NATO Warns Ukraine Fighting Could Last Years As Russians Pound Eastern Cities

NATO's secretary-general has warned that the war in Ukraine could go on for years and urged the supply of state-of-the-art weapons to Kyiv even if "costs are high," as Ukraine's allies sought to preempt any international "fatigue" nearly four months into Russia's unprovoked invasion.

The cautions came as Russia stepped up its offensives against Syevyerodonetsk and other eastern Ukrainian cities and with the European Union readying for a recommendation next week to make Ukraine a candidate to join the bloc.

"We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper in comments published on June 19.

"Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices."

Following his visit to Kyiv on June 18 to show support for Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote in London's Sunday Times that "time is the vital factor" and "everything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack."

Johnson spoke of the need to avoid "Ukraine fatigue" from a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians and displaced more than 10 million others since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops across the border on February 24.

On June 17, the European Commission recommended Ukraine for candidate status in an accelerated move expected to get support from member states at a summit this week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited soldiers on the southern front line in the Mykolaiv region some 500 kilometers from Kyiv on June 18.

On June 19, he said via Telegram that "the military, the police, [and] the National Guard...do not doubt our victory."

He added: "We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back."

Syevyerodonetsk, the focus of Russia’s offensive to capture full control of the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, remained under heavy artillery fire on June 19, as did the sister city of Lysychansk just across the Severskiy Donets River.

The Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces said early on June 19 that Russian troops are concentrating their main efforts in the direction of Syevyerodonetsk and Bakhmut.

It acknowledged a setback as it sought to "gain a foothold" southeast of the besieged city of Syevyerodonetsk.

Russian troops are shelling the positions of Ukrainian troops and civilian infrastructure in the area of Syevyerodonetsk's adjacent twin city of Lysychansk and other settlements with cannon artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems.

They said the enemy was also trying to capture Slavyansk.

A spokesman for a southwestern Ukrainian region's military command said overnight that two Russian cruise missiles were shot down over the Odesa region.

Serhiy Bratchuk said the missiles had been fired from occupied Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, when it also launched support for armed separatists in other regions of eastern Ukraine.