After calling for a moment’s silence for militants who had died fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine, Sergei Ryazantsev made a vow to the crowd on Donetsk’s Lenin Square.

“We’ve wiped out plenty of those bitches, and we’ll wipe out more,” he said yesterday of Kiev’s troops. “Victory will be ours.”

The audience cheered and applauded and the sun shone on Defender of the Fatherland Day, which in Russia and several neighbouring states honours the exploits of the Red Army and, by extension, the Soviet Union.

It has never been a holiday in independent Ukraine but here, in the biggest city in separatist-held territory, it was celebrated with concerts, dances and calls for the “Russian world” to crush “fascist” Ukraine and repel its western backers.

Flags bearing Orthodox iconography appeared among hammer-and-sickle banners and Soviet propaganda posters, tapping different touchstones of Russian identity in a bid to unite residents of the fledgling “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR).

About half of the city’s former population of one million has fled fighting that has killed about 6,000 people, but there is apparent consensus among those who remain that a new ceasefire will not hold and the unrecognised rebel statelet must grow.

“Those bastards use every ceasefire to regroup and prepare to attack again. You can’t trust fascists,” said Ryazantsev (51), who wore camouflage and called himself the head of the Donetsk branch of a Soviet naval veterans association.

He took particular pleasure in the thought of the rebels, who receive weapons, ammunition and other supplies from Russia, taking the major government-held port of Mariupol on the Donetsk coast of the Sea of Azov.

“It’s only a matter of time,” he said. “God is on our side.”

With Mariupol, the DNR and neighbouring “Luhansk People’s Republic” would have a sea outlet and could develop a navy as well as trade links. It would also be a major step to forging a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean peninsula that it annexed last year, and which has suffered since due to a lack of stable supply routes.

“It’s not about expanding our territory, it’s about returning land that’s rightfully ours,” said Sergei Baryshnikov, rector of Donetsk national university, as he made his way to the theatre for a holiday concert by visiting Russian crooner Iosif Kobzon.

US puppets

Since the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France agreed a new ceasefire deal on February 12th, the rebels have seized the strategic transport junction of Debaltseve.

They are also allegedly attacking government forces near Mariupol, preventing a key step in the truce plan from being implemented: the withdrawal of heavy artillery from the frontline to create a buffer zone between the combatants.

“Given that the positions of Ukrainian servicemen continue to be shelled, there cannot yet be any talk of pulling back weapons,” said Ukrainian military spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov.

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aris meeting

“What is decisive is a comprehensive ceasefire,” said Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel.

“It is worrying for the German government that we haven’t seen anything like this yet.”

Kiev claims Russia is still sending tanks to insurgents near Mariupol, and the US and EU have pledged to impose tougher sanctions on Moscow if it fails to stop supporting the rebels.

“Far from changing course, Russia’s totally unjustifiable and illegal actions in eastern Ukraine have reached a new level with the separatists’ blatant breach of the ceasefire to take control of Debaltseve, made possible only with the supply of Russian fighters and equipment,” said British prime minister David Cameron. “Russia must be in no doubt that any attempts by the separatists to expand their territory – whether towards Mariupol or elsewhere – will be met with further significant EU and US sanctions.”