Russia-Ukraine war live: 100,000 Russian troops killed or injured in eastern offensive failures, says US | Russia

White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby did not detail how the US calculated Russia’s losses, but said about half of those who died were fighting under the Wagner mercenary group, rather than with the Russian military. They were being sent into battle without proper training or leadership, he added.

Founded by a close Putin aide, the group has recruited heavily in prisons, offering convicts who survive six months on the bloody frontlines an amnesty. The US figures underline what a deadly gamble those who accept are making.

Ukrainian forces are still holding out in a corner of Bakhmut. Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of ground forces, said on Monday “the situation is quite difficult”, but Ukrainian forces are still counterattacking against Russians.

Ukrainian forces shelled a village in the Russian Bryansk region bordering Ukraine early on Tuesday, the local governor said in a social media post, a day after an explosion derailed a freight train in the region.

“In the morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the village of Kurkovichi in the Starodubsky municipal district,” Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said in a post on his Telegram channel.

“There were no casualties. As a result of the shelling, a fire broke out in one of the households. All emergency services are on site.”

Neither the Guardian nor reuters were able to independently verify the report. Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine. The military, however, reports daily on activities and troops movements in battlefield areas.

On Monday, a locomotive and seven freight wagons were derailed in Bryansk after an unidentified explosive device went off, Bogomaz said.

Russian authorities say the region, which borders both Ukraine and Belarus, has seen multiple attacks by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 14 months since Russia invaded. On Saturday, the governor said four civilians died when a village was struck by shelling from the Ukrainian side of the border.

Russia-Ukraine war live: 100,000 Russian troops killed or injured in eastern offensive failures, says US

Emma Graham-Harrison

More than 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and more than 80,000 injured in just five months of fighting in Ukraine, an acceleration in already heavy losses for Moscow, US intelligence officials estimate.

Most of the troops were killed in brutal trench warfare for the small eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russia has repeatedly claimed it was on the brink of capturing, White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said when he revealed the new estimate on Monday.

“Russia’s attempt at an offensive in the Donbas, largely through Bakhmut, has failed … Russia has been unable to seize any really strategically significant territory,” Kirby said.

The losses are an acceleration in Russian casualties even from the bloody first days of the war, and overshadow some of the bloodiest allied battles of the second world war, Kirby added. That includes the Guadalcanal campaign, the first major Allied offensive against Japan, which also lasted five months.

Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Our top story this morning: more than 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and more than 80,000 injured in just five months of fighting in Ukraine, an acceleration in already heavy losses for Moscow, US intelligence officials estimate.

Here are the other key recent developments in the war:

• Russia unleashed a fresh missile attack on Ukraine in the east, killing two people, setting off huge blazes and damaging dozens of homes and other buildings in the city of Pavlohrad. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the two deaths in his video address on Monday night. “Forty other people – women, children, men – were treated for wounds and injuries,” he said. Zelenskiy also said a 14-year-boy was killed near his school when it was hit by a bomb in the Chernihiv region, close to the Russian border.

• An explosion in the western region of Bryansk bordering Ukraine derailed a Russian freight train on Monday, the local governor said in a social media post. “An unidentified explosive device went off, as a result of which a locomotive of a freight train derailed,” Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties reported. Russian authorities say the region, which borders Ukraine and Belarus, has seen multiple attacks by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 14 months since Russia invaded.

• Ukrainian counterattacks have ousted Russian forces from some positions in the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, but the situation remains “quite difficult”, a top Ukrainian general has said. However, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of ground forces, added: “At the same time, in certain parts of the city, the enemy was counterattacked by our units and left some positions.” Syrskyi made the remarks while visiting frontline troops on Sunday, the military said.

• The head of the Wagner private militia renewed his appeal to Russia’s defence ministry to increase ammunition shipments to his fighters trying to seize Bakhmut. Yevgeny Prigozhin has frequently clashed with Moscow’s defence establishment over the conduct of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine and what he says is insufficient support being provided to his Wagner soldiers. In a video posted on his Telegram channel, Prigozhin said he needs at least 300 tonnes of artillery shells a day for the assault, Reuters reported.

• Since last summer Russia has built “some of the most extensive systems of military defensive works seen anywhere in the world for many decades” in the areas it controls in Ukraine as well as in its own border regions, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update.

• Poland’s ministry of foreign affairs has issued a statement condemning the former children’s ombudsman of Russia, Pavel Astakhov, for comments he made on Russian state TV that murdering ambassadors is “within the framework of international law”, with specific reference to Poland’s ambassador. Poland called on Russia “to ensure the safety of all diplomats in accordance with the Vienna Convention”.

• In Washington, House speaker Kevin McCarthy emphatically stressed his support for military aid to Ukraine on Monday, criticising Russia’s “killing of the children” and distancing himself from some in his party who oppose additional major US aid to repel the Russian invasion.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken to New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins. Ukraine’s president said the pair discussed “further cooperation on defence and humanitarian issues” and “the need for further consolidation of the countries of the Pacific region in supporting Ukraine.”