British intelligence claims Ukraine forces driving back Russians near Kyiv
forces are driving back the Russians from around Kyiv, British military intelligence has said, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said they can “certainly win” against the invaders.
Ukraine is re-occupying some towns and defensive positions up to 35km (22 miles) east of Kyiv, with the latest assessment from the Ministry of Defence claiming the Ukrainians were expected to continue to try to push the Russians away from the capital.
It comes as it was reported about 300 people died in a Russian air strike last week on a theatre being used as a bomb shelter in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol. If confirmed, it is likely to lead for renewed calls for Western powers to step up military supukrainian port for the Ukrainian forces. When the theatre was struck on March 16, an enormous inscription reading "Children" waspostedoutsideinrussian, intended to be visible from the skies above.
Following a day of talks on Thursday with Nato and G7 allies in Brussels, Mr Johnson acknowledged the situation for the Ukrainian people was “grim, miserable”. But in an interview with BBC2’S Newsnight, he praised their “Churchillian” leader Volodymyr Zelensky and said: “I think Ukraine can certainly win.”
At the same time there were signs Russian president Vladimir Putin was being forced to rethink strategy as his forces remain stalled in the face of fierce resistance from the Ukrainians.
The defence ministry said that having accomplished the “first phase” of their military operations, Russian forces would concentrate on “liberating” the Donbas region, which is part-held by Moscowbacked separatist rebels.
Western officials said it was a recognition that Russian forces were overstretched and may have to “pause” operations around Kyiv and other cities while they focus on the east of the country.
“It is clear that Russia is recognising that it can’t pursue its operations on multiple axes simultaneously,” one official said. “Therefore it is having to concentrate its force, particularly its logistics supply and its firepower, on a more limited number of approaches.”
The latest intelligence assessment from the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) said Ukrainians were continuing to push pack against Russian forces advancing on the capital. Western officials said that Russians continued to suffer heavy losses, including a brigade commander deliberately killed by his own troops.
Nato has estimated that in four weeks of fighting, between 7,000 and 15,000 Russia troops have been killed in combat – compared to the 15,000 they lost in ten years in Afghanistan. One Western official said the of the 115 to 120 battalion tactical groups the Russians had at the start of the operation, 20 were no longer “combat effective”.
“After a month of operations to have somewhere in the region of a sixth, maybe even a fifth, of the forces being no longer effective, that is a pretty remarkable set of statistics,” the official said.
Mr Johnson separately confronted China’s President Xi Jinping in a “frank and candid” discussion over the situation in Ukraine amid concern among Western powers at Beijing’s stance on the conflict, Downing Street has said.
The contact came after Nato leaders urged China to “abstain” from supporting Russia’s war effort and to refrain from any actions that would help it circumvent sanctions. Following the 50-minute telephone call, a No.10 spokesman said they had discussed “a range of issues of mutual interest” including the situation in Ukraine. “It was a frank and candid conversation lasting almost an hour – they agreed to speak again soon,” the spokesman said.
In a statement following Thursday’s emergency Nato summit in Brussels, alliance leaders expressed concern about comments by Chinese officials and called on them “to cease amplifying the Kremlin’s false narratives”.
They include unsubstantiated Russian claims – strongly denied by the US – that the United States is financing biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine, while China has resisted calls to condemn the invasion.
US president Joe Biden, who spoke last week to Mr Xi, said he had pointed out US and other foreign corporations were already pulling out of Russia because of President Putin’s “barbaric” behaviour.
“I made no threats, but I made sure he understood the consequences of him helping Russia,” Mr Biden told a news conference at Nato headquarters. “I think that China understands that its economic future is much more closely tied to the West than it is to Russia.”
The UK is meanwhile providing £2 million of food supplies to parts of Ukraine encircled by Russian forces, the Government has said.
Warehouses in Poland and Slovakia are being readied to supply the “rapid donation” of dried food, tinned goods and water to the Ukrainian government from early next week, according to the Foreign Office. Around 25 truckloads will then to be transported by road and rail to the communities in greatest need.
The MOD has announced typhoon jets and Royal Air Force personnel are being deployed to Romania for a fourth year to join the longstanding Nato air policing mission for the Black Sea region.