KYIV/MYKOLAIV, Ukraine • Russia told civilians on Tuesday to leave an area along the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in the Ukrainian province of Kherson, a major extension of an evacuation order that Kyiv says amounts to the forced depopulation of occupied territory.

Russia had previously ordered civilians out of a pocket it controls on the west bank of the river, where Ukrainian forces have been advancing for weeks to capture the city of Kherson in what would be a strategic prize in the eight-month-long war.

Russian-installed officials said on Tuesday they were extending that order to a 9-mile buffer zone along the east bank too. Ukraine says the evacuations include forced deportations from occupied territory, a war crime.

Russia, which claims to have annexed parts of Kherson region, says it is taking civilians to safety because of the risk Ukraine might use unconventional weapons.

“Due to the possibility of the use of prohibited methods of war by the Ukrainian regime, as well as information that Kyiv is preparing a massive missile strike on the Kakhovka hydroelectric station, there is an immediate danger of the Kherson region being flooded,” Vladimir Saldo, Russian-installed head of occupied Kherson province, said in a video message.

“The decision (to expand the evacuation zone) will make it possible to create a layered defence in order to repel Ukrainian attacks and protect civilians,” he said.

Russian-installed authorities in the Kherson region also said an obligatory evacuation of Kakhovka district, close to the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric station, was to begin on Nov. 6.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of planning to use a so-called “dirty bomb” to spread radiation, or to blow up a dam to flood towns and villages in Kherson province. Kyiv says accusations it would use such tactics on its own territory are absurd, but that Russia might be planning such actions itself to blame Ukraine.

The mouth of the Dnipro has become one of the most consequential frontlines eight months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Saldo identified seven towns on the east bank that would now be evacuated, comprising the main populated settlements along that stretch of the river.

In the city of Kherson on Tuesday streets were virtually empty, with most shops and businesses shuttered. A handful of people at a jetty boarded a ferry to cross to the east bank of the Dnipro, though a few men were still fishing peacefully, apparently indifferent to the distant rumble of artillery fire.

Some residents remained defiant, despite the order to leave.

“Why should I leave? … What for? I will stay here to the very end,” said Ekaterina, a shopkeeper, referring to the house she said her ancestors had built “with their own hands”.

Russian forces swept into Ukraine in February in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to eliminate dangerous nationalists and protect Russian-speakers. Kyiv calls Moscow’s military action an unprovoked imperialist land grab. Thousands of Russian men have fled abroad to escape conscription to a conflict which has killed thousands, displaced millions and reopened Cold War-era divisions.