Thousands of panicked refugees have flooded highways and packed trains heading out of the main remaining rebel strongholds in eastern Ukraine, fearing attacks by government forces who lost 30 soldiers to defiant militants.
Separatists killed 19 troops in a hail of heavy rocket fire on Friday near the Russian border in a bloody reminder of their resolve to reverse the recent tide of government gains across the east of the country.
The military said four other troops died elsewhere on Friday and seven more were killed overnight in attacks that also left more than 120 soldiers wounded.
Ukraine's new Western-backed leader vowed to step up the push east and take revenge on the militias responsible, which could shatter all hopes of a truce.
"The rebels will pay for the life of every one of our servicemen with tens and hundreds of their own," President Petro Poroshenko told an emergency security meeting.
His forces later claimed to have destroyed three rebel bases in air raids on Friday.
But reports of "heavy losses" inflicted on pro-Russian fighters in the attacks on two bases north of Donetsk and one west of Lugansk could not be verified.
Poroshenko's militant talk convinced many in the million-strong eastern industrial hub of Donetsk - where gunmen who have been abandoning surrounding cities since last weekend have been retreating - that their city was about to be bombed.
As many as 70,000 people have already left the city, according to the self-proclaimed rebel prime minister of the city, Alexander Borodai.
The mayor of Donetsk rushed out to meet Poroshenko on Friday to discuss measures that could "avoid bloodshed and the use of air strikes and heavy artillery".
But separatists in control of Ukraine's coal mining capital said locals were not taking any chances after three months of fighting that has claimed 550 lives and sparked the worst East-West standoff since the height of the Cold War.
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