AFP news
NATO chief warns Ukraine war could last “years”
The head of NATO warned that the war in Ukraine could last “years”, as President Volodymyr Zelensky promised on Sunday that his forces would not cede the south of the country to Russia after visiting the front line there. Ukraine said it had also repulsed further attacks by Russian forces on the eastern front, which had been rocked by weeks of fierce fighting as Moscow tried to seize the Donbas industrial region. While Ukraine remained defiant, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged Western countries to be prepared to provide long-term military, political and economic support to Kyiv during a deadly war. “We have to be prepared for this to last for years,” Stoltenberg told the German newspaper Bild. “We must not weaken our support for Ukraine, even if the costs are high, not only in terms of military support, but also because of rising energy and food prices.” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a similar warning, calling for sustained support in Kyiv or risking “the greatest victory of aggression” since World War II. “Time is now the lifeblood,” Johnson wrote in an article in the Sunday Times after his second visit to Kyiv, calling on the West to ensure that Ukraine has “the strategic resistance to survive and ultimately prevail.” . Ukraine has repeatedly urged Western countries to increase their arms deliveries since the February 24 invasion, despite Russian warnings that it could trigger a wider conflict. – “The mood is confident” – Zelensky made a rare trip out of Kyiv on Saturday in the rugged Black Sea city of Mykolaiv, and visited troops nearby and in the neighboring Odessa region for the first time since of the Russian invasion. “We will not give the south to anyone, we will return everything that is ours and the sea will be Ukrainian and safe,” he said in a video posted to Telegram on his way back to Kyiv. He said he spoke with troops and police during his visit. “Their mood is confident, and looking them in the eye it’s obvious that not everyone doubts our victory,” he said. But Zelensky admitted the losses were “significant”, adding: “Many houses were destroyed, civilian logistics were disrupted, there are many social problems.” Russia said on Sunday it had launched missile attacks over the past 24 hours, including some against weapons delivered by the West to Mykolaiv. Attacks on a city building destroyed “ten 155mm shells and about 20 Western-supplied armored vehicles under the Kyiv regime over the past ten days,” the Russian Defense Ministry said. There was no independent verification of the claims. Mykolaiv is a key target for Russia, as it is on its way to the strategic port of Odessa. With Russia maintaining a blockade of Odessa that has caught grain supplies and threatening a global food crisis, Odessa residents have focused their attention on gathering the effort of the internal front. “Every day, including the weekend, I come to make camouflage nets for the army,” said Natalia Pinchenkova, 49, behind a large Union flag, a sign of gratitude to the UK for his support of Ukraine. – “Hero”: the war in Ukraine is fueling not only a global food crisis, but also an energy crisis. Germany on Sunday announced emergency measures that include increased use of coal to make sure it meets its energy needs after a drop in Russian gas supplies. Affected by sanctions, Moscow has increased pressure on European economies by drastically reducing its gas supply, which has pushed up energy prices. Meanwhile, Italian company Eni has joined a large Qatari project to expand production at the world’s largest natural gas field, days after Russia reduced its supply to Italy. Back in Kyiv, thousands gathered to pay tribute to a young man: Roman Ratushny, a prominent figure in the pro-European Maidan movement in Ukraine, who was assassinated fighting Russians in the east of the country in early this month at just 24 years old. In front of the coffin. Surrounded by a yellow and blue Ukrainian flag at the foot of a monument overlooking the capital’s extensive Independence Square, people of all ages greeted his memory. “I think it’s important to be here because he’s a Ukrainian hero and we have to remember him,” Dmytro Ostrovsky, a 17-year-old high school student, told AFP. The loss put a human face on the shared pain of the Ukrainians, while the bloodshed continues. The worst fighting is still in the eastern Donbas industrial region, with battles in villages outside the city of Severodonetsk, which Russia has been trying to seize for weeks. “There is an expression: get ready for the worst and the best will come on its own,” Lugansk Eastern Governor Sergiy Gaiday told AFP in an interview from the controlled city of Lysychansk. for Ukraine, on the other side of the river from Severodonetsk. “Of course we have to get ready,” he said, wearing an antibacterial jacket and gun cartridges and a tourniquet. Ukraine’s armed forces said on Sunday that they had repulsed Russian attacks on villages near Severodonetsk. “Our units repulsed the assault on the Toshkivka area,” the Ukrainian military said on Facebook, adding that Russian forces were also “assaulting” the town of Orikhove. burs-dk