The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has offered a new sense of the scale of Russian losses during the invasion of Ukraine.
It is likely that more than a quarter of the Russian battalion tactical groups sent to the conflict have been rendered “combat ineffective”, the MoD estimated in its daily update, though it did not elaborate more on this.
More than 120 such units had been committed to the Ukraine invasion, the MoD said in a tweet. This was around two-thirds of Russia’s entire ground combat strength.
Most battalion tactical groups are thought to have 700-800 personnel, according to British security think tank RUSI.
Some of Russia’s most elite units – including the VDV Airborne Forces – have suffered the “highest levels of attrition”, the MoD added.
“It will probably take Russia years to reconstitute these forces,” its tweet said
Meanwhile, around 100 civilians evacuated from the ruined Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol were due to arrive in a Ukrainian-held city on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, after US Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a surprise visit to Kyiv.
“For the first time, we had two days of a ceasefire on this territory, and we managed to take out more than 100 civilians – women, children,” Zelensky said in a nightly video address.
Follow the latest updates below.
12:14 PM
US embassy hopes to reopen in Kyiv by end of May
The US embassy could reopen its embassy in Kyiv by the end of May if conditions permit, its charge d’affaires said on Monday.
US diplomats departed the Kyiv embassy nearly two weeks before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, moving some functions to the western city of Lviv before eventually relocating to neighbouring Poland.
“We listen to the security professionals, and when they tell us we can go back we will go back,” Kristina Kvien told a news briefing.
11:52 AM
Bolshoi Theatre drops two directors who spoke out against war
Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre has cancelled a series of shows set to take place this week, supposedly because their directors have spoken out against the war in Ukraine.
The theatre gave no official reason for cancelling Timofey Kuliabin’s production of the opera Don Pasquale and Kirill Serebrennikov’s ballet Nureyev.
However, Kuliabin has regularly expressed his support for Ukraine on social media, while Serebrennikov said last month that “it’s quite obvious that Russia started the war”.
“It’s war, it’s killing people, it’s the worst thing (that) ever might happen with civilisation, with mankind… It’s a humanitarian catastrophe, it’s rivers of blood,” he said.
Both directors are currently outside Russia.
The two shows have been replaced with The Barber of Seville and Spartacus. Ticket holders criticised the decision, with one woman, Valeria, calling it “disrespect to the spectators and artists” on Telegram.
11:30 AM
Zelensky: More than half a million Ukrainians taken to Russia ‘against their will’
More than half a million Ukrainians have been “illegally taken to Russia, or other places, against their will,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
In an interview with Greek state TV channel ERT, Zelensky said the civilians stuck in the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol are afraid to board evacuation buses because they believe they will be transported to Russia.
He said that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had assured him the evacuated civilians would be moved to an area controlled by the Ukrainian government.
“We want to believe this,” he added.
11:08 AM
Hungary and Slovakia may be exempt from Russian oil embargo, European Commission says
The European Commission could exempt Hungary and Slovakia from an expected embargo on buying Russian oil because of their dependence on the commodity, Reuters reports.
The commission is expected to announce a sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia, inclusive of a ban on buying Russian oil.
Hungary has repeatedly said it will not sign up to sanctions involving energy, and has refrained from strongly criticising the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine.
Slovakia is one of the EU countries most dependant on Russian crude oil.
An EU official told Reuters that the commission might offer the two countries “an exemption or a long transition period”.
11:00 AM
Russian troops resume shelling of Azovstal steel plant
By Nataliya Vasilyeva
The Ukrainian military says Russian troops resumed shelling Mariupol’s Azovstal steel works after a group of civilians was evacuated from there on Sunday evening.
Denys Shlega, a Ukrainian National Guard brigade commander in Mariupol, told Ukrainian TV that Russians on Sunday night started shelling the plant after a two-day break.
“There are still hundreds of civilians including about 20 children in Azovstal’s bunkers, according to our calculations,” he said.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, in response to numerous pleas to cease fire around the Azov Sea city that has been obliterated by weeks of Russian airstrikes insisted in recent days that Russia was no longer shelling Mariupol.
Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor, said on Monday that Ukrainian authorities together with the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross will try to evacuate more people out of the besieged plant later that day.
10:36 AM
Russian rocket hits key bridge near Odesa
A Russian rocket strike has hit a bridge across the Dniester estuary in the Odesa region of Ukraine, local authorities have said.
The strategically important bridge, which has already been targeted twice by Russian forces, provides the only road and rail link on Ukrainian territory to a large southern area of the Odesa region.
Serhiy Bratchuk, the region’s administrative spokesman, reported the strike on Telegram, but gave no further details.
10:26 AM
The war in Ukraine, in pictures
10:05 AM
Russian border region hit with two explosions that Ukraine calls ‘karma’
Two explosions took place in the early hours of Monday morning in Belgorod, a Russian region bordering Ukraine, but there was no damage or security threat, the region’s governor said.
