NATO asked the West to be prepared to provide support to Ukraine as the War may last long.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a German weekly newspaper that Russia’s war in Ukraine could take years. He added that to liberate the Donbas region of Ukraine from Russian control, the supply of state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would be increased.
“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told Bild am Sonntag. “Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”
Stoltenberg in an interview earlier this week said that NATO is expected to agree on an assistance package for Ukraine in its upcoming summit in Madrid later this month. This package will help the country with the move from old Soviet-era weapons to NATO standard gear.
For the last few months, there had been a conflict between Ukraine and Russia for Ukrainian Territory. Russia is battling for control in the country’s Eastern region. While in recent weeks Moscow(Russian Capital) is advancing towards the country.
Boris Johnson, President of the UK, has also warned of a long term conflict in the Ukraine-Russia region. The newly appointed head of the British Army said alarmingly that the UK and allies needed to be capable of winning a ground war with Russia.
Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, who started the job last week, said in an internal message seen by the BBC: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underlines our core purpose – to protect the UK and to be ready to fight and win wars on land – and reinforces the requirement to deter Russian aggression with the threat of force.”
Writing in the Sunday Times, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused Russia’s Vladimir Putin. He accused him of resorting to a “campaign of attrition” and “trying to grind down Ukraine by sheer brutality.”
“I’m afraid we need to steel ourselves for a long war,” he wrote. “Time is the vital factor. Everything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack.”
The Prime Minister visited Ukraine’s capital on Friday and came to the conclusion that Moscow’s efforts to rearm itself should be outpaced by supplies of weapons, equipment, ammunition, and training to Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials have been explicitly talking in recent days about the ways to defeat Russian Forces. They bluntly have spoken about the need to boost the supply of heavy weapons to the country if Russian forces there are to be defeated.
Oleksiy Resnikov, the Ukrainian defense minister on Wednesday met some 50 countries in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels to ask for more arms and ammunition.
The country was offered major weapon supplies from its western allies but Ukraine says it has only received a fraction of what it needs to defend itself and is asking for heavier arms.
Russian officials often criticize NATO military support for Ukraine and in an interview last week with the BBC the country’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, cited the prospect of Ukraine joining the Western alliance as a reason for the invasion in the first place.
“We declared a special military operation because we had absolutely no other way of explaining to the West that dragging Ukraine into Nato was a criminal act,” Mr Lavrov told the BBC.
Ukraine is not a member of NATO and although it has expressed a wish to join there is no timeframe for this.
