Oleksandr Borodai, the former prime minister of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk (DPR), says that there is a reason why the port city of Mariupol was not taken by separatists in September, “when there were such opportunities”.

He says it was done to facilitate the business of Rinat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian billionaire whose assets are scattered around both government-controlled and separatist-controlled territories in the east of the county.