INTERNATIONAL: Russian-backed separatists on Ukraine's east has said the conflict with Kyiv authorities will continue despite election promises made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and backed pro-Russian separatists who seized a swathe of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern eastern Ukraine that same year, and continue to fight Ukrainian government forces there.

Russian-backed separatists on Ukraine's east has said the conflict with Kyiv authorities will continue despite election promises made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and backed pro-Russian separatists who seized a swathe of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern eastern Ukraine that same year, and continue to fight Ukrainian government forces there.

Zelenskiy has won a landslide election in 2019 promising to end the conflict, but after some initial confidence building measures, including prisoner exchanges, fighting has flared up. But Zelenskiy’s words appeared to be empty, says Sergey, manning a trench in Ukraine’s Luhansk region. He has added that America and the West decide everything for them.

More than 10,000 Russian troops have been returning to their permanent bases after month-long drills near Ukraine, on Christmas day, citing the Russian military. The drills were held in several regions near Ukraine, including in Crimea, as well as in the southern Russian regions of Rostov and Kuban. Russia's deployment of tens of thousands of troops to the north, east and south of Ukraine had fuelled fears in Kyiv and Western capitals that Moscow was planning an attack.

Russia denies any such plans, saying it needs pledges from the West - including a promise from NATO not to expand the alliance eastward towards Russian borders - because its own security is threatened by Ukraine's growing ties with the Western alliance. Moscow also says that it can deploy its troops on its territory as it sees fit. Estimates for the number of Russian troops recently moved closer to Ukraine vary from 60,000 to 90,000, with one U.S. intelligence document suggesting that number could be ramped up as high as 175,000.