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.
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.
