Russia to intensify war: Zelensky warns EU
Nearly three months after Russia launched a bloody invasion of his country, Zelensky said there had been "few such fateful decisions for Ukraine" as the one it expects from the EU this week, adding in his evening address that "only a positive decision is in the interests of the whole of Europe."
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Kyiv, Jun 20: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned the EU on Sunday that Russia was likely to intensify its "hostile activity" this week, as Kyiv awaits a historic decision from the European Union on its membership application.
Nearly three months after Russia launched a bloody invasion of his country, Zelensky said there had been "few such fateful decisions for Ukraine" as the one it expects from the EU this week, adding in his evening address that "only a positive decision is in the interests of the whole of Europe."
"Obviously, we expect Russia to intensify hostile activity this week ... We are preparing. We are ready," he continued.
Ukraine said it had also repulsed fresh attacks by Russian forces on the eastern front, rocked by weeks of fierce battles as Moscow tries to seize the industrial Donbas region. Earlier, Zelensky vowed his troops would not give up the south of the country after he visited the frontline there. But Zelensky's defiance came as NATO's chief Jens Stoltenberg warned that the war could grind on "for years" and urged Western countries to be ready to offer long-term military, political and economic aid. "We must not weaken in our support of Ukraine, even if the costs are high -- not only in terms of military support but also because of rising energy and food prices," Stoltenberg told the German daily newspaper Bild. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a similar warning, saying a failure to provide sustained support for Kyiv would risk "the greatest victory for aggression" since World War II. Ukraine has repeatedly urged Western countries to step up their deliveries of arms since the February 24 invasion, despite warnings from nuclear-armed Russia that it could trigger a wider conflict. Zelensky spoke Sunday after making a rare trip outside Kyiv a day earlier to the hold-out Black Sea city of Mykolaiv, where he visited troops nearby and in the neighboring Odesa region for the first time since the invasion. "We will not give away the south to anyone, we will return everything that's ours and the sea will be Ukrainian and safe," he said in a video posted on Telegram as he made his way back to Kyiv.
Russia's defense ministry said on Sunday it launched missile strikes during the past 24 hours, with one attack by Kalibr missiles on a top-level Ukrainian military meeting near the city of Dnipro killing "more than 50 generals and officers." It said it also targeted a building housing Western-provided weapons in Mykolaiv, destroying "ten 155mm howitzers and around 20 armored vehicles supplied by the West to the Kyiv regime over the last ten days".