The Latest Breaking News from Vladimir Saldo

As Ukraine gains ground and pushes Russian forces back, one city looms large as key to its victory. Kherson is the last regional capital under Russian control, losing it would be a blow to Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian forces are gearing up for a battle to retake the strategically important city of Kherson, with the outcome likely to prove decisive for Kyiv's hopes of driving Russian troops from southern Ukraine.

The streets and boulevards of the Russian-held port of Kherson in southern Ukraine are virtually empty. Many shops and businesses have been shuttered and, at a jetty on the banks of the Dnipro River, a handful of people board a ferry to leave.

Russia ordered civilians to leave a sliver of Ukraine along the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, 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…