Pro-Kremlin officials are evacuating Kherson city in Ukraine but have vowed that Russian forces will keep up the fight.
The head of the Moscow-controlled Kherson region on Wednesday told Russian state TV that the entire administration was "already moving today" to the left bank of the Dnipro river.
Vladimir Saldo said the measure, along with the organised movement of civilians, was a mere precaution and vowed that Russian forces would continue to fight against Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin declared martial law in the four annexed regions and bestowed additional emergency powers to the heads of all regions of Russia.
“We are working to solve very difficult, large-scale tasks to ensure Russia’s security and safe future, to protect our people,” Mr Putin said.
Russian forces are in a “very uneasy” situation around Kherson, Gen Sergey Surovikin, the commander of Moscow's invading forces, has said.
Mr Valdo said up to 40 per cent of civilians in the Kherson region were being moved to steer clear of the fighting.
“No one is going to hand over Kherson," he said. "But it is not ideal for residents to be in the city where hostilities will take place."
“No one is panicking. Everything is going well and being carried out in an organised manner."
Kherson, a strategic port, is the biggest population centre seized by Moscow in Ukraine and is on territory which President Putin says is now formally incorporated into Russia, a move Ukraine and the West do not recognise.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said less than a month had passed “since the pompous announcement of Kherson annexation and solemn concert on the Red Square, as the self-proclaimed 'city administration' … ceremoniously evacuates in anticipation of Ukrainian justice. Reality can hurt if you live in a fictional fantasy world”.
A senior Ukrainian official accused Russia of organising a “propaganda show” in Kherson.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president's office, also accused Russia of “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,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine's forces launched a counteroffensive in August to reclaim parts of the southern Kherson region, while its military said it had shot down more than 220 Iranian-made drones over the past month.
“Since the first downing of an Iranian-made Shahed-136 'kamikaze' drone on the territory of Ukraine on September 13, the … air force and other components of the defence forces of Ukraine have destroyed 223 UAVs of this type,” military officials said.
For now, the focus is on Kherson.
“We are expecting attacks," Mr Saldo said. "The Ukrainians are not hiding this. We have enough strength and capability to repel these attacks.
“The city will be completely held but we need to keep civilians safe. Nobody is going to give away Kherson. The military will fight to the death.”
Kherson, which had a prewar population of about 300,000, fell to Russian invading forces early in the conflict.
Gen Surovikin told a press conference in Moscow that “our plans in the city of Kherson will depend on the tactical military situation that is already very uneasy".
"We will seek to protect the lives of civilians and our service members," he said. “We will act in a timely manner, without excluding the most difficult decisions.”
Analysts say a successful Ukrainian offensive in Kherson could trap about 20,000 Russian troops, including some of their best forces.
Gen Surovikin alleged that Ukraine planned to attack infrastructure, including a dam at a hydroelectric plant. He also said the Russian army would “provide for the already announced safe transportation of the population under the relocation programme”.
