On eve of NATO meet, Ukrainian troops eye more help amid tough fighting

DONETSK REGION, Ukraine, July 11 ------ On the eve of a key NATO summit in Vilnius, Ukrainian soldiers fighting fierce and costly battles called on the alliance to consider Kyiv's demands for eventual accession, saying it may be the only way to end the war with Russia once and for all.

Ukraine's forces have made some headway in their summer counteroffensive, but the gains have been slow and smaller than many had hoped in a sobering reminder of how the conflict in the south and east could drag on.

Povar, a 32-year-old marine infantryman who gave only his callsign and covered most of his face with a camouflaged scarf, said the Russians were well dug in, with complex trench networks and landmines. He said his unit, part of the 35th marine brigade, had recently captured the village of Makarivka on the southeastern part of Ukraine's 1,200km frontline, although Povar was recovering from wounds at the time. "I hope this will be the last war in Ukraine ... that we finally put a full stop to this 300-year-long war," Povar said, referring to Ukraine's long and bloody struggle for independence from Moscow. "When we have such a miserable neighbour, then we need to join some kind of alliance join the civilised world to have serious support and serious partners."

President Volodymyr Zelensky concedes that Ukraine will probably not be allowed into NATO while the war with Russia is raging, but he is pushing for accession one day. Kyiv sees membership as the ultimate deterrent against Russia attacking Ukraine again after it illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion in February last year.

ATTACK HARDER THAN DEFENCE

Soldiers in another brigade that liberated the nearby village of Neskuchne several weeks ago painted a bleak picture of the battlefield, despite gains they had achieved. Andriy, a 35-year-old serviceman, said he and the rest of his team of some 70 troops had faced well-hidden Russian defensive lines and fields densely mined against both tanks and infantry. He said his unit had suffered unspecified casualties from the mines. "This is just the way it is. You won't see that on television," he said at a practice shooting range in eastern Ukraine in late June. Neskuchne was one of several settlements captured by Ukraine in a southward thrust along the Mokri Yaly River starting in June. Another key prong of the counteroffensive is to the northeast around the city of Bakhmut. "Attack is not defence. It's an entirely different war," said Andriy, who volunteered for the army shortly after Russia's main invasion began in February last year.

Ukraine has launched numerous attacks on Russian positions defending a salient of land north of the Sea of Azov that connects the Russian mainland to the occupied Crimean peninsula a key strategic target for Ukraine. Both Andriy and a younger member of the same team with the same first name described heavy barrages of shelling, rocket artillery and cluster munitions, as well as Russian helicopters used to hit advancing Ukrainian forces.

Source: channelnews.asia