Russian forces are getting ready for a “major offensive” in eastern Ukraine - and NATO needs to be “prepared for the long haul”, the alliance’s Secretary-General warned today.
Opening a two-day summit of coalition foreign ministers, Jens Stoltenberg said talks would focus on what extra military equipment members can provide to Kyiv as Ukrainian troops battle to repel Kremlin invaders.
The war had reached a “critical phase”, said former Norwegian PM Mr Stoltenberg, as he predicted a battle for Donbas in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have battled Ukrainian soldiers since 2014.
“ Russia is moving forces out of the north to reinforce them, to resupply them, re-arm them and then to move them into the east where we are expecting a major offensive,” said the Secretary-General.
“Putin’s aim is to try to control the whole of Donbas.”
He said it was still the Russian leader’s ambition to “rewrite the international order”, adding: “We need to be prepared for the long haul.”
He said the images of “atrocities that have been committed in Bucha” show the “true nature of President Putin’s war”.
The governor of the eastern region of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, told Sky News: "We observe the concentration of troops. I think that they will go on an offensive in approximately a few days."
He added: "Some people actually don't want to leave but they should see what the Russians did with Mariupol, Bucha, Irpin.
"The situation will be the same here, maybe even worse. This is why there should be no delays. Please, use our offer, evacuate to preserve life."
Alliance countries were playing a leading role in gathering evidence for potential prosecutions, said Mr Stotlenberg.
He added: “Any targeting and killing of civilians is a war crime and therefore NATO allies are supporting the international efforts to establish all the facts, to investigate and to make sure that perpetrators are punished.”
The possible entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO could be “quite smooth” if they applied to join the alliance, he added.
It came as Boris Johnson said the bloodshed unleashed by Russian forces in Bucha "doesn't look far short of genocide".
The Prime Minister said atrocities apparently committed by Vladimir Putin ’s troops in the town bolstered the push for tougher sanctions.
"I'm afraid when you look at what's happening in Bucha, the revelations that we are seeing from what Putin has done in Ukraine doesn't look far short of genocide to me," the Conservative leader said on a visit to a Hertfordshire hospital.
Artillery pounded key cities in Ukraine on Wednesday, as its president urged the West to act decisively in imposing new and tougher sanctions.
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said authorities would try to evacuate trapped civilians through 11 humanitarian corridors.
Ten high-rise buildings were on fire in Sievierodonetsk after Russian forces shelled the eastern Ukrainian town on Wednesday, the regional governor said.
The Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman said between 150 and 300 bodies may be in a mass grave by a church in the northern town of Bucha.
Russia called the evidence out of Bucha a "monstrous forgery".
Earlier, Health Secretary Sajid Javid compared the horrors committed by retreating Russian forces to the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, where 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said “heavy fighting” continues to rage in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol.
"The humanitarian situation in the city is worsening,” said the MoD’s latest intelligence update.
In his latest video link address to a national parliament, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Russian forces invaded his country as a "colonising army".
He evoked the devastating potato famine which struck Ireland in the 1840s as he accused the Kremlin of trying to starve Ukrainians into submission.
“For them hunger is a weapon against us, ordinary people, as an instrument of domination,” he said.
