Military pressure on Ukraine from Russia and the separatists Moscow supports is likely to last decades and future generations will have to undergo military training, President Petro Poroshenko said yesterday.

Poroshenko made one of his gloomiest predictions on prospects for peace in his country days before he meets German and French leaders in Berlin for a summit he called to urge them to put pressure on Russia to comply with a six-month-old peace plan strained by ceasefire violations and shelling.

The military threat from the east is a tangible reality for decades to come

Poroshenko, speaking at a military rally in Kharkiv region at which he handed over new weapons and equipment to the army, praised Ukrainian forces for combating what he called a “Russian offensive” in the separatist conflict which erupted in the eastern Donbass region in April 2014.

But he saw a possibility of a “large-scale escalation” of military action from Russian-backed separatists around Ukraine’s Independence Day which falls tomorrow.

“The military threat from the east is a tangible reality for decades to come. This threat will not go away in the near future and every generation of Ukrainians must have army experience,” he said.

Military call-up and mobilisation would continue, he added.