OSLO
\nThe war in Ukraine could last for years, the head of Nato said on Sunday, as Russia stepped up its assaults after the European Union recommended that Kyiv become a candidate to join the bloc.
\nJens 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\u2019s Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported.
\n\u201cWe must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,\u201d Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the military alliance, was quoted as saying.
\n\u201cEven if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.\u201d
\nBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday, also spoke of a need to prepare for a long war.
\nThis meant ensuring \u201cUkraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader,\u201d Johnson wrote in an opinion piece in London\u2019s Sunday Times.
\n\u201cTime is the vital factor,\u201d he wrote. \u201cEverything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack.\u201d
\nUkraine received a significant boost on Friday when the European Commission recommended it for candidate status, a decision EU nations are expected to endorse at a summit this week.
\nThat would put Ukraine on course to realise an aspiration seen as out of reach before Russia\u2019s Feb. 24 invasion, even if membership could take years.
\nRussian attacks intensified on Ukraine\u2019s battlefields.
\nThe industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, a prime target in Moscow\u2019s offensive to seize full control of Luhansk, one of the two provinces making up the Donbas, faced heavy artillery and rocket fire again, the Ukrainian military said.
\n\u201cRussian 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,\u201d analysts at a Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, wrote in a note.
\nSerhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian-appointed governor of Luhansk, told Ukrainian television: \u201cAll Russian claims that they control the town are a lie. They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town.\u201d
\nIn the twin city of Lysychansk across the river, Gaidai said on the Telegram messaging app, residential buildings and private houses had been destroyed, adding, \u201cPeople are dying on the streets and in bomb shelters.\u201d
\nUkraine\u2019s military acknowledged that \u201cthe enemy has partial success in the village of Metolkine,\u201d just southeast of Sievierodonetsk.
\nRussia\u2019s state news agency TASS said many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Metolkine, citing a source working for Russian-backed separatists.
\nRussian missiles hit a gasworks in the district of Izyum to the northwest, and Russian rockets raining on a suburb of Kharkiv, the second-largest city, hit a municipal building, causing a fire, but no casualties, Ukrainian authorities said.
\nA fuel storage depot in the eastern town of Novomoskovsk exploded on Sunday, killing one person and injuring two, after it had been hit by three Russian missiles, the regional administration chief said in an online message.
\nReuters could not independently confirm the battlefield accounts.
\nTwo top commanders of fighters who defended the Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern port of Mariupol have been transferred to Russia for investigation, TASS said.
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose defiance has inspired his people and won global respect, said he had visited soldiers on the southern frontline in the Mykolaiv region, about 550 km south of Kyiv.
\n\u201cI talked to our defenders, the military, the police, the National Guard,\u201d he said in a video on the Telegram message app on Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train.
\n\u201cTheir mood is assured: they all do not doubt our victory,\u201d Zelenskiy said. \u201cWe will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back.\u201d
\nAnother video showed Zelenskiy in his trademark khaki T-shirt handing out medals and posing for selfies with servicemen.
\nZelenskiy has stayed mostly in Kyiv since Russia invaded, although in recent weeks he has made unannounced visits to Kharkiv and two eastern cities near battles.
\nOne of Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s stated goals in ordering troops into Ukraine was to halt the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance and keep Moscow\u2019s southern neighbour outside the West\u2019s sphere of influence.
\nBut the war, which has killed thousands, reduced cities to rubble and sent millions fleeing, has had the opposite effect, convincing Finland and Sweden to seek to join Nato, and helping to pave the way for Ukraine\u2019s EU membership bid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OSLO The war in Ukraine could last for years, the head of Nato said on Sunday, as Russia stepped up its assaults after the European Union recommended that Kyiv become a candidate to join the bloc. Jens Stoltenberg said supplying state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would boost the chance of freeing its eastern region of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8700,338,8701],"class_list":{"0":"post-266975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-nato-chief","9":"tag-russia","10":"tag-ukrain"},"yoast_head":"\n