Russia trying to "extinsguish civilisation" in Donbas - Germany's Baerbock

Russia has adopted a strategy of flattening settlements from a safe distance in Ukraine's Donbas region, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, making it all the more important for Berlin to send Kyiv defensive weapons.

Russia has adopted a strategy of flattening settlements from a safe distance in Ukraine's Donbas region, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, making it all the more important for Berlin to send Kyiv defensive weapons. In a speech to the German parliament on Wednesday, she said Russia was fighting a war to "depopulate and extinguish civilization" in the eastern Ukrainian region.

"City by city, village by village, Russian troops are destroying them from a safe distance," she said. "First the missiles, then the warplanes with artillery, and then, when everything is flattened, the tanks roll in." Germany needed to send more artillery, drones and air defense weapons to help Ukraine defend itself from this onslaught, she added.