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Desperate pro-Russian fighters yesterday retreated to the city of Donetsk – with a population of almost one million – amid fears of new bloodshed in a violent last stand against advancing Ukrainian troops. 

Kyiv commanders vowed to set up total blockade of the city, and also neighbouring Luhansk, another stronghold of separatists who want to be ruled by the Kremlin, forcing them to lay down their arms.

Rebels blew up three bridges on key routes into Donetsk, the country’s most important industrial hub, in a bid to prevent access for Ukraine’s armed forces which have made dramatic gains at the expense of rebels in recent days.

Ukrainian government soldiers look at wrecked tanks and armored personnel carriers left by pro-Russian insurgents in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk

A car catches fire as a result of a mortar attack in Luhansk, Ukraine

Kyiv commanders vowed to set up total blockade of the city, and also neighbouring Luhansk, another stronghold of separatists who want to be ruled by the Kremlin, forcing them to lay down their arms

A Ukrainian government army’s APC, right, stands near a destroyed pro-Russian APC near the city of Slovyansk, Donetsk Region, eastern Ukraine

A car travels past a destroyed pro-Russian APC near the city of Slovyansk. Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko has called the capture of the Pro-Russian separatist stronghold of Slovyansk a ‘turning point’ in the fight for control of the country’s east

Mines lay near a destroyed pro-Russian APC. Earlier yesterday the Ukrainian army captured the eastern cities of Artemivsk and Druzhkivka from pro-Russian separatists

Ammunition
and mines lie near a destroyed vehicle just outside Slaviansk today, as
Ukrainian army forces took control of the city after it was abandoned
by separatist militants over the weekend

Ukrainian troops walk near destroyed military vehicles just outside Slaviansk, which has been heavily bombarded

Small
patrols of separatist militia were on the streets last night but
thousands of fighters – armed with scores of anti-aircraft guns and
armoured vehicles of Russian origin – were holed up, out of sight.

Earlier yesterday the Ukrainian army captured the eastern cities of Artemivsk and Druzhkivka from pro-Russian separatists.

Separatists
deny they are on the point of surrender, claiming they made a tactical
retreat and will fight to the end, a nightmare prospect for Donetsk, a
city founded in  1869 as a mining centre in the Donbass coalfield by
Welsh businessman John Hughes. 

Fearing
an imminent bloody battle, many residents have left the city, and
others were following last night while many businesses have shut down. 

Ukrainian
National Security and Defence Council deputy head Mykhailo Koval warned
soldiers would impose a ‘full blockade’ of both Donetsk and Lugansk —
both capitals of self-styled ‘people’s republics’.

Koval vowed ‘measures that will force the separatists, the bandits to lay down their arms’.

But
with over 500 already dead in the conflict, there are fears of more
large scale bloodshed if Ukrainian forces use their military superiority
in Donetsk.

People
walk under a destroyed railway bridge over a main road near the
village of Novobakhmutivka that leads into the east Ukrainian city of
Donetsk, in a picture sent from the warzone today

The T-54 Soviet-era tank is removed from an open-air museum in Donetsk today

A bus inches its way through the gap left by the collapsed bridge, which blocks a key route to the city

Many residents are reportedly leaving Donetsk after rebels vowed to defend the city against government forces

Cars queue to drive under the destroyed railway bridge, on which a wrecked train is delicately balanced

Ukraine’s richest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov, based in the city and worth £6.5 billion, pleaded: ‘Donetsk must not be bombed. Donbass must not be bombed. Cities, towns and infrastructure must not be destroyed.’

He urged new Kyiv president Petro Poroshenko: ‘We must avoid suffering and deaths of peaceful people.’

Threatened
by harsh new Western sanctions, Vladimir Putin has so far resisted
sending in troops he has stationed in positions close to the border. 

Separatist
leader Denis Pushilin made an unverified claim that his men had killed
“tens” of Ukrainian soldiers in the eastern coal mining region of
Saur-Mogila, pledging this was a  turning point.

‘After
massacring the fascists at Saur-Mogila, I understood the words of one
of my colleagues: we abandoned Slavyansk to take Kyiv,’ he boasted. 

But
Poroshenko warned: ‘My order is now in effect – tighten the ring around
the terrorists. Continue the operation to liberate Donetsk and Luhansk
regions.’

Recent days have seen Ukrainian forces make significant gains, retaking Slavyansk and other key towns from separatist hands. 

Three female rebel snipers surrendered, say Kyiv commanders. 

But Russia yesterday accused the Ukrainians of using banned cluster munitions in eastern Ukraine. 

