Thousands of Russian troops fled eastern and southern frontlines in Ukraine, leaving dead comrades lying in the streets of one key city.
Horrific evidence of the battle for Lyman, in the east, was left as Moscow’s forces were driven back by dozens of miles by Kyiv’s counter-offensive.
Victories along the front have liberated Ukrainian communities and President Zelensky declared negotiations with Russian despot Vladimir Putin “impossible”.
It came as Tesla tycoon Elon Musk’s calls for UN-regulated polls on the future of four annexed Ukrainian territories were branded “moral idiocy.”
Even as their troops retreated, with 25,000 under threat of being cut-off, Russian officials rubber-stamped the annexation of Ukrainian regions.
Celebrations and flag-raising were short-lived as Ukraine paid a high price for the reversal in the invasion, the city of Lyman left devastated.
Residents emerged from basements where they had hidden during the battle and built bonfires for cooking - the city has had no water, electricity or gas since May.
As Ukraine pressed forward in the east and Ukraine’s soldiers continued their new breakthrough in Kherson, in the south, Russian forces launched fresh missile strikes.
Several hit Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, damaging its infrastructure and causing power cuts, killing three and wounding a nine-year-old girl.
Ukrainian forces have scored huge gains in the south, raising flags over the villages of Arkhanhelske, Myroliubivka, Khreshchenivka, Mykhalivka and Novovorontsovka.
Ukrainian successes in the east and the south came even as Russia moved to absorb four Ukrainian regions amid the fighting there.
The upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, voted on Tuesday to ratify treaties making Donetsk and Luhansk, in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, in the south, part of Russia.
Officials rubber-stamped the accession pacts after last week’s Kremlin-nobbled annexation polls that were branded fraudulent by Ukraine and the West.
Zelensky signed a decree on Tuesday formally declaring Ukrainian talks with Putin “impossible”, but leaving the door open to talks with Russia.
He said of Putin: “He does not know what dignity and honesty are.
“Therefore, we are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but with another president of Russia.”
Putin, who turns 70 this week, was expected to sign off the annexation on Tuesday.
And the Kremlin praised an idea for a potential peace plan floated on Twitter by billionaire Elon Musk, its spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: “It is very positive that somebody like Elon Musk is looking for a peaceful way out of this situation.”
Russian chess master Garry Kasparov stormed: “This is moral idiocy, repetition of Kremlin propaganda, a betrayal of Ukrainian courage & sacrifice.”
Kyiv denounced Musk’s proposal, under which it would cede Crimea and allow new referendums on Russian-occupied land.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: “Those who propose Ukraine to give up on its people and land - presumably not to hurt Putin’s bruised ego or to save Ukraine from suffering - must stop using the word ‘peace’ as an euphemism to ‘let Russians murder and rape thousands more innocent Ukrainians, and grab more land.”
As of tonight, Musk's original poll on Twitter had garnered more than 2.5 million votes, with 60% opposed to the plan.
