Kremlin-installed officials begin evacuating civilians from Kherson region of Ukraine

As Ukraine forces advance south, Russia has started evacuating civilians from the Moscow-controlled region of Kherson in southern Ukraine, pro-Kremlin officials said on Wednesday.

"In Kherson, the organised movement of residents to the other side of the Dnieper has begun," pro-Russian officials in the town of Alyoshki said on social media, while Russia's Rossiya 24 TV showed images of people waiting to board ferries to cross the river.

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Earlier, the officials said they planned to evacuate some 50,000 civilians due to a Ukrainian counter-offensive.

"We are expecting to evacuate between 50,000 and 60,000 people to the left bank of the Dnieper," pro-Kremlin official Vladimir Saldo said on the Telegram channel "Solovyov Live".

RIA Novosti news agency reported that evacuations by boat had already begun. It also said that the residents had received text messages, asking them to evacuate "before the Ukrainian army begins bombing". The entire activity is expected to take at least six days, the officials said.

Russia's military commander for Ukraine operations admitted on Tuesday that the situation in the Kherson regions is "difficult" and Russian forces were planning a "safe evacuation".

"The situation in this area is difficult. The enemy is deliberately striking infrastructure and residential buildings in Kherson," Sergei Surovikin, the Russian air force general now commanding Russia's invasion forces, told the state-owned Rossiya 24 news channel.

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"The Russian army will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population of Kherson," he said. "As a whole, the situation in the special military operation zone can be described as tense."

The city of Kherson and the surrounding region were captured by Russian forces at the beginning of the conflict. Moscow "annexed" three other Ukrainian regions after conducting referendums that were termed"sham" by the West. Ukraine's counter-offensive in the south has been making things tough for Russian forces. Ukrainian strikes have targeted bridges to the left bank to disrupt supply lines.

(With inputs from agencies)