Ukraine’s Zelensky struggles to impress in war-battered east

President Volodymyr Zelensky rose to power last year on a pledge to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine which has left Russia-backed separatists controlling two areas of the country and thousands dead. While in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, it is fully under control of the Kiev government and not part of the breakaway Donetsk Republic declared by separatists or a similar unrecognised region in neighbouring Lugansk.