Russia is building up its forces in eastern Ukraine in readiness for a new wave of attacks in the breakaway Donbas region, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said, as another attempt was being made to rescue trapped civilians and deliver aid to besieged Mariupol.
In an early morning video address, the Ukrainian president said Russia’s drawdown announcement had been forced upon the Kremlin by the fierce resistance of Ukraine’s armed forces.
He added that his government was instead seeing “a build-up of Russian forces for new strikes on the Donbas” and preparing for that. The region encompasses two self-proclaimed “people’s republics” that Russia says it is helping to free from Ukrainian control. The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, said on Wednesday that offensive operations were intensifying.
