Ukraine shows off US military hardware, vows to fight off Russia

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine's armed forces were capable of fighting off any attack from Russia as the country marked its national army day on Monday with a display of U.S. armoured vehicles and patrol boats.

Ukraine has accused Russia of massing tens of thousands of troops near its border in preparation for a possible large-scale military offensive, raising the prospect of open war between the two neighbours.

Russia has dismissed talk of a new assault on Ukraine as false and inflammatory, but told the West not to cross its "red lines" and to halt the eastward expansion of the NATO alliance.

Decked out in khaki armour and a helmet, Zelenskiy flew east to shake hands with soldiers at the front-line in the Donetsk region, where Ukraine's army has fought Russian-backed forces in a conflict that Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people since 2014.

He then flew to Kharkiv, a city near Ukraine's north-eastern border with Russia and a traditional centre for weapons manufacturing, to mark a delivery of tanks, armoured personnel carriers and armoured vehicles made in the city's factories.

Ukraine has received Javelin anti-tank missiles from the U.S., sophisticated drones from Turkey and signed a deal with Britain to build ships and new naval bases on its southern coast.

Several cities across Ukraine are marking the 30th anniversary of the creation of an independent military after winning independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

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