NATO secretary general says Ukraine 'can win this war' with more international help

According to NATO's secretary-general,

Russia's setbacks shows that Ukraine can win the war, but only with further international assistance. According to the Associated Press, Jens Stoltenberg via video link during a

NATO summit in Berlin on Sunday

said that "Russia's war in Ukraine is not going as Moscow had anticipated." He said, "They were unable to capture Kyiv. They're retreating from Kharkiv's vicinity. In Donbas, their massive offensive has stopped. Russia is failing to meet its strategic goals." He stated, "Ukraine can win this war."

Some experts, though, are unconvinced that the battle will have a clear winner, and are unsure how long international support for Ukraine will persist. Late last month, Robert English, an associate professor of international relations at the University of Southern California, told that if the West continues to help Ukraine, whether, through financial aid or tougher sanctions, he expects support to decrease as the war drags on due to economic strain. According to English, if the West "truly wants to strangle Russia" and "seriously wants to cut off the money that's fueling this conflict," it must stop buying Russian oil and gas.

The G7 countries,

including Germany, which is heavily reliant on Russian energy, have pledged to phase out or restrict Russian oil imports. English further commented, "Even if Germany, Austria, Italy, and only a few other countries went into a deep recession, that will in turn trigger a broader recession all across the EU. What's notable to me is that the Europeans, the West has the power to cut off Russia's war, but they can't do it because it would hurt them too much."