Ukrainian leaders fear repeat of Mariupol horrors in Donbas region

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry workers disassemble a destroyed building in Mariupol (AP)

Moscow-backed separatists have pounded eastern Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region, as Ukrainian officials pleaded for sophisticated Western weapons to stop the onslaught.

The advance of Russian forces has raised fears that cities in the region will undergo the same horrors inflicted on the people of the port city Mariupol in the weeks before it fell.