‘This
irresponsible policy of the Ukrainian authorities and their Western
sponsors is only leading to new victims and the civilian population’s
sufferings,’ said a statement. 

Rebels were shelling Luhansk with Grad multiple rocket launchers, said Ukrainian media reports.

Ukraine’s
secret service has launched an investigation into senior Vladimir Putin
aide Sergei Glazyev, accusing him of planning ‘military operations’ and
‘helping terrorists’.

The adviser hit back, claiming the SBU intelligence service ‘plays the same role as Gestapo did in Nazi Germany’.

At a rally in the Donetsk’s central
square yesterday, pro-Russian commander, a Muscovite using the name Igor
Strelkov, told thousands of supporters that his men would fight for the
city, which was ‘much easier to defend than little Slaviansk’.

Businesses have closed down and
thousands of residents are believed to have fled as the fighters fortify
positions and buildings in the city, which they have held for the past
few months.

But
the government government pressed what it clearly saw as its advantage,
announcing it had carried out an air strike against rebel fighters who
had attacked the airport in Luhansk, another eastern city, on Sunday.

It accused separatists in the area of opening fire in populated areas under the guise of being government forces.

‘They
use flags of military paratroopers, Ukrainianian state flags and thus
fool the population,’ said military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky.

Separatists prepare to steal a tank from the museum using a crane

Tanks very much: The pro-Russian militants raise the T-54 on to a large flat-bed truck

Wave goodbye: The tank is loaded and the pro-Russian troops prepare to transport it to where they will dig in and fight the incoming Ukrainian forces

Slaviansk residents talk to Ukrainian troops on patrol in the city, which had been a rebel stronghold for months

The Defence Ministry said early this
morning that separatists had launched 10 attacks on government posts and
army positions in the previous 24 hours with mortars and small arms.

It
gave no details of the incidents or casualties, but said troops had
returned fire: ‘The terrorists were given a fitting reply.’

The
months-old conflict has already cost the lives of more than 200
Ukrainian troops, as well as hundreds of civilians and rebel fighters.

Separatist
rebellions erupted in mainly Russian-speaking eastern regions of
Ukraine in April following the overthrow of a pro-Russian president in
Kyiv in February.

It
appeared that the militants had been encouraged to take action after
Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula in March – leading to speculation
that the Kremlin may have designs on other parts of the country.

Rebels
have since then been barricaded into government buildings in Donetsk,
which they declared capital of an independent ‘people’s republic’, but
Slaviansk, with 120,000 people, was their most symbolic stronghold.

Strelkov,
the self-styled rebel defence minister, whose real name is Igor Girkin,
was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying 80-90 per cent of his men
had escaped from Slaviansk.

They were now organising the active defence of Donetsk.

A demonstrator waves a Soviet flag during a rally of pro-Russia supporters in Lenin Square in Donetsk yesterday after militants retreating from Slavianks poured into the eastern Ukrainian city and pledged to defend it

A demonstrator waves the flag of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk during the rally

Protesters sit beneath a statue of Lenin during a protest against Ukrainian military action in Donetsk

Many in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east believe the new government is in bed with fascist elements

Recapturing
Slaviansk has given Ukrainian forces by far their clearest victory
after months of patchy performance against the heavily-armed militants,
many of whom are Russians who have crossed the border to fight.

Moscow denies supporting them.

Poroshenko ordered the assault on
Slaviansk after abandoning a unilateral ceasefire last week, arguing
that the rebels had refused to abide by the truce.

‘My
order is now in effect – tighten the ring around the terrorists,’
Poroshenko tweeted yesterday. ‘Continue the operation to liberate
Donetsk and Luhansk regions,’ he said.

He
said the victory in Slaviansk marked the beginning of a turning point
in the conflict, though he cautioned that rebels would now regroup and
‘further tests’ lay ahead.

A dead body lies on the ground after a Ukrainian forces shelling attack yesterday in Luhansk

Smokje fills the sky as a firefighter peers at a military vehicle which has been riddled with bullets in Luhansk

A car hit by shelling continues to burn in a deserted street in Luhansk, where strikes continued today

Smoke rises across the rooftops of Luhansk during a Ukrainian shelling attack yesterday

In Slaviansk, around 200 residents lined up in the city’s central square on Sunday for meat, potatoes, onions and bread distributed by troops.

‘Everything is different now. Tonight is the first night with no shelling,’ said Mikhail Martynenko, 58, a guard at a local market near Slaviansk.

‘People are in a better mood and there are more people on the streets. Everyone was afraid. They had no idea when another mortar would come flying.’

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