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'At the operational-tactical level, we did not think that within a year we would not be able to liberate the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. 'We did not think that there would be such heavy losses, although I then said there would be tens of thousands of dead on both sides. 'But everything turned out to be much worse.' Some estimates say the losses on both sides are now over 200,000, and rising fast. Russia alone is estimated to have lost as many as 140,000 since February last year. 'It was not expected that there would be such destruction: in fact,...

Russia's federal media watchdog tasks its spooks with protecting Vladimir Putin from memes that portray him as a 'bald dwarf', 'a crab', or 'a Hitler wannabe'. That is according to reports on a leak out of Roskomnadzor, the main agency behind online censorship in Moscow that is responsible for blocking material about the on-going invasion of Ukraine and any disparaging posts about the Russian president. Analysis of the leaks found that the agency compiles reports on all 'negative publications', and sends them 'upstairs' to the Kremlin and Russia's security services to brief them on all of the despot's critics via...

Footage from a fierce ongoing battle around Vuhledar, southwest of Donetsk, shows Russian soldiers retreating after their five vehicles were hit by Ukrainian artillery. The Russian troops were forced to run away and leave their wounded crawling behind them after being struck by airburst ammunition. -snip- Russia is said to be planning a 'new pre-emptive strike' in Ukraine according to satellite photos which show Putin's forces building up fortifications. The new offensive will reportedly take place ahead of the first anniversary of their invasion on February 24.

Ukrainian officials last night said they expect Western allies to provide their armed forces with long-range missiles after the UK, US, Germany and several other nations agreed to send battalions of tanks long-sought by Kyiv. Presidential advisor Mikhailo Podolyak told The Daily Telegraph: 'Right now we are seeing a sharp change in sentiment among the political elites of European countries... we will reach, I am sure, no doubt, an agreement on long-range missiles.' In a devastating blow to the Kremlin, nine countries joined Britain yesterday in agreeing to send tanks to destroy Russia's forces in eastern Ukraine. The coalition came...

Vladimir Makei 'passed away suddenly', Belarusian state media reported today They gave no cause for Makei's death or any explanation of the circumstances Makei, 64, was due to meet Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov tomorrow He was then set to travel to Poland to meet a host of Western diplomats Some opposition figures in Russia and Belarus have posited the Belarusian security service could well have been involved in Makei's death Belarus's long-standing foreign minister has died suddenly, the state news agency Belta reported on Saturday, just days before he was due in Poland to meet key Western officials. 'Foreign Minister...

Few nations have as deep a sense of their own history as the Russians. On the basis of this tendentious tract about historic 'unity' of Russians and Ukrainians that President Putin justified his invasion of an independent neighboring state. But another word, also with great resonance in Russian history, now hangs over the Kremlin's flailing military campaign. And that word is: MUTINY. Remarkably, it was raised on Moscow's main TV channel by the woman described as Putin's propagandist-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, on the state of the 'special military operation' to a Russian audience. She was raging about the incompetence which Putin's...

Eight Russian cruise missiles hit Karachun Dam near Kryvyi Rih late Wednesday Strike damaged dam and pumping station, releasing water into Inhulets River River burst its banks, sweeping away bridges while flooding streets and homes It is just the latest Russian attack on civilian infrastructure amid its failing war ... The water is now making its way downstream to Kherson, where it will likely damage or wash away pontoon bridges that Ukrainian troops are using to attack the city. 'Russian forces likely targeted the Karachun Dam to damage Ukrainian pontoon bridges further downstream,' think-tank Institute for the Study of War...

Humiliation for Putin's troops is continuing as they begin to abandon the major city of Melitopol in the face of Kyiv's lightning counter-offensive. The city's pre-occupation mayor said that Russian troops were pulling out of the area in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region. Mayor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram that Russian troops were heading towards Moscow-annexed Crimea. He said columns of military equipment were reported at a checkpoint in Chonhar, a village marking the boundary between the Crimean peninsula and the Ukrainian mainland.

Russian soldiers are refusing to fight in Ukraine it was claimed last night A video on social media showed Moscow's soldiers surrendering en masse Kyiv's forces said they 'understand the hopelessness of their situation' Russian soldiers are refusing to fight in Ukraine amid Moscow’s rising losses, it was claimed last night. A lightning counter-offensive by Kyiv last week has pushed Vladimir Putin’s invaders right back to the border in parts of the north-east of the country, reclaiming huge swatches of territory lost in the early days of the war. The blitz forced Russian troops to either flee or surrender en...

Putin's gloating TV stooges laugh at death sentences handed down to two Britons captured fighting in Ukraine as they slam Liz Truss and accuse her of 'doing nothing' to help the men Vladimir Solovyov, 'Putin's mouthpiece', mocked death sentences handed to Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner after they were captured fighting in Ukraine Propagandist was told by guest that Liz Truss does not recognise the sentences 'So if something terrible happens and they are executed, they will not recognise their deaths,' Solovyov shot back, to the amusement of his guests Olga Skabeyeva also attacked foreign secretary over stance on the...

Russian president Vladimir Putin has his bodyguards collect his excrement while on foreign trips in a bid to stop people gathering information about his health. A report has revealed that Putin's Federal Protection Service members are 'responsible for collecting his bodily waste' in special packets which are kept inside a dedicated briefcase until they return to Russia. Putin's health has been the centre of much speculation especially in recent months with the catastrophic Russian invasion of Ukraine, as instructed by the leader, including suggestions that he is suffering with cancer, dementia and even Parkinson's disease. And this latest revelation is...

Donald Trump is set to make his first trip to New York since leaving the White House amid an apparent rift with son-in-law Jared Kushner who the ex-president is said to be angry with over his election loss. Trump is jetting back to the Big Apple this weekend after spending the last six weeks holed up at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, since he snubbed Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20. News of his visit comes amid reports of escalating tensions between Trump and former White House Senior Adviser Jared in the days since they both left DC.