Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said the war in Ukraine could last for years and would be costly. In an interview published this Sunday (19) in the German newspaper Bild, he also warned that if Russia were victorious, the price to be paid would be even greater.
“We have to be prepared for the fact that [a guerra] It could take years,” Stoltenberg said.
Those costs pale in comparison to what Ukrainians pay on the front lines every day, the secretary-general said. Russian President Vladimir Putin also said the price to be paid would be “much greater” if he achieves his goals in Ukraine, as with the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Stoltenberg urged Western countries to continue sending weapons to Kiev. “With additional modern weapons, the probability of Ukraine removing Putin’s troops from the Donbass will increase.”
Donbass is the current Russian target in the conflict. This part of eastern Ukraine has been the scene of intense fighting, and the Russians have already taken control of some of it.
Johnson also sees a long war
A similar statement to Stoltenberg was made on Sunday by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was in Kiev on Friday. In an article in the British newspaper The Sunday Times, the prime minister spoke of the need to prepare for a long war and said that Ukraine would need years of support to survive.
Johnson stressed that as Putin resorted to a campaign of attrition and brutally crushing Ukraine, Britain and its allies must ensure that Ukraine “has the strategic resilience to survive”.
“Time is a vital factor,” he added. “It all depends on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its territory faster than Russia can replenish its offensive capacity.”
The Prime Minister said that for this Ukraine should get faster weapons, ammunition and training. He also stressed the need to continue sending resources so that Kiev can keep its state administration operational and restructuring can begin “as soon as possible”.
Russia intensifies attacks
On Sunday, Russia intensified its attacks in the Donbass region. According to the Ukrainian army, the city of Sievierodonetsk faced heavy artillery and shelling. Analysts predict Moscow could take over the industrial city in the coming weeks, but this is at the expense of concentrating most of its current troops in a small area.
Sievierodonetsk is the last stronghold of the Ukrainian forces in Lugansk and the scene of the most active hostilities in recent weeks. In a maneuver similar to the one carried out in Mariupol, where the Ukrainian army took refuge in the Azovstal steelworks, the Ukrainian forces isolated themselves in this chemical factory and eventually fell, like the entire city, to Moscow’s power.
Lugansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Sunday that the Russians control only part of Sievierodonetsk, and residential buildings and houses in the nearby town of Lysychansk were bombed. “Civilians are dying in the streets and in bomb shelters,” he added.
source: Noticias
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