Russian troops readying for big attack in Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine
Russian troops are preparing for a big attack in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, officials warned on Monday night, urging a mass evacuation.
"We see that equipment is coming from different directions, they are bringing manpower, they are bringing fuel," the local governor Sergiy Gaida said in a video statement.
"We understand that they are preparing for a full-scale big breakthrough," he added.
The White House said on Monday night that Russia was likely to "deploy tens of thousands of soldiers" in eastern regions with the next phase of war lasting "months or longer".
Gaiday urged residents to leave the region as soon as possible.
"Please don't wait for your homes to be bombed," he said in a separate video.
"Do not hesitate," he added, specifying that 1,000 people had been evacuated on Monday.
A senior Pentagon official said Russia has removed about two-thirds of the troops it had around Kyiv - who were mostly sent back to Belarus with plans to redeploy elsewhere in Ukraine.
"The bombardments are becoming ever denser. Last night there was an attempt to break through at Rubizhne (near Lugansk). (But) our defenders repulsed and put several tanks out of action - there were dozens of (Russian soldiers') corpses, Gaiday said.
"Yesterday, sadly, two volunteers were killed in a mine or mortar explosion," he went on, adding "a church was bombed."
The mayor of Borova, Oleksandr Tertyshnyy, whose town is midway between Luhansk and the main eastern city of Kharkiv, said local authorities "had to take a decision to evacuate the population... for citizens' security. Those who can leave in their own vehicle are encouraged to do so," he said on Facebook.
Oleksy Arestovitch, a Ukraine presidential advisor, added that "the enemy is in the process of regrouping its forces with the intention of pursuing the offensive... in the region of Mariupol and Kharkiv.
"The enemy will seek to encircle our troops... and finish off Mariupol" - already largely destroyed after weeks under siege.
"But we are all convinced they will not succeed in doing so," he added.
Vadym Boichenko, Mariupol's mayor, said that 90 per cent of buildings have been destroyed.
"The horrors that we've seen in Bucha are just the tip of the iceberg of the crimes committed by the Russian army in the territory of Ukraine so far," he said. "And I can tell you without an exaggeration, but with great sorrow, that the situation in Mariupol is much worse."
