Ukrainian forces are on the brink of being surrounded and are now “extremely vulnerable” in the major and vital city of Donetsk, meaning this will be a huge defeat for the Kremlin.

Vladimir Putin has insisted that the war will not end until all of Donetsk has been captured and this latest move by Kyiv will undoubtedly enrage the Russian President.

Last week referendum votes took place which ended on Tuesday and the self-declared republics of Luhansk and Donetsk and the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions will now join the Russian Federation.

The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Putin will attend a ceremony at the Kemlin and make a speech on Friday declaring that the four regions now belong to Russia and the territory will be “further enshrined” into their constitution.

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Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week that any region which is annexed by Moscow will come “under full protection,” meaning an attack on those areas is an attack on Russian soil.

A Russian military telegram channel called Military Observer said, “Ukrainian soldiers are releasing images of them raising a flag over the village council building in Novosyolovka.

“Thus from the north between Lyman and enemy forward elements of the remains only one settlement, Drobyshevo, and in all just a few kilometres of land.

“The city is in an extremely vulnerable situation.”

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said in their daily update, “Several Russian milbloggers and prominent military correspondents claimed that Ukrainian troops advanced west, north, and northeast of Lyman and are working to complete the envelopment of Russian troops in Lyman and along the northern bank of the Siverskyi Donets River in this area.

“Russian mibloggers stated that Ukrainian troops are threatening Russian positions and lines of communication that support the Lyman grouping.

“The collapse of the Lyman pocket will likely be highly consequential to the Russian grouping in northern Donetsk and western Luhansk oblasts and may allow Ukrainian troops to threaten Russian positions along the western Luhansk Oblast border and in the Severodonetsk-Lysychansk area.”

The Russian President is preparing for a large scale attack which will then turn the war in Ukraine into his favour and Western leaders now seriously believe that a nuclear strike is on the cards.

Putin has warned the West and Ukraine that if any territory of the Russian Federation is threatened, comes under attack or if Western or NATO countries supply weapons then he is prepared to use nuclear weapons.

In an address to the nation on 21 September, Putin gave a chilling warning, “If there is a threat to the territorial integrity of our country, and in protecting our people we will certainly use all means to us – and I’m not bluffing.

“Those trying to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the tables can turn on them.”