KYIV (June 19): The war in Ukraine could last for years, the head of NATO said on Sunday, calling for steadfast support from Ukraine's allies as Russian forces battle for territory in the country's east. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said supplying state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would boost the chance of freeing its eastern region of Donbas from Russian control, Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported. In Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, northwest of Luhansk, Russia's defence ministry said its Iskander missiles had destroyed weaponry recently supplied by Western countries. Russian forces were trying to approach Kharkiv, which experienced intense shelling earlier in the war, and turn it into a "frontline city", a Ukrainian interior ministry official said. Though actual membership could take years, the speaker of Ukraine's parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, said the move put a common Ukrainian dream at hand.
