NATO warns: the coming months will be difficult for Ukraine
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg considered, on Monday, that “the coming months will be difficult” for Ukraine, and that “Russia’s military capability shouldn’t be underestimated”.
“The withdrawal of Russian forces from Kherson reflects the tremendous courage of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but we must not make the mistake of underestimating Russia,” Stoltenberg said in The Hague, after meeting the Dutch foreign and defense ministers.
He added, “The Russian armed forces maintain great capabilities and a large number of soldiers, and Russia has shown its willingness to bear heavy losses,” according to Agence France-Presse.
The Russian army, which is facing difficulty on the ground, has carried out massive strikes with missiles and suicidal drones in recent weeks, on Ukrainian civilian facilities, including energy networks.
“The coming months will be difficult,” Stoltenberg continued.
Putin’s goal is to leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Kherson, the main city in the south of the country that was recaptured from the Russians last week.
Pictures published by the director of the presidential office, Andrei Yermak, showed the Ukrainian president chanting the national anthem and placing his hand on his chest, while the blue and flag of Ukraine was raised near the main administration building in central Kherson.
Zelensky had announced, on Sunday evening, that “the Russian forces committed in the occupied part of Kherson the same atrocities that they committed in other Ukrainian regions they occupied”.
And Stoltenberg considered that the armed forces “also showed extreme brutality”.
Stoltenberg met Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra and Defense Minister Kaisa Olungren to discuss the Netherlands’ contribution to NATO and the war in Ukraine.
“The Winter is coming… and we have to stay on the same path,” Olungren said.
“If Russia stops fighting tomorrow, the war will end, but if Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no such thing as Ukraine”.
