Ukraine tells Nato: Donbas battle will be like second world war

Kyiv says if west does not send more weapons now it will be too late and calls for ruinous' sanctions

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Kyiv has called for more heavy weaponry from its western allies and ruinous" sanctions against Moscow, saying the scale of any impending Russian assault on eastern Ukraine would remind Nato members of the second world war.

Either you help us now - and I'm speaking about days, not weeks - or your help will come too late, and many people will die," Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told a meeting of his counterparts in the alliance in Brussels on Thursday.