Zelensky predicts that Russian attacks will intensify this week

Reuters – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky predicts that Russia will step up its offensive this week as EU leaders consider whether to support their attempt to join the camp.

“Obviously, we should expect Russia to step up its hostility this week,” Zhelensky said in a video conference on Sunday evening. “We’re getting ready, we’re ready.”

Ukraine applied for EU membership four days after Russian troops crossed its border in February. The European Commission, the governing body of the European Union, on Friday recommended that Ukraine be granted candidate status.

The leaders of the 27 countries are expected to consider the issue at the summit on Thursday and Friday and will recognize Ukraine’s request, despite doubts from some member states. The process can take years to complete.

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Ukraine’s EU membership will interfere with one of the goals he stated when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to enter Ukraine: to keep the neighboring country out of Western influence.

Putin said on Friday that Russia “has nothing against” EU membership in Ukraine, but a Kremlin spokesman said Russia was paying close attention to Kiev’s offer, especially in light of increased cooperation in security among EU members.

On the battlefield, Russian forces are seeking to take full control of the Donbass region, parts of which were already under the control of pro-Russian separatists before the February 24 Russian military operation.

One of the main targets of Russia’s eastern offensive was the industrial city of Severdonetsk. Russia says it has captured a village in the suburbs of Metyolkine on Sunday, and that several Ukrainian militants have surrendered, according to the Russian state news agency TASS. The Ukrainian military called Russia a “partial victory.”

Lukansk Governor Sergei Kaitoi told Russian television that the Russian attack on Toshkievka, 35 kilometers south of Severotnetsk, was “somewhat successful.” The TASS quoted Tshovskaya as saying that Toshikovka had been “released”, citing advisers to the Interior Minister of the Lukansk People’s Republic.

In the pre-war city of Chevroletonetsk, which has a population of 100,000, Mayor Olekander Struck says Russian forces have controlled two-thirds of the city and are continuing their efforts to completely subdue forces against the Ukrainians, including most of the residential areas.

Russia and Ukraine have continued heavy bombardment around Chevroletonetsk, “with little change in the front line”, the UK Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

In Lychisansk, the twin city of Severodonetsk, residential and administrative buildings were destroyed by Russian bombings, Kaidoi said.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm reports of the wars.

“The war will last for many years”

Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington – based think tank, wrote in a note that “Russian forces may capture Chevroletonetsk in the coming weeks, but only a small part of the cost of concentrating most of their forces there.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has warned Western governments that the war in Ukraine will last for years and will continue to send sophisticated weapons to Ukrainian troops, according to the German newspaper Built on Sondak.

“We must be prepared for what may take years. We must not give up our support for Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.

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