Ukrainian leaders are warning civilians in the eastern part of the country to evacuate as soon as possible. The move comes as attacks by Russian forces are expected to intensify.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk made an urgent appeal to residents on Wednesday.

The following day, the mayor of the eastern city of Luhansk also urged residents to flee. He said the next few days will be the last chance. He warned that the Russians are trying to close the evacuation route.

In other parts of the country, more details of the destruction are coming to light. The town of Borodyanka outside Kyiv was one of the hardest-hit places.

Ukraine's public broadcaster says around 13,000 people lived there before the invasion. It has almost been completely destroyed.

Ukraine's prosecutor-general said the devastation could be even worse than in Bucha, where images of dead bodies have shocked the world.

Russia's defense ministry said on Thursday that its forces had destroyed several petroleum storage bases. They were in the southern city of Mykolaiv, in Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, and elsewhere.

The western city of Lviv is harboring around 200,000 evacuees. Mayor Andriy Sadovyi told NHK that the city had accepted around 3,000 evacuees from the Donetsk region on Thursday alone. He said they have completely rebuilt the school theater, sports gym and thousands of citizens are hosting refugees in their homes.

The mayor also said more temporary houses are being prepared for around 1,000 people.

Western leaders accuse Russia of killing civilians across the country, in what amounts to war crimes.

Meanwhile, the president of Russia's ally, Belarus, said on Thursday his country had conducted a "special operation" to rescue Belarusians in Ukraine.

President Alexander Lukashenko did not provide details of when or where the operation took place, or whether the military was involved.