Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that civilians in Ukraine's Kherson region should be evacuated from the conflict zone. This is the Russian President's first acknowledgment of a deteriorating situation in the region. <br />''<br />''Russian officials in the Kherson region, one of four Ukrainian provinces that President Putin declared part of Russia at a Kremlin ceremony in September, have pleaded for civilians to leave the region's west, where Ukrainian forces have retaken ground in recent weeks.<br />''On Thursday, November 3, Kherson's Russian-appointed deputy governor Kirill Stremousov issued several video appeals for civilians to leave the part of the province on the west bank of the Dnipro river.<br />''<br />''Kherson region is seen as strategically crucial, controlling both overland access and much of the water supply to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.<br />