Russia must not win in Ukraine

Jens Stoltenberg

The war in Ukraine is the most dangerous moment for Europe since World War Two, and Russia must not be allowed to win, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday, as Kyiv had been forced to cede some territory in the east in the face of a Russian offensive.

To prevent Moscow from succeeding, Nato and its member countries may have to support Ukraine with arms and other assistance for a long time to come, Stoltenberg said in a speech in his native Norway.

"It's in our interest that this type of aggressive policy does not succeed," he said.

Amid fears among some politicians in the West that Russia's ambitions may extend beyond Ukraine, Stoltenberg warned Putin that the response to such a move from the Western military alliance would be overwhelming.

"If President Putin even thinks of doing something similar to a Nato country as he has done to Georgia, Moldova or Ukraine, then all of Nato will be involved immediately," he said.

On the battleground, Russian forces were engaged in considerable military activity, firing from tanks, barrel and rocket artillery in several parts of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said yesterday.

President Volodymyr Zelensky this week described the pressure his armed forces were under in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine as "Hell". He spoke of fierce fighting around the town of Avdiivka and the fortified village of Pisky, where Kyiv has acknowledged its Russian foe's "partial success" in recent days.

The Ukrainian military said yesterday Russian forces had mounted at least two assaults on Pisky but that its troops had managed to repel them.

Ukraine has spent the last eight years fortifying defensive positions in Pisky, viewing it as a buffer zone against Russian-backed forces who control the city of Donetsk about 10 km to the southeast, reports Reuters.

General Oleksiy Gromov told a news conference that Ukrainian forces had recaptured two villages around the eastern city of Sloviansk, but had been pushed back to the town of Avdiivka's outskirts after being forced to abandon a coal mine regarded as a key defensive position.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the Ukrainian governor of Donetsk, said on Telegram that three civilians had been killed by Russian shelling in Bakhmut, Maryinka and Shevchenko and five wounded in the past 24 hours.

Eight people had been killed and four wounded by Russian artillery shelling in the town of Toretsk in Donetsk, he said.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, said Ukrainian forces are violating international law and endangering civilians by establishing bases in residential areas, including in schools and hospitals.

The defenders' tactics "in no way justify Russia's indiscriminate attacks", the rights group said in a new report, and some Russian "war crimes" including in the city of Kharkiv were not linked to the tactics.

Ukraine's Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak accused Amnesty of "participating in (Russia's) disinformation and propaganda campaign".

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he was "outraged" by the report, and urged Amnesty to "stop creating a false reality."