Ukrainian pleads for weapons

This photo taken by a drone last week shows the destroyed airport in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. Photo / AP

Vadim Ozirny is hoping for reinforcements. The 46-year-old Ukrainian tank commander says politicians might yet stop the conflict that grips the east of his country, but supplies of arms from the West would bring a quicker result.

"Can we win this war? Can we bring it to an end? I don't know," he said.

"This is not toys; it's not players on a football field. Give me some British Challengers or German Leopards and the Russians will be afraid to come out against us."

Captain Ozirny is in charge of 33 men and 10 tanks, mostly ageing Soviet T-64s. Last week, he and his company were caught in the thick of battles on the northwest rim of Donetsk, the million-strong city which is the stronghold of pro-Russian separatists.

The war in eastern Ukraine is escalating after months of skirmishes. Yesterday, 27 civilians were reportedly killed and 97 injured when Grad rockets fell on a neighbourhood of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.

Government forces are struggling to resist a rebel offensive after the separatists were apparently engorged by fresh supplies of weapons and men provided by Russia.

On Saturday, the separatists' leader Alexander Zakharchenko, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, announced he was abandoning peace talks and starting a new multi-pronged attack against Ukrainian government troops - striking out from Donetsk and other rebel-held ground, and signalling the final collapse of a peace deal signed in September.

He also promised to encircle the Ukrainian town of Debaltsevo and "take revenge for our dead".