Pro-Russian authorities in southern Ukraine said they shot down a Ukrainian missile targeting a city on Crimea's east coast, while Kiev said Moscow had stepped up preparations to evacuate residents in the territory it controls in the Zaporizhia and Kherson provinces.
The Russian military website "Rebar" added that the Ukrainian missile attack did not leave any victims, and it is likely that the missile was launched from a missile system in the "Tzli" region, more than 400 km from the Black Sea city of Feodosia.
Ukrainian authorities are stepping up preparations for an offensive that could begin within two weeks.
Russia's TASS news agency quoted Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to Moscow-appointed Crimean Governor Sergei Aksyonov, as saying the wreckage of the missile landed in a town in Crimea.
On Friday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry renewed Kiev's refusal to cede Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, in exchange for ending the war that has been raging since February 2022.
The Ukrainian rejection came in response to a proposal by Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva on Thursday that Kiev cede Crimea to Russia in order to end the war.
Evacuation in two governorates
The Ukrainian General Staff said that Russian troops prepared a survey of the population for possible evacuation from the city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhia region, and the city of Skadovsk in the Kherson region, where passports, residence permits and level of education were investigated.
The Ukrainian authority added that periodic bus trips are being carried out for those wishing to evacuate, noting that Russian forces are spreading information that starting from the end of April the evacuation will be forced.
The U.S. Institute for the Study of War said Russian forces continued to advance in and around Pakhmut, and attached in its daily report satellite images of Maxar and field maps indicating that Russian forces had advanced further in downtown Bakhmot.
#Bakhmut Update:#Russian forces continued advancing in and around Bakhmut as of April 7.
Geolocated footage suggests that Russian forces have further advanced in Bakhmut's city center, and footage posted Apr. 6 shows... 1/https://t.co/HQSHzgMmTP
📷: @Maxar👇 https://t.co/oydI1plk32 pic.twitter.com/D1VtakdwCx
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) April 8, 2023
The institute said the advance of Russian forces reached about 3 kilometers south of the highway linking Pakhmot, Chasevyar and Constantinivka from the southwestern side of the city.
Russian accusation
The headquarters of coordination between Russian departments in Ukraine announced that Kiev is preparing to carry out what he called "a large-scale provocation aimed at discrediting Russia in the international arena," adding that the provocation simulates the use of chemical ammunition by the Russian army, in the Sumy region (northeastern Ukraine), with the aim of diverting the world's attention from the crimes of the Nazis of Kiev's forces, as he put it.
The headquarters said toxic substances had been transported to the area, so that Western experts could record the use of chemical weapons by Russian forces.
Separately, India's The Hindu newspaper reported that Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Emina Jabarova will visit India on Sunday to seek humanitarian aid and equipment to repair energy infrastructure damaged by repeated Russian bombardment.
The Indian Foreign Ministry explained that the Ukrainian official will visit India for 4 days to discuss relations between the two countries and the situation in Ukraine, as well as global issues.
The Indian newspaper, citing diplomatic sources, said Jabarova, who will become the first high-ranking Ukrainian government official to visit India since the war began, would call on New Delhi to send a "strong message for peace" to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin is due to visit India in July for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and will visit again in September for the G20 summit.