Exactlythree months after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine,authorities in its second-largest city Kharkiv re-opened the underground metro,where thousands of civilians had sheltered for months under relentlessbombardment.
Thereopening was evidence of Ukraine"s biggest military success over the past fewweeks: pushing Russian forces largely out of artillery range of Kharkiv, asthey did from the capital Kyiv in March.
But thedecisive battles of the war"s latest phase are still raging further south,where Moscow is attempting to seize the Donbas region of two eastern provinces,Donetsk and Luhansk, and trap Ukrainian forces in a pocket on the main easternfront.
Theeasternmost part of the Ukrainian-held Donbas pocket, the city ofSievierodonetsk on the east bank of the Siverskiy Donets river and its twinLysychansk on the west bank, have become the pivotal battlefield there, withRussian forces advancing from three directions to encircle them.
"Theenemy has focused its efforts on carrying out an offensive in order to encircleLysychansk and Sievierodonetsk," said Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Luhanskprovince, where the two cities are among the last territory still held byUkraine.
"Theintensity of fire on Sievierodonetsk has increased by multiple times, they aresimply destroying the city," he said on TV, adding there were about 15,000people in the city.
Reutersjournalists in the Donbas, who reached Bakhmut further west, heard and sawintense shelling on the highway towards Lysychansk on Monday. Ukrainianarmoured vehicles, tanks and rocket launchers were moving towards the frontlines, with and buses carrying soldiers.
Further westin Slovyansk, one of the biggest Donbas cities still in Ukrainian hands, airraid sirens wailed on Tuesday morning but streets were still busy, with amarket full, children riding bikes and a street musician playing violin by asupermarket.
Two emptybuses were driving towards the frontline town of Lyman to evacuate civiliansfrom heavy shelling there, escorted by police and a military car.
Gaidai saidUkrainian forces had driven the Russians out of the village of Toshkivka justsouth of Sievierodonetsk. Russian-backed separatists said they had takencontrol of Svitlodarsk, south of Bakhmut. Neither report could be independentlyconfirmed.
"WHO WILLBURY THEM?"
Three monthsinto a war that some Western experts predicted Russia would win within days,Moscow still has only limited gains to show for its worst military losses indecades, while much of Ukraine has suffered devastation. Around 6.5 millionpeople have fled abroad, uncounted thousands have been killed and cities havebeen reduced to rubble.
In Kharkiv,hundreds of people were still living underground in trains and stations whenthe authorities asked them to make way on Tuesday so metro service couldresume.
In onestation, a few people were moving out, while others sat on makeshift beds orstood amid possessions and pets. One man slept on a mattress on a concretefloor as an announcement urged people to go home or move onto platforms to freetrains.
"Everyoneis crazily scared, because there is still shelling, the rocket attacks haven"tbeen stopped," said Nataliia Lopanska, who had lived in a metro trainbelow ground for nearly the entire duration of the war.
Comments bysenior Russian officials on Tuesday suggested plans for a drawn-out conflictahead. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia was deliberately advancingslowly to avoid civilian casualties. Nikolai Patrushev, head of Putin"ssecurity council, said Moscow was not "chasing deadlines" and wouldfight as long as necessary to eradicate "Nazism" in Ukraine, ajustification for the war that the West calls baseless.
The Donbasfighting follows Russia"s biggest victory in months: the surrender last week ofUkraine"s garrison in the port of Mariupol after nearly three months of siegein which Kyiv believes tens of thousands of civilians have died.
PetroAndryushchenko, an aide to Mariupol"s Ukrainian mayor now operating outside theRussian-held city, said the dead were still being found in the rubble.
Around 200decomposing bodies were found buried in rubble in a basement of one high-risebuilding, he said. Locals had refused to collect them and Russian authoritieshad abandoned the site, leaving a stench across the district.
UkrainianForeign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that the "ruthless" offensivein Donbas showed Ukraine still needed more Western arms, especially multiplelaunch rocket systems, long-range artillery and armoured vehicles.
Inneighbouring Moldova, where a pro-Western government has warned of a riskunrest could spread to a border region controlled by pro-Russian separatists,investigators searched the office and home of pro-Russian former president IgorDodon.
Local mediareported the searches were in connection with an investigation into allegedcorruption and treason. Dodon"s Socialist Party said accusations against himwere baseless.
In Russiaitself, where criticism of the war is banned and independent media has beenshut, jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny used a court appearance by videolink from a prison colony to denounce the "stupid war which your Putinstarted".
"Onemadman has got his claws into Ukraine and I do not know what he wants to dowith it - this crazy thief," Navalny said.
At acemetery outside Mariupol, treading through long rows of fresh graves andmakeshift wooden crosses, Natalya Voloshina, who lost her 28-year-old son inthe fight for the city, said many of Mariupol"s dead had no one left to honourtheir memory.
"Whowill bury them? Who will put up a plaque?" she asked.
"Theyhave no family."
