As second Russian convoy rolls into Ukraine, PM warns ‘Putin trying to destroy us’

Russian President Vladimir Putin is aiming to destroy Ukraine as an independent country, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said, adding that only NATO could defend the ex-Soviet republic from external aggression. More than 200 Russian trucks carrying humanitarian supplies entered into Ukraine with supplies for the city of Luhansk on Saturday. Kiev and its Western backers accuse Moscow of sending troops and tanks into eastern Ukraine in support of pro-Russian separatists battling Ukrainian forces in a conflict that has killed more than 3,000 people. Russia denies the accusations. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since September 5.

His goal is to take all of Ukraine […] Russia is a threat to the global order and to the security of the whole of Europe.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Yatseniuk also praised a new wave of economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union and the United States and said they posed a major threat to the Russian economy. Western powers imposed new sanctions on Friday, tightening financial measures against Moscow in a move Putin called “a bit strange” in view of the ceasefire. The Ukrainian military said Saturday its forces had repelled an insurgent attack on the airport in the eastern separatist stronghold of Donetsk, despite an eight-day truce.

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