US says Russia ready for long war in Ukraine as fighting rages in Donbas

As the fighting intensifies in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, the United States warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready for a long war in the country.

The prediction came as Ukraine said its membership of the European Union was a question of “war and peace” for the whole continent. Ukraine has been fighting Russia since February 24.

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Russian troops continued to advance in the east this week while violence still raged in southern Ukraine. Overnight missile strikes hit the port of Odessa. Officials said some 1,000 troops were trapped in the Azovstal steel works in the devastated city of Mariupol as the war went into its third month.

On Monday, in a speech during a huge military parade in Moscow, Putin said that Russian troops were defending the “Motherland.” He also blamed the West for the conflict in Ukraine.

US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Tuesday that Putin will not end the war with the Donbas campaign. Moscow is believed to be determined in building a land bridge to Russian-controlled territory in Moldova. It was also likely that Putin will mobilize his entire country, including ordering martial law.

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“We assess President Putin is preparing for prolonged conflict in Ukraine during which he still intends to achieve goals beyond the Donbas,” Haines said, according to the Moscow Times.

Ukraine’s presidency said the “epicentre of the fighting has moved” to Bilogorivka in the Lugansk region, where deadly Russian airstrikes on a school on Sunday killed 60 people. 

Civilians were struggling to survive as Russian troops continued to shift focus of the war,

“I feel total apathy. I am morally starved — not to mention physically,” bricklayer Artyom Cherukha, 41, said. “We sit here counting the bombs.”

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Amid concerns about the war, US President Joe Biden resurrected a World War II measure to aid Kyiv by opening the spigots on artillery, anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank weapons and other powerful Western materiel.

On Tuesday, US lawmakers had planned a debate on a nearly $40 billion aid package, which is expected to pass comfortably with rare bipartisan support.