Russia makes more of the unfounded assertion that Ukraine intends to employ a prohibited weapon of war.
Russia on Tuesday expanded its evacuation orders in the southern Kherson region over unsupported claims that Ukraine is gearing up to use "prohibited methods of war."
Moscow-installed officials ordered Ukrainians to leave the eastern bank of the Dnieper River in a move that Kyiv has condemned as an attempt to forcibly deport its citizens to Russia, reported Reuters.
Intense fighting has raged for months in the city of Kherson as Ukrainian forces look to retake the southern region after an eight-month-long occupation.
Prior to directing the evacuation of Kherson, Russia earlier this month urged its top security personnel and their families to leave the region.
Vladimir Saldo, the Kherson region's new Russian leader, elaborated on that order in a video message on Tuesday, urging all Ukrainians within a 9-mile radius of the Dnieper River to leave.
Saldo reportedly stated, "There is an immediate threat of the Kherson region being flooded due to the prospect of the Ukrainian regime using forbidden tactics of war, as well as intelligence that Kyiv is preparing a large missile strike on the Kakhovka hydropower station."
He declared, "Given the circumstances, I have chosen to extend the evacuation zone by 15 kilometres from the Dnieper." The choice will enable the development of a multi-layered defence to thwart Ukrainian strikes and safeguard people.
Since the start of the war, Kyiv and its friends in the West have denounced Moscow's brazen attempts to forcibly remove Ukrainian civilians.
Russia asserted earlier this month that it was aware of Ukraine's plans to use a "dirty bomb," a crude weapon that explodes with a normal explosive like dynamite but discharges radioactive elements.
Russia or Ukraine have not yet employed such a weapon, and the United States, France, and the United Kingdom denounced the assertions as "transparently false."
