Ukraine’s successful counter-offensive in the east shows that Vladimir Putin is “failing in all of his strategic objectives”, the UK’s head of the armed forces has said.
Sir Tony Radakin said Ukraine’s advance represented “more of the same” and that Putin’s problems were “mounting”.
“At the very outset, we said that this was a strategic error by President Putin and strategic errors lead to strategic consequences,” Radakin told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
“Putin is failing in all of his military strategic objectives. He wanted to subjugate Ukraine —that’s not going to happen. He wanted to take control of the capital — we saw that that was defeated earlier on.
“We saw that he wanted to weaken Nato — Nato is now much stronger, and we have Finland and Sweden joining. He wanted to break the international resolve. Well, actually, that strengthened over this period and he’s under pressure.”
Ukraine’s repulsion of Russia forces in across the east of Ukraine has dominated developments in the ongoing war over the past week.
Ukraine claims its troops have reclaimed approximately 8,000 square km, a figure which is yet to be verified by the West.
However, Radakin warned against seeing Ukraine’s advance as a “turning point” in the seven-month long war, cautioning: “It’s going to grind on for a long time.”
“I think we’ve got to be very cautious,” he told Kuenssberg.
“I think it’s significant in terms of what’s happening on the ground, it’s really significant for Ukrainian morale, it’s significant for the impact it has on Russian forces.
“But people need to be cautious that the likely result with all of this is that it’s going to grind on for a long time.
“There’s a wistfulness when people jump to conclusions that either president Putin is weak and his power base might be undermined, or that Ukraine has gained some ground —and it’s been magnificent action in the northeast — but it doesn’t automatically lead on to easy victories elsewhere.”
Among the towns and cities recaptured by Ukraine is Izyum in the Kharkiv region, where Ukrainian troops discovered a mass grave near the town this week.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of “leaving death everywhere” after troops claimed they had discovered more than 440 bodies buried in a forest.
Asked whether he believed there was evidence of war crimes in Izyum, Radakin said: “The formal declaration of war crime needs to come about from a more thorough investigation, but it’s a pattern of behaviour.
“This was an illegal invasion of Ukraine at the outset. It’s illegal to attack civilians.”
He added: “This is a pattern of behaviour — and the international community needs to hold Russia and President Putin to account.”