Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Four months of war in Ukraine appear to be straining the morale of troops on both sides, sparking desertion and rebellion against officers’ orders, British defense officials said on Sunday. The NATO chief warned that fighting could continue for “years”.
“The fighting forces on both sides are engaged in intense fighting in the Donbass and are likely to have changing morale,” the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily assessment of the war.
“Ukrainian forces have probably suffered desertion in recent weeks,” the assessment said, but added that “Russia’s morale is likely to remain particularly troubled.”
It says that “cases of refusal of entire Russian units and armed clashes between officers and their troops continue to occur.”
Separately, Ukraine’s Central Intelligence Agency said it had intercepted phone calls complaining of Russian soldiers complaining about frontline conditions, poor equipment and a complete lack of personnel, according to a report by the Institute for War Research.
In an interview published Sunday in the German weekly Bild am Sonntag, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said “no one knows” how long the war could last. “We have to be prepared for it to last for years,” he said.
He also called on the allies “not to weaken support for Ukraine, even if the costs are high, not only in terms of military aid, but also because of rising energy and food prices.”
In recent days, Gazprom, Russia’s gas company, has cut supplies to two major European customers, Germany and Italy. In the case of Italy, energy officials are expected to come together this week for the situation. The head of the Italian energy giant ENI said on Saturday that with additional gas purchased from other sources, Italy must withstand next winter, but he warned Italians that “restrictions” on gas use may be needed.
Germany will limit the use of gas to generate electricity amid fears of a shortage caused by cuts in supplies from Russia, the country’s economy minister said on Sunday. Germany is trying to fill its gas storage facilities to capacity before the cold winter months.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Germany would try to compensate for this move by increasing coal burning, a more polluting fossil fuel. “It’s bitter, but in this situation it’s just necessary to reduce gas consumption,” he said.
However, Stoltenberg stressed that “food and fuel costs are nothing compared to those paid daily by Ukrainians on the front lines.”
Stoltenberg added: Moreover, if Russian President Vladimir Putin achieves his goals in Ukraine, as when he annexed Crimea in 2014, “we will have to pay an even higher price.”
The British Ministry of Defense said that both Russia and Ukraine continued to carry out heavy artillery bombardment along the axes north, east and south of the Severodonetsk pocket, but with little change in the front line.
Luhansk Governor Sergei Haidai told Telegram on Sunday: “The situation in Severodonetsk is very difficult, where the enemy in the middle of the city conducts round-the-clock air reconnaissance with drones, adjusts fire, quickly adapts to our changes. ”
Russia’s defense ministry said on Sunday that Russian and separatist forces had taken control of Metolkine, a village just east of Severodonetsk.
Bakhmut, a city in the Donbass, is located 55 kilometers (33 miles) southwest of the twins Lisikhansk and Servierodonetsk, where fierce military clashes are raging. Every day, Russian artillery strikes Bakhmut.
But the people of Bakhmut are trying to get on with their daily lives, including shopping in markets that have reopened in recent weeks.
“In principle, it can be calm in the morning,” said a resident, Oleg Drobelnikov. “The shelling starts around 7 or 8 p.m. However, he said, the last 10 days have been quite calm.
“You can buy food at small farmers’ markets,” said Drobelnikov, a teacher. “It’s not a problem. In general, educational institutions, such as schools or kindergartens, do not work because of the situation. Institutions have moved to other regions. There are no jobs here.”
Eastern Ukraine has been the main focus of Russian attacks for more than two months.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled south of Kyiv to visit troops and hospital workers in the Black Sea and Odessa regions of the Black Sea. He handed out prizes to dozens of people at each stop, shaking hands and thanking them again and again for their service.
Some time after Zelensky left Nikolaev, “the enemy inflicted fire damage on parts of the Defense Forces with cannons and missile artillery in the areas of Pravdine, Posad-Pokrovskoye and Blagodatne,” according to a Ukrainian military briefing on Sunday.
In other attacks in the south, Ukraine’s southern military operational command said on Sunday that two people had died in the shelling of the Galitsyn community in the Nikolaev region and that shelling in the Bashtansky district continued.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said naval missiles destroyed a plant in the city of Nikolaev, where Western-supplied howitzers and armored vehicles were stored.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed concern that “Ukraine’s fatigue is beginning to take hold around the world” and called for support for Ukraine’s efforts to try to withdraw from the Russian invasion.
“It will be a disaster if Putin wins. He would want nothing more than to say, “Let’s freeze this conflict, let’s have a ceasefire,” Johnson said Saturday, a day after a surprise visit to Kyiv, where he met with Zelensky and offered continued assistance and military training.
Heavy weapons delivered from the West reached the front line. But Ukrainian leaders have been insisting for weeks that they need more weapons sooner.
On Sunday, Pope Francis, while complaining about the accumulation of weapons, added his own warning to those who may lose focus on Ukraine, which he believes deserves to be defended.
“And let us not forget the martyred Ukrainian people at this time,” Francis told an audience in St. Peter’s Square. He urged them to ask themselves, “What did I do for the Ukrainian people today?”
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Sylvia Hui in London, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Francis D’Emilio in Rome and Srdjan Nedelkovich in Bakhmut, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
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