U.K. officials say Russian forces ‘hollowed out’ from Ukraine invasion losses

Russian armed forces are “increasingly hollowed out” after months of intense combat since late February when President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, British military officials said Tuesday.

“They currently accept a level of degraded combat effectiveness which is probably unsustainable in the long term,” the UK’s Defense Intelligence tweeted.

Moscow has recently fielded the core elements of six different armies in its latest campaign but has achieved only “tactical success” at Sieverodonetsk in the disputed Donbas region. To make up for a large number of casualties, Russian officials have been forced to call up reservists and reportedly return retired army officers to active duty.

“Ukrainian forces continue to consolidate their positions on higher ground in the city of Lysychansk after falling back from Sieverodonetsk,” British officials said. “Ukrainian forces continue to disrupt Russian command and control with successful strikes deep behind Russian lines.”

Over the weekend, Russia launched what British officials called “unusually intense waves of strikes across Ukraine’’ using long-range fires — most likely including the Soviet-era AS-4 KITCHEN and more modern AS-23a KODIAK missiles. They were fired from Russian and Belarusian airspace.