The war in Ukraine could last "for years", NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has warned, while reiterating calls for Western countries to provide long-term support to Kyiv.
"We must be prepared for this to last for years," the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in an interview published Sunday by German daily newspaper Bild.
"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."
He told Bild that the food and fuel costs are nothing compared to the one paid daily by Ukrainians on the frontline, warning "we would have to pay an even greater price" if Russian President Vladimir Putin were to achieve Moscow's goals in Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday, also spoke over the weekend 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 NATO chief has in the past week ramped up calls for alliance members to back Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion.
Repeating his calls for NATO member nations to continue delivering weapons to Kyiv, Stoltenberg said the hardware support could increase "the likelihood of Ukraine being able to push Putin's troops out of the Donbas region".
The easternmost Donbas region of Ukraine is currently partly under the control of Russian forces.
Ukrainian defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov and other officials this week met with around 50 countries of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at NATO headquarters to ask for a surge in weapons and ammunition.
Ukraine received a significant boost on Friday when the European Commission recommended it for candidate status, a decision European Union nations are expected to endorse at a summit this week.
That would put Ukraine on course to realize an aspiration seen as out of reach before Russia's Feb. 24 invasion, even if membership could take years.
