by Our Foreign Desk

UKRAINIAN President Petro Poroshenko used independence day celebrations in Kiev to rattle the sabre in a flurry of war rhetoric yesterday.

Speaking during a military parade, Mr Poroshenko claimed Ukraine must not be complacent, despite the ongoing peace process in the country’s year-long civil war.

The billionaire oligarch vowed to increase troop numbers, suggesting a “large-scale” invasion from neighbouring Russia was in the offing.

“We stand for peace, but we are not pacifists,” he said. “We must get through the 25th year of independence as if on brittle ice. We must understand that the smallest misstep could be fatal. The war for independence is still ongoing.”

Mr Poroshenko didn’t say how many more troops he would send to the eastern Ukraine where locals rose up against Kiev following last year’s fascist-backed coup.

But he claimed that Russia was massing 50,000 soldiers on the border and had supplied anti-fascist forces there with 500 tanks and 400 artillery pieces — echoing similar previous statements without material evidence.

In Rome on Sunday, Pope Francis made his latest appeal for the end of fighting on the eve of the Independence Day.

“I renew my heartfelt appeal, so that the commitments undertaken to achieve pacification are respected, and with the help of organisations and people of good will, the humanitarian emergency in the country is responded to,” the pontiff told the crowd in St Peter’s Square.

“May the Lord give peace to the beloved Ukrainian land, which is preparing to celebrate the national holiday tomorrow.”