The White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby has stated that Russian casualties in the Ukraine war have accelerated even when compared to the first days of the conflict.
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Our top story this morning: US intelligence officials estimate that more than 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and over 80,000 injured in just five months of fighting in Ukraine, an acceleration in already heavy losses for Moscow.
Russia has unleashed a fresh missile attack on Ukraine in the east, resulting in two deaths, huge blazes, and damage to dozens of homes and other buildings in the city of Pavlohrad. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the two deaths in his video address on Monday night. “Forty other people – women, children, men – were treated for wounds and injuries,” he said. Zelenskiy also said a 14-year-boy was killed near his school when it was hit by a bomb in the Chernihiv region, close to the Russian border.
An explosion in the western region of Bryansk bordering Ukraine derailed a Russian freight train on Monday, the local governor said in a social media post. “An unidentified explosive device went off, as a result of which a locomotive of a freight train derailed,” Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties reported. Russian authorities say the region, which borders Ukraine and Belarus, has seen multiple attacks by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 14 months since Russia invaded.
Ukrainian counterattacks have ousted Russian forces from some positions in the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, but the situation remains “quite difficult”, a top Ukrainian general has said. However, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of ground forces, added: “At the same time, in certain parts of the city, the enemy was counterattacked by our units and left some positions.” Syrskyi made the remarks while visiting frontline troops on Sunday, the military said.
The head of the Wagner private militia renewed his appeal to Russia’s defence ministry to increase ammunition shipments to his fighters trying to seize Bakhmut. Yevgeny Prigozhin has frequently clashed with Moscow’s defence establishment over the conduct of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine and what he says is insufficient support being provided to his Wagner soldiers. In a video posted on his Telegram channel, Prigozhin said he needs at least 300 tonnes of artillery shells a day for the assault, Reuters reported.
According to the UK’s Ministry of Defence, since last summer, Russia has built “some of the most extensive systems of military defensive works seen anywhere in the world for many decades” in the areas it controls in Ukraine as well as in its own border regions.
Poland’s ministry of foreign affairs has issued a statement condemning the former children’s ombudsman of Russia, Pavel Astakhov, for comments he made on Russian state TV…
2023-05-01 23:43:19
Post from www.theguardian.com
