Jens Stoltenberg said the supply of state-of-the-art weapons to Ukrainian troops would increase the chances of liberating the eastern Donbass region from Russian control, the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported. read more “We have to prepare for the fact that it may take years. We must not give up our support for Ukraine,” said Stoltenberg, the military alliance’s secretary general. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, but also because of rising energy and food prices.” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday, also spoke of the need to prepare for a long war. This meant ensuring that “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training faster than the invader,” Johnson wrote in an opinion article in the Sunday Times in London. “Time is of the essence,” he wrote. “Everything will depend on whether Ukraine will be able to strengthen its ability to defend its territory faster than Russia can renew its ability to attack.” Ukraine received a major boost on Friday when the European Commission recommended it for candidate status, a decision expected to be approved by EU nations at a summit this week. read more This would put Ukraine on track to pursue an ambition that was considered unattainable before the Russian invasion on February 24, even if accession could take years.
INTENSIVE ATTACKS
Russian attacks intensified on the battlefields of Ukraine. The industrial city of Sivierodonetsk, the primary target of Moscow’s offensive to seize full control of Luhansk – one of Donbas’s two provinces – has once again faced heavy artillery and rockets, the Ukrainian military has said. “The situation in Sievierodonetsk is very difficult,” said Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian-appointed governor of Luhansk. “Areas near the bridges were bombed again,” Gaidai said in an online post on Sunday, adding that the Nitrogen chemical plant, where hundreds of people had taken refuge, had been hit twice. “Fighting continues for full control of the city,” the general staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a daily news release on Sunday. Analysts at the think tank Institute for the Study of War in Washington wrote that “Russian forces will probably be able to occupy Sievierodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area.” In the twin city of Sievierodonetsk Lysychansk across the river, the bodies of two civilians were found, Gaidai said, adding, “The destruction of homes in the city is growing like an avalanche.” The Ukrainian army has acknowledged that “the enemy has had some success in the village of Metolkine”, just southeast of Sievierodonetsk. Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported that several Ukrainian fighters had surrendered to Metolkine, citing a source working for the Russian-backed separatists. Russian rockets hit a gas plant in the Izyum region in the northwest, and Russian rockets raining down on a suburb of Kharkiv, the second largest city, hit a municipal building, setting it on fire but causing no casualties, Ukrainian officials said. They reported bombings further west in Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk, saying on Saturday that three Russian missiles had destroyed a fuel depot in the city of Novomoskovsk, injuring 11 people. read more Pavlo Kirilenko, governor of Donetsk, another Donbass province, said one civilian was killed and 11 were injured in Saturday’s bombings. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that Russian troops on a reconnaissance mission near the city of Krasnopillya suffered heavy casualties on Saturday. Reuters could not independently confirm the accounts on the battlefield. Two senior fighter commanders defending the Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern port of Mariupol have been flown to Russia for investigation, TASS reported. read more
ZELENSKI RESPONSE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose disobedience has inspired his people and won worldwide respect, said he had visited troops on the southern front in the Mykolaiv region, about 550 km (340 miles) south of Kiev. “I spoke to our defenders – the army, the police, the National Guard,” he said in a video to the Telegram messaging app on Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train. “Their mood is assured: not everyone doubts our victory,” Zelenski said. “We will not give the south to anyone and we will take back what is ours.” Another video showed Zelensky with his trademark khaki T-shirt handing out medals and posing for selfies with soldiers. read more Zelensky stayed mostly in Kyiv since the Russian invasion, although in recent weeks he has made unannounced visits to Kharkov and two eastern cities near the battlefield. read more One of the stated goals of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the command of troops in Ukraine was to stop the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance to the east and to keep Moscow’s southern neighbor out of the sphere of Western influence. But the war, which killed thousands, destroyed cities and escaped millions, had the opposite effect – convincing Finland and Sweden to seek NATO membership – and helped pave the way for Ukraine to join the EU. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report from Reuters’s offices. Written by David Brunnstrom and Clarence Fernandez. Editing by Grant McCool and William Mallard Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
