BRUSSELS (Dispatches) – Ukraine’s armed forces have made significant early gains in their counter-offensive against Russian troops in southern and eastern Ukraine but fighting appears set to drag on for months, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the head of NATO says.
Blinken, who was at NATO headquarters to brief the 29 U.S. allies after a trip to Kyiv, said the six-month war in Ukraine is entering a critical period. He urged the conflict-torn country’s Western backers to maintain their support through the winter.
“The initial signs are positive, and we see Ukraine making real, demonstrable progress in a deliberate way,” Blinken said, referring to the Ukrainian military’s recent push into areas in southern Ukraine and the eastern Donbas region.
“But this is likely to go on for some significant period of time,” he said. “There are a huge number of Russian forces that are in Ukraine.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the operation launched in February is “entering a critical phase.”
But Stoltenberg warned that allied unity will be tested in coming months, “with pressure on energy supplies and the soaring cost of living caused by Russia’s war.” He renewed calls for allies to supply special uniforms, generators, tents and equipment to help Ukraine’s army weather the winter.
Meanwhile, Russian state media outlets say the country is sending reinforcements to Kharkiv amid reported intensification of the battle in the northeastern Ukrainian region.
The outlets broadcast footage showing columns of tanks, support vehicles, and artillery units traveling along in Kharkiv.
Kiev’s forces have alleged “major gains” there as part of a counteroffensive, AFP reported.
Vitaliy Ganchev, a Russian official based in the region, said in televised remarks that “fierce battles” were underway near the region’s town of Balakliya, which Ukraine said it had recaptured on Thursday.
“We do not control Balakliya. Attempts are being made to dislodge the Ukrainian forces, but there are fierce battles, and our troops are being held back on the approaches,” he said.
“Now, Russian reserves have been brought there, our troops are fighting back,” Ganchev added.
Former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer William Scott Ritter Jr. called the current phase of the Ukraine-Russia conflict a NATO-Russian phase.
Commenting on the war’s first phase, Scott Ritter said, “While Russia was busy destroying the Ukrainian military on the battlefield, Ukraine was busy reconstituting that army.”
He further described the second phase, saying, “Russia faced mobilized territorial and national units, supported by reconstituted NATO-trained forces. But the bulk of the NATO trained forces were held in reserve.”
In the third phase, he said Russia is now “facing a NATO-style military force that is being logistically sustained by NATO, trained by NATO, provided with NATO intelligence, and working in harmony with NATO military planners.”
“The current Ukrainian counteroffensive should not be viewed as an extension of the phase two battle, but rather the initiation of a new third phase which is not a Ukrainian-Russian conflict, but a NATO-Russian conflict.”
The former U.S. Marine warned that the war was being orchestrated and implemented by NATO.