Russia is preparing to launch a large-scale offensive in the new year, building up its forces to advance deep into Ukraine as far as Kyiv, Ukraine’s top commander has warned.

General Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said the attack could come “in February, at best in March and at worst at the end of January”.

He warned that Vladimir Putin’s mobilisation drive “has worked” and Russia is now reconstituting its troops to overturn embarrassing defeats this summer and gain more territory.

“They are 100% being prepared… I have no doubt they will have another go at Kyiv,” he told The Economist.

It comes as Ukraine on Thursday sought to take the initiative around Donetsk, launching its biggest wave of strikes on the Russian-occupied city since 2014.

The missile strikes followed reports that Russia is already preparing fresh advances from around the city, heading westward to capture more Ukrainian territory.

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Alexei Kulemzin, self-proclaimed mayor of Donetsk, accused the Ukrainian army of hitting the city centre with Grad missiles, calling it “the largest-scale strike” since Russia-backed forces occupied eastern Ukraine eight years ago.

The city of Donetsk, once the commercial capital of Ukraine, is situated less than 15 kilometres from the front line but it has been spared incessant attacks that its suburbs on both sides of the front line came under in recent months.

Footage from the central Voroshilovsky district of Donetsk showed substantial damage, including several residential buildings.

Read more: The Telegraph