Ukraine braces for Russian onslaught in Donetsk as Putin’s forces face ‘determined resistance’

 Ukraine is preparing its defenses in response to a massive Russian attack on a major city in eastern Donetsk province on Wednesday.

The country's army is said to have been fighting desperately against the expected major offensives against Slovensk and Kramatorsk.

A few days ago, Vladimir Putin's army claimed control of Ukraine's last stronghold in neighboring Luhansk, which, along with Donetsk, forms the Donbas region that Russia hopes to control from Kyiv.

The governor of Lugansk said Wednesday that heavy fighting is taking place in the suburbs of the region.

Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television that Russian regular and reserve troops had been sent there to cross the Siversky Donets.

"We stopped the enemy on the borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions," Mr. Guede wrote on Telegram.

Mr Gede has previously said that Russian troops were involved in extensive shelling during the attack on Donetsk.

Russia has said it wants to seize control of the entire Donbass from Ukraine on behalf of two Moscow-backed separatists who call themselves republics.

Russian troops attacked a market and residential area in Sloveniask yesterday, killing at least two people and wounding seven others, local officials said.

Donetsk Region Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said Sloveniask and nearby Kramatorsk were heavily shelled overnight. "In the Donetsk region, there is no safe place without shelling."

Britain's defense minister said on Wednesday that Putin's troops had advanced just three miles in a week as Ukraine "resisted extremely resolutely" on key fronts.

His troops were estimated to be about ten miles from Slovensk. There is a "real possibilitrusy that the battle for Slovensk will be the next key battle in the battle for Donbass".

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Kyiv said it was trying to buy time to build defensive positions ahead of an expected Russian attack on Donetsk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a recent nightly video address that air alerts were issued for most of the country. The warning comes after a period of relative calm in much of the country after Putin abandoned his initial plan to quickly overthrow Kyiv after his invasion began on February 24.

"You shouldn't look for logic in the actions of terrorists," Zelensky said.

"The Russian military doesn't rest. It has a job - taking lives, terrorizing people - so even without air alerts for a few days, it feels like part of the terror."