Kyiv - The war in Ukraine could last for years, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a German weekly newspaper on Sunday, as Russia stepped up its assaults after the European Union recommended that Kyiv become a candidate to join the bloc.

Jens Stoltenberg said supplying state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would boost the chance of freeing its eastern region of Donbas from Russian control, Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported.

"We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine," Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the military alliance, was quoted as saying.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday, also spoke of a need to prepare for a long war.

This meant ensuring "Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader," Johnson wrote in an opinion piece in London's Sunday Times.

The European Union's executive recommended on Friday that Ukraine and Moldova become candidates for membership in the 27-nation bloc, a milestone in their potential path from ex-Soviet republics to developed economies in the world's largest trading bloc.

If the European Commission's decision is ratified as expected next week at a summit, it will be a morale boost for Kyiv and further Western snub for Russian President Vladimir Putin after his invasion of Ukraine in February.

Intensified attacks
The industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, a prime target in Moscow's offensive to seize full control of Luhansk - one of the two provinces making up the Donbas - faced heavy artillery and rocket fire again, the Ukrainian military said.

Russia's state news agency TASS said many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Metolkine, citing a source working for Russian-backed separatists.

In the twin city of Lysychansk across the river, Gaidai said on the Telegram messaging app, residential buildings and private houses had been destroyed, adding, "People are dying on the streets and in bomb shelters."

A fuel storage depot in the eastern town of Novomoskovsk exploded on Sunday, killing one person and injuring two, after it had been hit by three Russian missiles, the regional administration chief said in an online message.

Zelensky remains defiant
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose defiance has inspired his people and won global respect, said he had visited soldiers on the southern frontline in the Mykolaiv region, about 550 km (340 miles) south of Kyiv.

"I talked to our defenders - the military, the police, the National Guard," he said in a video on the Telegram message app on Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train.

Another video showed Zelenskiy in his trademark khaki T-shirt handing out medals and posing for selfies with servicemen.

But the war, which has killed thousands, reduced cities to rubble and sent millions fleeing, has had the opposite effect - convincing Finland and Sweden to seek to join NATO - and helping to pave the way for Ukraine's EU membership bid.

Russia is hit by a wide array of sanctions after the start of the Ukraine military operation, including major banks being cut off from the SWIFT international payment system and Western bans on flights. Hundreds of foreign companies have suspended operations in Russia or pulled out entirely.

The consequences of those actions have yet to be fully assessed.

The head of the Russian Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina at a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, warned Thursday that the country’s economy faces pressure from abroad that could persist indefinitely, dampening hopes that conditions could return to what they were before Russia sent troops into Ukraine.
-AP/Reuters