The pro-Russian head of the Ukrainian region of Kherson says residents as well as administrative bodies there are being evacuated to a safer area. The announcement comes amid major counteroffensives by Ukraine's forces to retake the region annexed by Moscow.

Ukrainian forces are believed to be preparing to advance to the region's main city of Kherson as part of their counteroffensives.

The head of the region said on Wednesday that about 50,000 to 60,000 people will be evacuated to Russia and the east bank of the Dnipro River over the next week.

The official said about 40 percent of Kherson's residents have already fled the region in the past two days.

He added that administrative bodies are also being moved to safer places -- in a clear acknowledgement of the difficult situation.

Russia's new military commander in Ukraine, Sergey Surovikin, acknowledged on Tuesday that the situation in the Kherson region is difficult.

The Russian presidential office says President Vladimir Putin will convene a meeting of the country's Security Council on Wednesday, and former president and the council's deputy chairperson Dmitry Medvedev will deliver a report.

Medvedev has frequently made hardline statements.
The focus is on whether council members will discuss the situation in Kherson.

The British defense ministry said on Wednesday that eight months into the invasion, major elements of Russia's military leadership are increasingly dysfunctional.

It said that at the tactical level, there is a worsening shortage of junior officers capable of organizing and leading newly mobilized reservists.