Ukraine preparing for a new Russian assault on Donbas: Zelenskyy
Al JazeeraUkrainian leader says Russia is building up troops in the east of the country for new attacks on the Donbas region. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pledged to “fight for every metre” of Ukrainian land, saying his forces are preparing for new Russian attacks in the eastern Donbas region as Moscow amasses troops there. Zelenskyy, in his nightly video address to the nation on Wednesday, said Ukraine is at a “turning point” in the five-week war with Russia and again urged Western nations to send more weapons. Ukraine is seeing “a build-up of Russian forces for new attacks on the Donbas and we are preparing for that”, he said, adding that Ukrainians “won’t give up anything and we’ll fight for every metre of our land, for every citizen”. Moscow has cultivated close ties with pro-Russian separatists controlling swaths of Donbas, which encompasses two self-proclaimed “people’s republics” that Russia says it is helping to free from Ukrainian control.