The war in Ukraine could last for years, the head of Nato said on Sunday, as Russia stepped up its assaults after the European Union recommended that Kyiv become a candidate to join the bloc.
Jens Stoltenberg said supplying state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would boost the chance of freeing its eastern region of Donbas from Russian control, Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported.
“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the military alliance, was quoted as saying.
“Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”
British PM Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday, also spoke of a need to prepare for a long war. This meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader,” Johnson wrote in an opinion piece in London’s Sunday Times. “Time is the vital factor,” he wrote.
Zelensky rallies citizens with daily messages
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has rallied citizens with daily filmed messages, said he had visited forces in the southern Mykolaiv region, about 550km south of Kyiv.
“Their mood is assured: they all do not doubt our victory,” he said in a video on Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train. We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back.”
In Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, Zelensky said he had heard reports on destruction from Russian strikes.
“The losses are significant. Many houses have been destroyed; civilian logistics have been disrupted,” he said.
Russian forces intensify attacks in the east
In the last few days, Russian attacks have intensified on Ukraine’s battlefields. Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian-appointed governor of Luhansk, said: “All Russian claims that they control the town [Severodonetsk] are a lie. They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town.”
In the twin city of Lysychansk across the river, Gaidai said on the Telegram messaging app, residential buildings and private houses had been destroyed, adding, “People are dying on the streets and in bomb shelters.”
A fuel storage depot in the eastern town of Novomoskovsk exploded on Sunday, killing one person and injuring two, after it had been hit by three Russian missiles, the regional administration chief said.
“The offensive in the Severodonetsk direction is developing successfully,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a video statement. He said the settlement of Metyolkine, on the eastern outskirts of the city, had been taken. “The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue to strike military targets on the territory of Ukraine,” he said.
Konashenkov said long-range Kalibr cruise missiles struck a command centre in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killing Ukrainian generals and officers, including from the general staff.
Morale of troops hit on both sides: Brit officials
Four months of brutal fighting in Ukraine appear to be straining the morale of troops on both sides, prompting desertions and rebellion against officers’ orders, British defence officials said on Sunday. “Combat units from both sides are committed to intense combat in the Donbas and are likely experiencing variable morale,” Britain’s defence ministry said.
“Ukrainian forces have likely suffered desertions in recent weeks,” the assessment said, but added that “Russian morale highly likely remains especially troubled”. It said “cases of whole Russian units refusing orders and armed stand-offs between officers and their troops continue to occur”