Vyacheslav Gladkov said he “wanted to dispel apprehensions among inhabitants of the region that someone or something flew in from the territory of Ukraine”.
“That is not the case. Our military aviation was performing combat tasks as part of the special military operation,” he added.
Ukraine has not accepted direct responsibility for the incident, but officials described them as payback and “karma” for Russia’s invasion.
09:39 AM
Hundreds remain trapped in Azovstal steel works despite evacuations
Humanitarian organisations worked to evacuate more civilians from Mariupol on Monday, but hundreds of people remain trapped in the Azovstal steel works, which has been under constant siege from Russian forces.
A plant official said Russian shelling had resumed as soon as the evacuation buses had left the plant on Sunday.
“Yesterday, as soon as the buses left Azovstal with the evacuees, new shelling began immediately,” Petro Andryushchenko told Ukrainian television.
People trapped in the steel works are running low on water, food and medicine, with the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereschuk, calling it a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
One woman stuck in the steel works said she had not seen any sunlight for two months, and said she thought she would not survive.
09:11 AM
Finland will reportedly apply for Nato membership on May 12
Finland will decide to apply for Nato membership on May 12, according to a local media report.
The Finnish newspaper Iltalehti reports that the decision to apply for the military alliance will come into force that day, with president Sauli Niinisto set to announce his approval before parliamentary groups lend their approval for the application.
The decision will be confirmed in a meeting between the president and the government’s key ministers after the president and parliament’s initial announcements, Iltalehti reports.
The report has not been independently verified.
Finland and Sweden, both traditionally militarily neutral nations, have become increasingly open to applying for Nato membership since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over concerns for their own security.
09:02 AM
UN: More than 5.5 million people have fled Ukraine
More than 5.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said.
08:31 AM
Israel denounces Russian minister’s Hitler comments
Israel denounced comments made by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who claimed that Adolf Hitler had Jewish roots, and summoned the Russian ambassador to make an apology.
Yair Lapid, the Israeli foreign minister, said the Russian ambassador to Israel would be summoned for a “tough talk” over the comments, which Lavrov made on Sunday in an interview with an Italian television network.
“It is an unforgivable, scandalous statement, a terrible historical mistake, and we expect an apology,” Lapid said.
During the interview, Lavrov was asked how Russia could claim that it needed to “de-Nazify” Ukraine when the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was Jewish.
He replied: “When they say ‘What sort of Nazification is this if we are Jews’, well I think that Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it means nothing.”
Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, called Lavrov’s remarks “an insult and a severe blow to the victims of the real Nazism”.
Speaking on Israel’s Kan radio, Dayan said Lavrov was spreading “an antisemitic conspiracy theory with no basis in fact”.
08:12 AM
Pictured: Brazilian town welcomes Ukrainian refugees
07:49 AM
Ukraine destroys two Russian patrol boats near Snake Island
A Ukrainian Bayraktar drone destroyed two Russian Raptor-class patrol ships in the Black Sea on Monday, Ukraine’s military chief said.
“Two Russian Raptor-class boats were destroyed at dawn today near Zmiinyi (Snake) Island,” the Chief of General Staff Valeriy Zaluzhniy wrote on Telegram.
07:36 AM
Ukrainian officials identify Belarusian forces in border regions
Ukraine’s general staff has identified units from the armed forces of Belarus in the Ukrainian border regions of Volyn and Polissya, it said on social media.
In a Facebook post, the office said: “The threat of missile strikes on military and civilian infrastructure from the territory of the republic of Belarus by the Russian enemy remains”.
It also claimed Ukrainian forces had thwarted 10 Russian attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and had destroyed military equipment including two tanks, 17 artillery systems and 38 armoured combat vehicles.
07:24 AM
MoD: Quarter of Russian battle units likely rendered ‘combat ineffective’
07:22 AM
Here’s five key developments this morning
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Nancy Pelosi visited Kyiv on Saturday as the most senior American lawmaker to travel to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion.
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Russian forces fired on the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol again on Sunday night, breaking a ceasefire that has allowed around 100 people to be evacuated.
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Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday it had struck at weapons supplied to Ukraine by the US and European countries and destroyed a runway at a military airfield near the Ukrainian city of Odesa.
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First Lady Jill Biden will visit Romania and Slovakia from May 5-9 to meet with US service members and embassy personnel, displaced Ukrainian parents and children, humanitarian aid workers, and teachers, her office said on Monday.
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Russia may have averted default as it announced it had made several overdue payments in dollars on its overseas bonds, shifting the market’s focus to upcoming payments and whether it would stave off a historic default.
You can read more details on those developments here, and we’ll be posting live updates throughout the day to keep you informed.
