The commander of the Russian army in Ukraine says the situation in the southern city of Kherson is "difficult" and residents have to be evacuated.
General Sergei Surovikin said Ukrainian troops using Hymer rockets were attacking the city's infrastructure and housing. He spoke on Russian state TV.
"The Russian army will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population", he said.
His rare acknowledgment of bigger problems was echoed by a top local official.
Russian-established regional officer Kirill Stremosov warned residents of Kherson that "in the very near future" Ukrainian forces would launch an attack on the city.
"Please take my words seriously - I'm talking about getting fired as soon as possible," he said on the Telegram messaging service. He said that people on the west bank of the Dnieper River (called Dnipro in Ukraine) were most at risk.
This was confirmed by the region's governor Vladimir Saldo, who was also appointed by Russia in a video message.
Kherson was the first major city to fall to the Russians back in February.
The Ukrainian army has been continuously occupying the surrounding area for the past few weeks. They have moved up to 30 km (19 mi) to the south along the Dnieper, threatening to trap Russian troops.
"Overall the situation in the Special Military Operations area can be described as tense," General Surovikin said.
Kherson is the only Ukrainian territorial capital captured by the Russians in their invasion. The Kremlin now claims Kherson and three other Ukrainian territories to be part of Russia - a claim rejected internationally.
damage to infrastructure
General Surovikin, known for his harsh methods, said rockets from Ukraine had damaged Kherson's Antonivsky Bridge and Kakhovka Hydroelectric Dam, blocking traffic along those major arteries.
He said this had created a supply problem for essential services, such as food distribution, water and electricity.
The BBC has been unable to verify the difficulty in Kherson, described by the general.
He also said that the Ukrainians were launching continuous attacks on a wide front - in the areas of Kupiyansk and Lyman in the east and on the Mykolaiv-Krivy Rih front in the south.
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The scale of the planned "evacuation" from Kherson is not yet clear. If Russia forces people to leave their homes, it could be a war crime under UN definition.
In March, Ukraine said Russia had illegally deported thousands of people to its territory from Mariupol, a city ravaged by Russian shelling.
The United Nations under its definition of war crimes include: "the deportation or transfer, directly or indirectly, of parts of its own civilian population into the occupied territory, or all or part of the occupied population, the transfer or Transfer. Area".
The Russian State Duma - the lower house of parliament - on Tuesday discussed plans to relocate Kherson residents to Russia. Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnulin said they would be offered new homes anywhere in Russia, and the government would provide financial support.
According to Russia's Varma TV news, each family member would receive 100,000 rubles (£1,433; $1,626) to replace household items they were forced to give up.
The pre-war population of Kherson was about 300,000, but Ukrainian officials estimate that about half the number has fled the city.
General Surovikin is the new commander of Russia's war in Ukraine - what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation".
His nickname is General Armageddon and he is a veteran of Russia's wars. In Syria he oversaw Russian bombing raids in which many civilians were killed. He has also commanded soldiers accused of human rights abuses in Chechnya.
General Surovikin was speaking on a day of Russian drone and missile attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, many of them targeting Ukraine's power supplies. Parts of Kyiv now have no electricity and no running water.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said 30% of his country's power stations had been destroyed in the past eight days.
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