Russian defence expert admits on state TV: 'The entire world is against us'

Watch: Russian columnist admits on state TV - 'The entire world is against us'

Vladimir Putin's position in Ukraine will "frankly get worse", a Russian defence expert has said on state TV, as he warned: "The entire world is against us."

Putin ordered his troops to invade on 24 February, but while Western intelligence suggested he anticipated his takeover to take a matter of days, he is now in the third month of conflict.

On Monday Ukrainian authorities claimed they'd taken pushed the Russians away from their second-largest city Kharkiv.

UK intelligence services also said Russia may have lost a third of the invasion force it sent into Ukraine as its offensive continues to struggle in the face of stiff resistance.

The attack has also prompted Finland and Sweden to look to join Nato, prompting the Kremlin’s deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov to admit Russia's invasion is now “significantly behind schedule”.

In its latest assessment, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the Russian campaign in the east of Ukraine had “lost momentum”.

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Putin and senior members of the Kremlin have repeatedly insisted that their "special military campaign" is "going to plan", but defence columnist Mikhail Khodaryonok offered a different view on the matter on state TV.

"Let's look at the situation as a whole from the overall strategic position," he said.

"Don't engage in saber-rattling with missiles in Finland's direction. It actually looks very amusing. After all, the main deficiency of our military-political position is that, in a way, we are in full geopolitical isolation, and that, however much we would hate to admit this, virtually the entire world is against us. And it's that situation that we need to get out of," he said.

On the information being given to the Russian people, Khodaryonok urged caution over what they were being shown by their own media.

He said: "First of all, I must say that we shouldn't take information tranquillisers because sometimes information is spread some moral and psychological breakdown in the Ukrainian armed forces which are allegedly on the verge of some kind of crisis in morale and so on.

"All of that, to put it mildly, is false. Of course, there are certain cases, prisoners of war, certain units but they're individual cases.

"But as we've just said we should always look at the matter as a whole."

Khodaryonok added that the Ukrainian defence forces are being armed from abroad, and "the situation from the overall strategic position is that the Ukrainian armed forces are able to arm a million people. They're saying it themselves, that 'for us, there's no difficulty mobilising a million people'."

He added: "And considering that there is the European aid will fully come into effect, so a million armed Ukrainian soldiers need to be viewed as a reality of the very near future.

"And we need to take that into account in our operational and strategic calculations, that the situation in this regard for us will frankly get worse."

Russia's prolonged invasion has caused a humanitarian crisis, with over 6 million people having fled into neighbouring countries to avoid Putin's bombs.

Russian troops have been repeatedly accused of committing war crimes, with some experts claiming rape and sexual crimes are being used as a "strategy" in the war.

Nato deputy secretary-general Mircea Geoana said the Ukrainians were now in a position to defeat the Russians and win the war.

“The brutal invasion of Russia is losing momentum,” he told reporters.

“With significant support from allies and partners in billions of dollars, in military support, in financial support, humanitarian support, we know that with the bravery of the Ukrainian people and army and with our help, Ukraine can win this war.”