Berlin, 10 November 2023 (dpa/MIA) - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says he is counting on advances by the Ukrainian armed forces in their fight against Russian troops, but warned in an interview with dpa that progress would be difficult.

"We need to be prepared for (the) long haul. Wars are by nature unpredictable," Stoltenberg told dpa during a visit to Berlin.

"What we do know is that what happens around a negotiating table is inextricably linked to the situation on the battlefield," he said.

In the early hours of February 24, 2022, Russian forces invaded Ukrainian territory on multiple fronts. Moscow has since annexed four territories in the east and south of Ukraine, in violation of international law.

The fighting is still concentrated around the east and south. Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive earlier this year, but progress has been limited. Kiev has vowed to retake all the land occupied the Russia, including the Crimean peninsula which the Kremlin annexed in 2014.

Stoltenberg said that only military support could ensure that Ukraine remained a sovereign and democratic state and would convince Russian President Vladimir Putin that he could not win on the battlefield.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, said last week that the war in Ukraine had become bogged down.

"The transition of the war to a positional form leads to its prolongation and carries significant risks for both the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the state as a whole," Zaluzhny warned in an article for the British magazine The Economist.

Stoltenberg said that it had always been clear that it would not be easy.

"We knew that Russia has prepared defensive lines for months - with mines, with tank trenches, with a lot of defensive positions."

Nevertheless, the Ukrainians "have been able to make gains and to liberate more territory," he stressed.

Stoltenberg met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday and is to meet Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on Friday.

Stoltenberg welcomed Germany's military support for Ukraine. He avoided however taking a clear position on the question of whether the German government should provide Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles, as demanded by Kiev, but repeatedly rejected by Scholz.

"It is, at the end of the day, a national decision, exactly what kind of systems each ally delivers,” he said, adding that he welcomed that the UK and France have already supplied cruise missiles.

Germany had provided Ukraine with other essential weapons, including tanks and effective air defence systems, Stoltenberg said.

Photo: dpa