Shelling continues in the small town of Popasna in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Ukraine’s military said in its Thursday morning report, transmits news agency MIA.

This is part of Russian plans to resume offensives on the cities of Rubizhne and Nizhny, north and south of the city of Severodonetsk in Luhansk Oblast, the Ukrainian General Staff said.

They said at Novotoshkivske, also in Luhansk Oblast, Russian troops “unsuccessfully” tried to break through Ukrainian defence lines.

In the areas occupied by Russian troops further violence was being perpetrated against civilians, and Russian units were carrying out a “forced resettlement” of the population of Mariupol into parts of the Donetsk region occupied by Russia, according to the report.

The information could not be independently verified. Meanwhile, the mayor of Kharkiv responded to calls from deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk for residents in Ukraine’s east to flee ahead of an expected renewed Russian offensive.

Ihor Terekhov said neither he nor the military saw a mass evacuation from the country’s second-largest city as necessary for the moment, but the call to evacuate did apply to the districts of Losova and Barvinkove in the Kharhiv region.

The districts are south of Kharkiv near the Donbas. The city of Kharkiv itself is well-equipped and ready to defend itself, he said, adding it was up to each individual to decide whether to leave in view of ongoing shelling.

Kharkiv had a population of about 1.5 million before the war started. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and has been struggling to make major gains in the face of strong Ukrainian resistance.

Moscow is now moving troops to the east of the country as it refocuses its offensive.