Putin’s forces in Ukraine war are decimated, says UK defence chief

Steven Swinford, Political Editor | Larisa Brown, Defence Editor

Monday March 07 2022, 12.01am, The Times

Lesia Ivashchenko and Valerii Fylymonov, who are reservists, were married at a checkpoint in Kyiv

MYKOLA TYMCHENKO/REUTERS

Russia’s lead forces have been “decimated” and it is not inevitable that it will succeed in taking over Ukraine, the head of the UK’s armed forces has said.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff, said that Moscow had “got itself into a mess” and that its invasion was “not going well”.He believed that Russia could “turn up the violence” with “more indiscriminate killing and more indiscriminate violence” in response to resistance.