‘YEARS’-LONG WAR
NATO chief warns of protracted conflict
The head of NATO cautioned on Sunday that the war in Ukraine could last years and urged Western nations to continue to provide military and humanitarian assistance in its fight against Russia.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said providing state-of-theart weaponry to Ukrainian troops is critical in their effort to free the eastern Donbas region from Russian control, Bild am Sonntag reported. “We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.
“Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices,” he said.
Russia launched its invasion in Ukraine on Feb. 24 and set out to quickly take the capital Kyiv, but determined Ukrainian forces deterred the onslaught. Since then, the battlefield has shifted.
Moscow has concentrated its forces in the Donbas region, where Russian troops had been assisting pro-separatists since President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed Crimea in 2014. The United States and its Western allies have sent billions of dollars’ worth of armament to Ukraine since February, including high-tech missile systems, helicopters, howitzers, tactical vehicles and drones.
On Friday, the European Commission recommended Ukraine for candidate status, a development that would allow Kyiv to realize a long-standing goal that appeared to be out of reach before the Russian invasion. Meanwhile, Ukrainian cities in the east continued to be bombarded by Russian rockets on Sunday. Severodonetsk came under heavy rocket and artillery fire.
“The situation in Sievierodonetsk is very difficult,” said Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian-appointed governor of Luhansk.
He said Russian troops were deploying drones for air reconnaissance to guide the strikes in response to changing defenses. “Areas near the bridges have been heavily shelled again,” Gaidai said, pointing out that the Azot chemical plant where hundreds of people have sought shelter was hit twice.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has been hailed for his efforts to rally the Ukrainian people and resist the Russian attack, said Sunday that he met with soldiers on the frontline near Mykolaiv, a region about 340 miles south of Kyiv.
“I talked to our defenders — the military, the police, the National Guard,” he said,.
“Their mood is assured: they all do not doubt our victory,” Zelenskiy said. “We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back.”