US president Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Russian president Vladimir Putin is "in an incredibly difficult position" and is resorting to brutalising Ukrainian citizens.
"I think Vladimir Putin finds himself in an incredibly difficult position and what it reflects to me is it seems his only tool available to him is to brutalise individual citizens in Ukraine to try to intimidate them into capitulating," Mr Biden told reporters at the White House.
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.
Evacuations
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.
Counter-offensives
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 20-30km in the last few weeks and risk being pinned against the western bank of the 2,200-km 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".
