Ukrainian trucks, tankers and transporters carrying armoured vehicles were on the move in the Donetsk region Tuesday.
While the fiercest fighting was in neighbouring Luhansk, where Ukraine said that Russia had taken control of most of the eastern industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, a bombed-out wasteland whose capture Moscow had made a principal objective of its invasion.
Western military analysts say Moscow has drained manpower and firepower from across other parts of the front to concentrate on the fight there.
But Russia's all-out assault has been met by tough resistance from Ukrainian forces, and capturing the city has taken longer than Russia hoped- despite one of the biggest ground attacks of the three-month-long war.
Ukraine says the unrelenting bombardment has destroyed all of the city's critical infrastructure, and thousands of residents remain trapped.
To the north, in the ruined city of Kharkiv, rescuers on Tuesday searched the rubble for bodies. Some, like Lidya Krylova, have waited months to retrieve loved ones killed in their homes.
"The rocket landed in the corridor of this 16 story-building. I started to go down, I was helped by the neighbors, they washed my face, they helped and held my hand when I was trying to remove fragments that fell on my head."
Her son did not survive the attack.
Ukrainian forces regained territory around Kharkiv, the nation's second largest city, and pushed back Russian troops weeks ago.
Ukraine accuses Moscow of war crimes on a huge scale, flattening cities and killing and raping civilians. Russia denies the accusations.
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