At the entrance to Novoazovsk, a tank squats behind a freshly dug earth bank, its barrel pointing west, with the red and blue flag of "Novorossia", the latest incarnation of the separatist fighter's self-declared state, flying on the turret.

But if the fighters here get their way, it won't be parked there long. With the backing of Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, the men on the banks are eyeing up a band of territory stretching from the Russian border into the far west of Ukraine. First in their sights is the Black Sea city of Mariupol and then many more towns and cities in Ukraine.

"Mariupol? Yeah, we're going to take Mariupol. And then we're going all the way to Lviv," said a stocky man with a beard and a camouflage-painted Kalashnikov. "Our goal is Novorossia. All of it. Odessa, Kherson, everything."

"Swat", a turncoat Ukrainian special forces lieutenant colonel who prefers to be known only by his nickname, said he rolled into town with his column of rebel fighters on Wednesday, seizing control of a stretch of beach front that has become Novorossia's first outlet to the sea and depriving Ukraine of control of its southern border with Russia.

"There are already militia forces on all sides of Mariupol. We will stay here until we have established a self-defence of local volunteers then move on," said the commander.

Asked why no one has seen this encircling force, he said they were lying up in hidden positions, waiting for an order to move. There was no way to confirm the claim.

For now, life in Novoazovsk is going on as much as possible as normal. Locals who would talk said the new occupiers have caused little trouble, and since Thursday there has been no shelling in the area, allowing people to get back to work.

The men occupying Novoazovsk and manning the front line just outside town are a motley crew in mismatched camouflage, who are variously too old, obese, malnourished, or simply unconvincing to be mistaken for serving Russian soldiers. Their main vehicles are spray-painted pickup trucks, and their tanks - they have at least three - are battered and on closer inspection somewhat rusty T-64s.

They have discarded the tricolours of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's republic in favour of the flag of Novorossia, which resembles the flag of the confederacy without the stars, but they are otherwise not dissimilar to the ragtag forces who have long been fighting in other parts of east Ukraine.

The problem is, that does not quite add up. For months before last week's offensive, the rebels had been retreating. Superior Ukrainian numbers, artillery and air power were pushing them back into an ever shrinking area around the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Now, they have opened an entire new front.

For Ukrainian and Western Governments, there is one explanation: the active involvement of regular Russian forces, including cross-border shelling that forced Ukrainian troops out of the area around Novoazovsk ahead of the advancing separatists.

To listen to the commander of the town, not a single man, weapon or vehicle came across the Russian border.

"We were readying our counter-attack for a month. The Ukrainians abandoned a lot of equipment and vehicles in the southern Cauldron," he said, referring to an encirclement of Ukrainian forces defeated last month.

"If Russia was here, this would have been over in days," he said. "The tanks are Ukrainian, my gun is Ukrainian. As for artillery shooting from Russia: I wish."

Swat also claimed his column set off last Sunday from the rebel-held town of Krasnodon, over 160km away in the Luhansk region, and entered Novoazovsk on Wednesday, dog-legging to avoid Russian territory.

But, Ukrainian soldiers who fought here say they met troops whose equipment and professionalism meant they could only be Russian. And locals in the town said they have seen unmistakable "regulars" in the early days of fighting here, though none were seen yesterday.

And, despite Swat's bold words, it is difficult to see at first glance how they will take Mariupol - let alone roll all the way to Odessa - without some outside help.

For at least some civilians in the conflict zone, the zealousness is wearing thin.

"Am I glad they are here? How can I say?" said Maria, a 42-year-old teacher visiting one of a handful of food shops that have reopened since the fighting ended. "The whole thing is entirely artificial. All I know is that we had some local authorities, then we woke up and there is a new local authority.

"All I am happy about is that there's not been any shelling for three days. It doesn't matter to me whose flag is flying here."

©Telegraph

Sunday Independent