Mon, Jun 20, 2022 page1

• NATO warns Ukraine war ‘could take years’

  • Reuters, KYIV
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  The war in Ukraine could last for years, the head of NATO said yesterday, calling for steadfast support from Ukraine’s allies as Russian forces battle for territory in the country’s east.

  NATO Secretary-General 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.

  After failing to take the capital, Kyiv, early on in the war, Russian forces have focused efforts in the past few weeks on trying to take complete control of the Donbas, parts of which were already under the control of Russian-backed separatists before the Feb. 24 invasion.

  

  Soldiers hold flares at the funeral of activist and soldier Roman Ratushnyi in Kyiv on Saturday. Ratushnyi died in a battle near Izyum, where Russian and Ukrainian troops are fighting for control of the area.

  Photo: AP

  “We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” Stoltenberg was quoted as saying. “Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”

  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday with an offer of training for Ukrainian forces, also said on Saturday it is important that the UK provide support for the long haul, warning of a risk of “Ukraine fatigue” as the war drags on.

  In an opinion piece in London’s Sunday Times, Johnson said this meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader.”

  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had visited troops in several places, including the southern Mykolaiv region, about 550km south of Kyiv.

  “I talked to our defenders — the military, the police, the National Guard,” he said in a video on the Telegram app yesterday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train.

  “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.”

  The eastern industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, a prime target in Moscow’s offensive to seize full control of Luhansk — one of the two provinces making up the Donbas — again faced heavy artillery and rocket fire, the Ukrainian military said.

  Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, wrote in a note that “Russian forces will likely be able to seize Sievierodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area.”

  Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television: “All Russian claims that they control the town 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, residential buildings and private houses had been destroyed, Gaidai said on Telegram, adding: “People are dying on the streets and in bomb shelters.”

  Ukraine’s military said “the enemy has partial success in the village of Metolkine,” just southeast of Sievierodonetsk.

  Russia’s state news agency TASS said many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Metolkine, quoting a source working for Russian-backed separatists, while Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a video statement that the settlement had been taken.

  Russian forces trying to approach Kharkiv, northwest of Luhansk, aimed to turn it into a “frontline city,” a Ukrainian interior ministry official said.
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