The Ukrainian President links the increased Russian attacks to the holding of the EU summit
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Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has predicted that Russia will step up its attacks this week as European Union leaders consider supporting their country’s bid to join the bloc.
“Obviously this week we should expect Russia to step up its hostile activities,” Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday evening. “We are preparing. We are ready.”
Ukraine applied for EU membership four days after Russian troops crossed the border in February. The executive branch of the EU, the European Commission, on Friday recommended granting Ukraine candidate status.
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Leaders of the 27nation bloc will discuss the issue at a summit on Thursday and Friday and are expected to back Ukraine’s bid despite doubts from some member countries. The process can take many years.
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Ukraine’s EU membership would run counter to one of the stated goals of Russian President Vladimir Putin when he ordered his troops into Ukraine: to keep the neighbor out of the West’s sphere of influence.
Putin said on Friday Russia has “nothing against” Ukraine’s EU membership, but a Kremlin spokesman said Russia is watching Kiev’s offer closely, especially given EU members’ increased cooperation on defense.
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On the battlefield, Russian forces are attempting to seize complete control of the Donbass region, parts of which were already under the control of Russianbacked separatists prior to the February 24 Russian military operation.
One of the main targets of the Russian eastern attack is the industrial city of Severodonetsk. Russia said Sunday it had captured Metyolkine, a village on the outskirts of the city, and Russia’s state news agency TASS reported that many Ukrainian militants there had surrendered. Ukraine’s military said Russia had had “partial successes” in the region.
Lugansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television that a Russian attack on Toshkivka, 35 kilometers south of Severodonetsk, was also “fairly successful”. TASS, citing an adviser to the Interior Minister of the Luhansk People’s Republic, reported that Toshkivka had been “released”.
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In Severodonetsk itself, a prewar city of 100,000, Mayor Olekander Struk said Russian forces controlled about twothirds of the city, including most of the residential areas, and continued to use forces against Ukrainians in a bid to completely subdue it.
Both Russia and Ukraine continued heavy bombing around Severodonetsk “with little change on the front line,” Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
In Severodonetsk’s twin city of Lysychansk, residential and administrative buildings were destroyed by Russian bombs, Gaidai said.
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Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield reports.
“War can last for years”
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washingtonbased think tank, wrote in a note that “Russian forces will likely be able to take Severodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the expense of concentrating most of their available forces on it small area”.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the war in Ukraine could last for years and urged Western governments to keep sending stateoftheart weapons to Ukrainian troops, German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported.
“We have to be prepared for the fact that it can take years. We must not give up our support for Ukraine,” said Stoltenberg.
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