Ukraine says conflict with Russia could spark 'great war'

Kiev has warned that a “great war” threatens Europe as pro-Russian insurgents, allegedly backed by Moscow’s military, forced government troops to retreat across swathes of eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine's army and paramilitary units lost territory to the rebels across Luhansk and Donetsk regions yesterday, as Poland's premier Donald Tusk drew parallels with Germany's invasion of his country in 1939.

The militants – who Kiev and its allies claim are assisted by more than 1,000 soldiers and advanced weaponry from Russia – reportedly took control of Luhansk airport and a long stretch of the main road linking Donetsk city to Mariupol, a key port on the Azov Sea that is now seen as a prime rebel target.

“A great war arrived at our doorstep, the likes of which Europe has not seen since World War II,” wrote Ukraine’s defence minister Valeriy Geletey, warning of “tens of thousands of deaths.”

‘Mount defences’

He pledged to “immediately mount defences against Russia, which is trying not only to secure positions held by terrorists before but to advance on other territories of Ukraine”.

Commenting on claims by Russian rights activists that thousands of Moscow’s troops are fighting secretly in Ukraine and that hundreds have died, Mr Geletey said Russia had already “paid dearly for the invasion”.

Ella Polyakova, head of an organisation called Soldiers’ Mothers in St Petersburg, called on Russian authorities to “say why soldiers are dying on the territory of another state and why they are keeping silent.”

Moscow denies the presence of its military in Ukraine, and insists only Russian volunteers are fighting on a conflict that has killed at least 2,600 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

The Kremlin calls the conflict a “civil war” and Kiev’s fight with separatist forces a “punitive operation” against Russian-speaking Ukrainians who reject the country’s pivot to the West and want to retain close ties with Moscow.

The crisis – sparked when months of street protests ousted Kremlin-backed, Donetsk-born Viktor Yanukovich as Ukraine’s president – has brought Russia’s relations with the West to their lowest ebb since the cold war.

“Today, looking at the tragedy of Ukraine at war – because we should use this word – in the east of our continent, we know that September 1939 must not be repeated,” said Mr Tusk, who is set to be the European Council’s next president.

Speaking at the Westerplatte peninsula on Poland’s Baltic coast, where a German warship fired some of the first shots of the second World War 75 years earlier, Mr Tusk said the continent should avoid “naive optimism” and ensure its security with “courage, imagination and resolute action.”

“There is still time to stop all those in Europe and in the world for whom violence, force, aggression are again becoming an arsenal of political activity,” Mr Tusk added.

Standing alongside him, German president Joachim Gauck said: "Stability and peace on our continent are in danger again . . . We will oppose those who break international law, annex foreign territory and provide military support to breakaway movements in foreign countries."

Tougher sanctions

Ukraine’s crisis will dominate a summit of Nato leaders starting on Thursday in Wales, and last Saturday the EU gave Russia a week to scale back aggression in Ukraine or face tougher sanctions.

“Concerning restricting trade and economic activity, those who pursue such policies will suffer the most,” said Mr Putin.

“I hope that common sense will prevail . . . that we will work together normally and that we and our partners will not cause harm by poking at one another.”