ukrainians have a news blackout it means something is going on. They have always done this before when there is a big offensive push on,” Michael Clarke, a former director general of the Royal United Services Institute, told Sky News.
The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, and the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, flew to Washington DC on Tuesday to discuss how to respond to Iran’s intervention.
As the British Ministry of Defence said in its latest briefing that Russia’s military leadership in Ukraine was “increasingly dysfunctional”.
It continued: “Poor lower-level leadership is likely worsening the low morale and poor unit cohesion in many parts of the Russian force.”
