KYIV/MIKOLAIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -President Vladimir
Putin ordered all of Russia to support the war effort in Ukraine on Wednesday,
as the Russian-appointed administration of Kherson prepared to evacuate the
only regional capital Moscow has captured during its invasion.
Images of people using boats to flee the southern
city were broadcast by Russian state TV, which portrayed the exodus - from the
right to left bank of the River Dnipro - as an attempt to evacuate civilians
before it became a combat zone.
The Russian-installed chief of Kherson - one of four
Ukrainian regions unilaterally claimed by Moscow where Putin declared martial
law on Wednesday - said about 50,000-60,000 people would be moved out in the
next six days.
"The Ukrainian side is building up forces for a
large-scale offensive," Vladimir Saldo, the official, told state TV.
"Where the military operates, there is no place for civilians."
Staff at Kherson's Russian-backed administration
were also being relocated to the left bank of the Dnipro, he said, although he
said Russia had the resources to hold the city and even counter-attack if
necessary.
Eight months after being invaded, Ukraine is
pressing major counter-offensives in the east and south to try to take as much
territory as it can before winter after routing Russian forces in some areas.
Russian forces near Kherson have been driven back by
20-30 km (13-20 miles) in the last few weeks and risk being pinned against the
western bank of the 2,200-km (1,370-mile) Dnipro, which bisects Ukraine.
In televised remarks to his Security Council, Putin
boosted the powers of Russia's regional governors and ordered the creation of a
coordinating council under Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to support his
"special military operation".
He said the "entire system of state
administration" must be geared to back up the Ukraine effort.
'DEOCCUPATION'
It was unclear what the immediate impact of Putin's
declaration of martial law would be, beyond much tighter security measures in
Kherson and the other three regions.
But Kyiv, which along with the West does not
recognize Moscow's self-styled annexations, derided the move. Presidential
adviser Mykhailo Podolyak called it "a pseudo-legalization of (the)
looting of Ukrainians' property."
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