Russian forces in the occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson are engaged in mass theft of medical equipment and ambulances in a bid to make the area uninhabitable, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.
Ukrainian troops are gathered in force near Kherson, in the south of the country, prompting Russian-installed officials to evacuate many residents.
Kherson is one of the four regions Moscow claims as part of Russia.
"The occupiers have decided to close down medical institutions in towns, take away medical equipment, ambulances, everything," Mr Zelenskyy said.
"They are putting pressure on doctors who still remain … to move to the territory of Russia."
"Russia is trying to make the Kherson region a no-man's land," he added in an evening video address, saying pro-Moscow forces realised they could not hold the city and were therefore taking what they could.
Ukrainian officials have regularly accused retreating Russian troops of widespread looting.
Kherson, the biggest city Russia has captured intact since its February invasion, is at the mouth of the wide Dnipro River, which bisects Ukraine.
The surrounding region controls land approaches to Crimea, which Moscow has held since 2014.
Russia ordered civilians to leave a pocket of land it occupies on the west bank of the Dnipro, which includes Kherson city.
Kyiv says the evacuation is cover for a forcible deportation of civilians by Russian forces, which Moscow denies.
Sergey Aksyonov, the leader of Crimea, said work had been completed on moving residents seeking to flee Kherson to regions of Russia ahead of Ukraine's expected counter-offensive.
The Ukrainian advance appears to have slowed in recent days, however, with Kyiv blaming poor weather and tough terrain.
Russia declares end of mobilisation campaign
Russia said on Friday it had finished calling up reservists to fight in Ukraine, having drafted hundreds of thousands in a month and sending more than a quarter of them already to the battlefield after a divisive mobilisation campaign that was the country's first since World War II.
"The task set by you of [mobilising] 300,000 people has been completed. No further measures are planned," Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin at a televised meeting in the Kremlin.
He said 82,000 had already been sent to the combat zone and the rest were training.
Mr Zelenskyy said he doubted Moscow was finished calling up soldiers.
In his nightly televised address, he said Russian forces "are so poorly prepared and equipped, so brutally used by their command, that it allows us to presume that very soon Russia may need a new wave of people to send to the war".
The divisive mobilisation drive has seen tens of thousands of men flee the country and gave rise to the first sustained public protests against the war.
In his televised meeting with Mr Shoigu, Mr Putin thanked reservists "for their dedication to duty, for their patriotism, for their firm determination to defend our country, to defend Russia, which means their home, their family, our citizens, our people".
Both men acknowledged "problems" in the early days of the call-up.
Mr Shoigu said initial issues in supplying newly mobilised troops had since been resolved.
Mr Putin said mistakes were inevitable as Russia had not carried out a mobilisation for such a long time, but that lessons had been learned.
The mobilisation Mr Putin ordered last month after his forces suffered major battlefield setbacks was the first time most Russians faced a direct personal impact from the "special military operation" he launched in February.
More than 2,000 people were arrested in anti-mobilisation protests, notably in parts of Russia populated by ethnic minorities who complained they were being disproportionately targeted to be sent to the front
Kyiv continues to make gains
Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk province, said on Friday Ukrainian troops had practically gained full control of an important road connecting Svatove and Kreminna, major towns seen as the next big battlefront in the east. The claim could not be independently verified.
Near Kherson, troops dug into muddy trench lines north of the city exchanged rocket, mortar and artillery fire.
Ukrainian soldiers manning a 120mm mortar hidden in bushes loosed high-explosive rounds in thundering bursts of flame at Russian positions around a grain silo less than a kilometre away.
Hennadyi, 51, said the Russians were using the silo for cover and observation. It poked like a finger above a vast expanse of fields, a column of smoke floating behind it.
Hennadyi said Ukrainian gunners were targeting Russian armoured vehicles and ammunition behind the silo and avoiding hitting the structure itself because of its importance to the agricultural region. But they did not have enough shells, he said.
"For every one shell that we send, they send back five," he said amid the shellfire duels.
"They shoot at us most of the time."
Putin's escalation in recent weeks has also included a new campaign to rain down missiles and Iranian-made suicide drones on Ukrainian civil infrastructure targets, particularly electricity substations.
Kyiv says the strikes are intended to freeze Ukrainians in winter. Moscow says it is permitted retaliation for Ukrainian attacks including a blast on a bridge to Crimea.
ABC/wires
