Russian troops will continue to "level towns and cities" as Vladimir Putin's war machine rumbles through eastern Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence in the UK has warned.
The Kremlin's capture of the strategic city of Lysychansk in the Donbas region has given Russia's military a platform to mount an assault on neighbouring Donetsk, the MoD predicts.
But defence chiefs say the victory is unlikely to change Russia's performance in the conflict despite having given Putin control of almost all of Luhansk.
The MoD said today: "The battle for the Donbas has been characterised by slow rates of advance and Russia ’s massed employment of artillery, levelling towns and cities in the process.
“The fighting in Donetsk Oblast will almost certainly continue in this manner.”
The conquering of Lysychansk has allowed Putin to boast domestically of getting ever closer to what he set out as the original purpose of the war - "liberating the Donbas".
Throughout the war the tyrant has claimed pro-Russians in eastern Ukraine were being systematically victimised and oppressed.
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Defence chiefs pinned co-ordination between two Russian military groups as the reason behind the victory.
Mentioning Ukraine's performance, the MoD said the troops had "likely largely withdrawn in good order", adding that it was in line with "existing [military] plans".
The city's capture on Sunday completed the conquest of industrialised eastern region of Luhansk, one of two regions in Donbas which has become the site of the biggest battle in Europe in generations.
Both sides have suffered heavy casualties in the fight for Luhansk, particularly during the siege of the twin cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk. Both cities have been left in ruins by relentless Russian bombardment.
"The city doesn't exist anymore," said Nina, a young mother who has fled Lysychansk to take refuge in the central city of Dnipro.
"It has practically been wiped off the face of the Earth. There is no humanitarian aid distribution centre, it has been hit. The building which used to house the centre does not exist any more. Just like many of our houses."
Ukrainian forces on Tuesday took up new defensive lines in Donetsk, where they still control major cities, while Putin told his troops to "absolutely rest and recover their military preparedness", while units in other areas keep fighting.
Russian forces shelled the towns of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk overnight, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk.
"They are now also the main line of assault for the enemy," he said of the towns. "There is no safe place without shelling in Donetsk region."
Since the outset of the conflict, Russia has demanded that Ukraine hand both Luhansk and Donetsk to pro-Moscow separatists, which have declared independent statelets.
"This is the last victory for Russia on Ukrainian territory," Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video posted online.
"These were medium-sized cities. And this took from 4th April until 4th July -- that's 90 days. So many losses."
Arestovych said besides the battle for Donetsk, Ukraine was hoping to launch counter offensives in the south of the country.
"Taking the cities in the east meant that 60% of Russian forces are now concentrated in the east and it is difficult for them to be redirected to the south," he said.
"And there are no more forces that can be brought in from Russia. They paid a big price for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk."
Some military experts reckoned the hard fought victory had brought Russian forces little strategic gain, and the outcome of what has been dubbed the "battle of the Donbas" remained in the balance.
"I think it's a tactical victory for Russia but at an enormous cost," said Neil Melvin of the RUSI think tank in London. He compared the battle to the huge fights for meagre territorial gains that characterized World War One.
"This has taken 60 days to make very slow progress," he said. "The Russians may declare some kind of victory, but the key war battle is still yet to come."
Melvin said the decisive battle for Ukraine was likely to take place not in the east, where Russia is mounting its main assault, but in the south, where Ukraine has begun a counter-offensive to recapture territory.
"This is where we see the Ukrainians are making progress around Kherson. There are counter-attacks beginning there and I think it's most likely that we'll see the momentum swing to Ukraine as it tries to then mount a large-scale counter-offensive to push the Russians back," he said.
Early on Tuesday, Russian rockets hit Mykolaiv, a southern city on the main highway between Kherson and Odesa, the mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych, said.
Zelenskiy said on Monday that despite Ukraine's withdrawal from Lysychansk, its troops continued to fight.
"The armed forces of Ukraine respond, push back and destroy the offensive potential of the occupiers day after day," Zelenskiy said in a nightly video message.
"We need to break them. It is a difficult task. It requires time and superhuman efforts. But we have no alternative."
