Nato warns of long conflict as eastern battles grind on War in Ukraine

KYIV • 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 Ukraine would boost the chance of freeing its eastern Donbas region 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 on trying to take complete control of the Donbas, parts of which were already held by Russian-backed separatists before the Feb 24 invasion.

"We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine," Mr Stoltenberg was quoted 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 last Friday, also stressed the need to avoid "Ukraine fatigue". With Russian forces "grinding forward inch by inch", he called for allies to show the Ukrainians they were there to support them for a long time.

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

"Time is the vital factor," he wrote. "Everything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has rallied citizens with daily filmed messages, said yesterday 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. "We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back."

In Mykolaiv and Odesa, Mr 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.

A top target in Moscow's offensive to seize full control of Luhansk region - one of the two provinces making up the Donbas - is the industrial city of Sievierodonetsk.

Russia said yesterday that its offensive in the city was proceeding successfully after it took control of a district in the outskirts of the city.

"The offensive in the Sievierodonetsk direction is developing successfully," Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a video.

He said the settlement of Metyolkine on the city's eastern outskirts had been taken. "The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue to strike military targets on Ukraine territory," he said.

Mr Konashenkov said long-range Kalibr cruise missiles struck a command centre in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killing Ukrainian generals and officers.

Ukraine's military said Russia had "partial success" in the area.

"All Russian claims that they control the town are a lie. They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town," Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television, adding that fighting made evacuations impossible.

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".

In Sievierodonetsk's twin city of Lysychansk, residential buildings and private houses had been destroyed, Mr Gaidai said. "People are dying on the streets and in bomb shelters," he added.

In Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, north-west of Luhansk, Russia's Defence Ministry said its Iskander missiles had destroyed weaponry recently supplied by Western countries.

West of Donbas, Russian missiles hit a fuel storage depot in Novomoskovsk, killing two people and injuring 13, the regional administration chief said.

REUTERS