Russia loses quarter of combat power in nine weeks of Ukraine war, MoD says

Moscow has declined to say how many troops have been killed in fighting

Ukrainian soldiers walk by a trench during tactical exercises at a military camp in the Zaporizhzhia region of the country. Reuters

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Russia has lost a quarter of the combat power it sent to Ukraine at the beginning of the invasion, British intelligence has found.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence said it could take years before many of the groups are fit for action again.

Tens of thousands of Russian troops are estimated to have been killed during the first nine weeks of war but Moscow has not given a figure. The Ukrainian military has also kept its death toll secret.

“At the start of the conflict, Russia committed over 120 battalion tactical groups, approximately 65 per cent of its entire ground combat strength,” the MoD said.

“It is likely that more than a quarter of these units have now been rendered combat-ineffective.

“Some of Russia’s most elite units, including the VDV Airborne Forces, have suffered the highest levels of attrition. It will probably take years for Russia to reconstitute these forces.”

Since President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine on February 24, more than 5.5 million Ukrainians have fled abroad to escape the violence, UN figures show.

Data collected since February 28 shows 1.3 million Ukrainian have entered their homeland. A large number of these are believed to be Ukrainians who were living abroad and returned home either to fight or assist in the war effort in some way.

Mariupol has come under some of the worst Russian bombardments and much of the city has been reduced to rubble.

More than 100 civilians who had been forced to live underground for weeks escaped the city at the weekend are were expected to reach Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhia on Monday.

They were the first to be evacuated from the vast Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where some injured fighters and civilians remain.

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross began an operation co-ordinated with Ukraine and Russia on April 29 to help bring out women, children and the elderly from the steel works to safety.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted that about 100 civilians would arrive in Zaporizhzhia in south-eastern Ukraine on Monday.

"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," he said.

Some also arrived in Zaporizhzhia on Monday morning after travelling from Mariupol or elsewhere independently of the UN/Red Cross operation.

One woman arrived in a funeral van. She said she had left Mariupol some time ago and had been hiding in a basement in a nearby village.

Pressure is mounting on the EU to arrange and all-out ban on imports of Russian oil.

Poland’s climate minister on Monday demanded a clear cut-off date and said she hoped an embargo could be ushered in before the end of the year.

"We want this package [of sanctions] to include a very specific and clear date and requirement for all countries ... that it should be a complete package without any gaps,” Anna Moskwa said.

Germany has said it will not stand in the way of an oil ban.

Hungary and Slovakia may be given exemption from an embargo, two EU officials said on Monday, given how dependent the two member states are on Russia crude.

The European Commission is on Tuesday expected to finalise work on the sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine, which would include a ban on buying Russian oil, exports of which are a chief source of Moscow's revenue.