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Ukraine's government claimed yesterday that “the noose is tightening” round the main rebel strongholds of Donetsk, Lugansk and Gorlivka.
“Our forces are preparing for the liberation of these cities,” spokesman Oleksiy Dmitrashkivsky added.
Ukraine’s military said it had almost cut off Donetsk from the Russian border and Lugansk.
But government forces have continued to take losses, with 18 soldiers killed and 54 injured over the past 24 hours.
The United Nations warned that continued fighting “could lead to a massive exodus and massive destruction.”
Some 285,000 people have already fled due to the conflict, with close to 168,000 seeking sanctuary in Russia.
Meanwhile, Nato claimed that Russia had amassed 20,000 troops on Ukraine’s eastern border and could use the excuse of a humanitarian mission to send them in.
“The latest Russian military build-up is a dangerous situation,” said the cold-war alliance’s spokeswoman Oana Lungescu.
But at the UN, Russia concentrated on the impending humanitarian crisis, warning that the water supplies in Donetsk and Lugansk had been cut, health supplies were running low and about 70 per cent of health personnel had fled.
Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin accused the Ukrainian military of indiscriminately shelling houses. In many small towns, he said, 80 per cent of the houses had been destroyed and hundreds of buildings had collapsed.
