Pro-Russian militants stand guard at a checkpoint on the road between Lugansk and Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, on July 9, 2014.
Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk have vowed to fight until the end as Ukrainian forces advance on the city.
They claim there is nowhere to retreat to and have built new checkpoints in a bid to slow the advances of government troops.
Ukrainian forces, fresh from taking Slovyansk at the weekend, have been fighting separatists at Karlivka, just 20km from Donetsk.
Their advance comes as Ukraine vowed to do its utmost to get one of its army pilots released from a Russian prison.
The Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian rebels are squaring up for a final showdown in the east of the country, as Kiev aims to win back control of the key regional centres of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Rebel groups have gathered in the big cities after abandoning a number of smaller strongholds, now taken back by the Ukrainian army. Without Russian help they face almost certain defeat, but with civilian casualties inevitable if Ukrainian forces attempt to fight their way into the city centres, the Kremlin and some European leaders are calling for a resumption of a ceasefire in the troubled region.
A Ukrainian military convoy approaching Donetsk, Ukraine, July 9 2014.
On Wednesday evening, a convoy of more than 100 armoured personnel carriers, tanks and multiple rocket launchers was seen advancing towards the region's administrative capital, Donetsk. Coming off the highway and ploughing through sunflower fields and village back roads, the upbeat troops – who declined to say which battalion of pro-Kiev forces they belonged to – said they were advancing toward rebel positions and were ready to battle with the pro-Russian fighters holding the nearby city until the very end.
By nightfall the Ukrainian forces were just 10 miles (16km) south of the city, bringing the two sides within artillery range of each other.
The move came just two days after Ukraine's President, Petro Poroshenko, approved a special plan to "liberate" Donetsk and Luhansk from the grip of armed pro-Russian rebels who launched their effort to seize power in Ukraine's east in early April. They have been given logistical help informally from inside Russia, but the Kremlin denies that the fighters have Russian backing. President Vladimir Putin ended their hopes of a full Russian incursion into east Ukraine last month, when he asked parliament to rescind an order from earlier this year that allowed him to use the army on Ukrainian soil.
On Saturday hundreds of armed rebels from nearby Slavyansk fled to Donetsk after receiving the command to evacuate their positions as the Ukrainian army moved to take back the city of 100,000 people after three months of heavy shelling and gun battles.
Ukrainian army crossing a river after the separatists blew up a bridge south of Slavyansk in attempt to slowdown the government forces, Donetsk oblast. (July 10,2014)
Slavyansk...
Slavyansk has emerged from three months of shelling that has destroyed the city's infrastructure in a state of shock. There is no running water or electricity in most homes, public transport has ground to a halt and almost all the shops are closed. Thousands of people have fled, many to refugee camps in other parts of Ukraine and Russia.
"People are exhausted, we've not had a proper night's sleep for so long," said Lina Ivanova, 64, as she picked up food aid from the under a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Slavyansk's main square – a donation from residents of neighbouring villages.
Unraine's President Poroshenko speaking to Ukrainian soldiers in Slovyansk on July 8.2014.
There are mixed feelings about the Ukrainian army in the town. Many people hold them responsible for the violence of recent weeks. When troops arrived in the city quietly on Saturday, some residents hailed them as liberators, while others were scared and angry.
Earlier in the week, when a group of national guard had delivered sausages as humanitarian aid, locals identified three men they claimed had been helping the separatists. They were detained by Urkainian soldiers.
Natalia Akimova, 50, said she was delighted that the Ukrainian army had taken over the town but was still scared the armed separatists might return. Akimova, who spent months hiding from shelling in the corridor of her apartment, said Ukrainian authorities should arrest and punish hundreds of people in the city who had supported the separatists.
"Many of those who were wearing St George ribbons [pro-Russian symbol] and said they wanted to be part of Russia have now changed clothes and are just walking the streets as though nothing has happened," said Alina Bondarenko, a 39-year-old pharmacist.
Gurgen Arutunyan – who escaped war in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1990 and now runs a business in the village of Semyonovka outside Slavyansk – said the scenes of devastation reminded him of Karabakh. He sympathised with the rebel movement, and now plans to move to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in March: "I'm against war, but I'm against these authorities as well. They need to talk to these people instead of shooting at them."
Donetsk...
Members of the "Vostok" Battalion, a pro-Russia militia,somewhere on the front line near Donetsk, east Ukraine..
Pushed from their barricades, the Slayvansk fighters are now re-grouping in Donetsk for what is widely seen as the rebel republic's last battle. Scores of displaced gunmen have taken refuge in the city's university dorms, abandoned by their usual occupants.
Standing outside the student halls, 18-year-old Ivan from Gorlovka described watching fellow rebel fighters die on the frontline during a three-month stint in Semyonovka.
The loss of Slavyansk – the rebels' heartland – was a major blow to the pro-Russian fighters and Ivan, like many of his comrades, says he was disappointed by their decision to abandon the city. "We did not want to go, but an order is an order so we left," he said. "Now we will avenge our fallen brothers."
Rebel leaders, who are adamant they will stand their ground in Donetsk, have defended the decision to leave Slavyansk saying that the strategic retreat was made to avoid further civilian casualties in the city.
An armed pro-Russian separatist from the so-called Battalion Vostok (East) stands guard at a checkpoint in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, July 8th 2014.
"Donetsk is definitely the last line of defence. What started here will finish here. If they enter the city we will fight to defend every street, until the last drop of blood," said the commander of the Russian Orthodox Army, known as "Kerch". "We have the advantage in guerilla warfare tactics and the Slavyansk fighters who have substantial experience in frontline fighting."
Rebel bravado is, however, tinged with a pained recognition of the superior firepower of the forces heading their way. Ukrainian forces now hold positions to the north, south and west of the city. Government troops are also stationed inside the city's airport less than 10km from Donetsk centre. Rebel commander Igor Strelkov, a Russian citizen, has made several urgent appeals for military aid from Russia, but – at least openly – the Kremlin has not been forthcoming.
"We are surrounded – we will defend our city to the end, there is no room to move back … we have a situation were we must win or die," Pavel Gubarev, one of the founders of the Donetsk People's Republic, told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. Gubarev - who called the war "unfair" – acknowledged rebels had blown up bridges on the outskirts of the Donetsk due to an "insufficient number of men to secure the [city's] perimeter" and issued a plea for Ukrainian soldiers to "use their honour and courage and disobey orders".
Inside Donetsk, fearing a repeat of the siege of Slavyansk is imminent in their city, anxious citizens are preparing for the worst, stocking up on food, medicine and cash.
Despite statements by the authorities in Kiev that there will be no airstrikes on Donetsk or Luhansk, on the outskirts of Donetsk 33-year-old Aleksander – who runs an internet and cable TV company – showed the Guardian his efforts to transform the basement below his office into a makeshift bomb shelter. "There is no other way to take back the city but full-scale war, they will bomb us, this is the only possibility, and if it took three months to take Slavyansk, imagine how long it will take here, Donetsk is 10 times bigger" he said.
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