Ukraine inflicts ‘colossal losses’ on Russian forces stuck in the mud

Russian combat forces have made “slow and uneven progress” in eastern Ukraine as their tanks and armoured vehicles are plagued by muddy conditions, senior US defence officials have said.

An intelligence update from the Pentagon said that the rainy spring weather has wreaked havoc to Russia’s supply chains since its invasion began and left their troops on the ground vulnerable to counterattacks.

Despite this, Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that Russian troops have made progress, capturing small towns and villages across the Donbas since they switched their focus to the eastern region.

Resistance fighters have managed to inflict “colossal losses” on convoys of Russian vehicles, which are forced to either stick to paved roads or risk getting stuck in the mud.

“We have serious losses but the Russians’ losses are much much bigger...they have colossal losses,” said Oleksiy Arestovych, a Ukrainian presidential adviser.

Since it invaded Ukraine, the number of Russian casualties stands at more than 22,000, according to the Ukrainian military, which estimated it had also taken out 970 of Moscow’s tanks.

The Kremlin’s forces have been largely forced to stick to single-file formations on paved roads, making them easy pickings for artillery and rocket attacks.

Its mobility issues have given Moscow a headache not only in trying to re-arm its stricken forces, but also to move in more troops to overwhelm Ukraine’s defensive positions.

A Pentagon official said: “We would assess that Russian forces are making slow and uneven and, frankly, we would describe it as incremental progress in the Donbas. The Russians have not overcome all their logistics and sustainment challenges.

“As it starts to rain more and there’s more mud, it will force them to be ever more reliant on paved roads and paved highways, and we would expect that some of their progress will be slowed by mud and by weather conditions.”

James Heappey, Britain’s Armed Forces Minister, said that Vladimir Putin would be unlikely to make significant progress before Russia’s victory day celebrations on May 9.

“If they are going to try to achieve something by May 9, they will be forced to remain on roads because the mud does not allow for armoured manoeuvre cross-country,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“What we will see, therefore, is highly canalised Russian columns that, as we saw north of Kyiv, present the Ukrainians with pretty easy pickings.”

In response to its failings in eastern Ukraine, Russia stepped up its attacks on targets across the rest of the country, including Kyiv and Odesa.

At least one person died and 10 more were injured in Russian missile attacks on a 25-storey block of flats and a factory in the central Shevchenkivskyi district.

The attack came barely an hour after Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, held a press conference with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Ukrainian capital.

The Ukrainian president said that the bombardment required an “appropriate, powerful response”.

Moscow used a diesel-powered submarine deployed in the Black Sea to hit Ukrainian military targets with Kalibr cruise missiles, according to its ministry of defence.

The Kremlin has also ordered more strikes on Ukrainian rail infrastructure in the west of the country in an attempt to halt deliveries of western weapons, a Kyiv official said.

Previously, Russian forces avoided targeting Ukraine’s railways because it was thought they would be useful for Moscow’s logistics after capturing Kyiv.

Ukrainian forces were said to have launched further counterattacks on Russian soil, targeting a checkpoint just over the border, according to the regional governor of Russia’s Bryansk region.