Russia-Ukraine war: Russia ‘lost third of its forces’, Ukraine launches counter-strike

Ukraine counter-attacked Russian forces on the eastern front on Monday with fighting reported near its second-largest city of Kharkiv, after Western military agencies said Moscow’s offensive in the Donbas region had stalled. Ukrainian interior minry adviser Vadym Denisenko said in televised comments that fighting near Kharkiv was “our counter-offensive”.
Sweden’s security needs best served NATO membership, PM says
Sweden’s security needs are best served NATO membership, Prime Miner Magdalena Andersson said on Sunday, after her party abandoned decades of opposition to joining the US-led alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The best thing for the security of Sweden and the Swedish people is to join NATO,” Andersson told a news conference. “We believe Sweden needs the formal security guarantees that come with membership in NATO.”
Britain says Russia has lost a third of its forces in Ukraine
Russia has probably lost around a third of the ground forces it deployed to Ukraine and its offensive in the Donbas region “has lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule”, British military intelligence said on Sunday. “Despite small-scale initial advances, Russia has failed to achieve substantial territorial gains over the past month whilst sustaining consently high levels of attrition,” the British defence minry said on Twitter.
More updates:
➡️ Russia said on Sunday it had pummelled Ukrainian positions in the east with missiles, targeting command centres and arsenals as its forces seek to encircle Ukrainian army units in the battle for Donbas.
➡️ Ukraine said on Monday troops defending the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, had repelled Russian forces and advanced as far as the border with Russia.
➡️ Russian Deputy Foreign Miner Sergei Ryabkov on Monday said Finland and Sweden should have no illusions that Moscow will simply put up with their joining the NATO military alliance, calling it a make that would have far-reaching consequences.
➡️ Sweden will send diplomats to Turkey to try to overcome Ankara’s objections to its plan to join NATO, Defence Miner Peter Hultqv said, with a formal decision to hand in an application expected on Monday.
➡️Turkey must maintain a delicate diplomatic balance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine so that it remains able to help facilitate an eventual negotiated end to the war, President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said in an interview. Ibrahim Kalin, who is also Erdogan’s chief foreign policy adviser, said that while Ankara has criticised Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion and actions on the battlefield it would do no good to take a more punitive stance against Russia.
➡️Finland’s President Sauli Niino confirmed on Sunday that his country would apply for membership of the NATO military alliance. The announcement came after Niino and Prime Miner Sanna Marin said on Thursday they both favoured NATO membership, in a major policy shift prompted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia, which shares a long land border with Finland, has said it would be a make for Helsinki to join the transatlantic alliance and that it would harm bilateral ties.
(Compiled from Reuters and Associated Press reports)