A senior Kremlin official today warned that if Russia is forced to defend its citizens in the disputed Donbass region it would be 'the beginning of the end Ukraine.' Tensions have soared in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks after Vladimir Putin dispatched tanks, helicopters and thousands of troops to the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy flew into Donbass today in a new show of strength as he shook hands with soldiers along the frontier which separates them from Russian-backed rebels.