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Ukrainian special forces operating behind enemy lines are hitting supply columns and hampering the Russian offensive, western officials have said.
In addition, Ukraine's regular army’s ability to launch rapid counterattacks soon after the invaders have taken a village or town was proving decisive in buying time for the country to build up its forces.
By contrast, significant casualties have depleted Russia’s Spetsnaz special forces, whose expertise would take considerable time to replace and rebuild, officials told a media briefing.
Ukraine’s specialist troops, who are understood to have been trained by US and British special forces, have honed their tactics considerably during the fighting, creating havoc by taking out vulnerable Russian columns.
Infiltrating deep behind the front line, they have been able to ambush vehicles carrying ammunition, food and vital fuel for Russia’s tanks.
Sources have told The National that the soldiers have evolved their tactics, driving quad-bikes to cross the country quickly and planting anti-tank mines while using small drones to track and attack targets.
They have called in accurate artillery fire on Russian targets causing further casualties in addition to the 15,000 Russian death toll that is “rising every day”, officials said.
“Ukrainian special forces are operating behind Russian lines and exploiting the vulnerability of long supply routes to great effect,” a western official said.
“It might be small scale, it might not be like defeating the entire Russian presence in an oblast [region] but all of it buys time to allow the Ukrainians to continue to build up their capabilities.”
The Spetsnaz along with the Russian VDV airborne forces suffered severe losses in the early days of the war when they tried to seize Kyiv without adequate armour protection or support fire. It now appears that their losses have continued.
“The Russians have lost experience in their elite forces,” an official said. “It all takes time to rebuild that expertise and that number of personnel and equipment that they need to pose a threat of a significant nature to others in the future.”
While the Russians are still managing to make some advances in Donbas region, they were continually being harassed by the Ukraine army’s use of swift counteroffensives.
“On Ukrainian abilities to counterattack,” the western official said, “they have proven remarkable in that regard. Even when the Russians take a village or town, Ukrainians frequently counterattack immediately so the Russians have no time to bed-in or control the situation and they're immediately on the back foot again.”
Despite having tracked armoured vehicles, the Russians also seemed to be held up by heavy rainfall in eastern Ukraine, suggesting they lacked training or confidence. “They are not advancing in heavy rain. It's surprising as they have the ability to operate off the roads but have chosen not to.”
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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres visits Borodyanka, near Kyiv, where Russian forces are accused of killing civilians. AFP -
Children play in the wreckage of a Russian armoured vehicle in Lukashivka, Chernihiv region, northern Ukraine. The village has been retaken by Ukrainian forces. EPA -
A cyclist passes a destroyed building in Derhachi village, near besieged city Kharkiv, in north-eastern Ukraine. AFP -
Burnt-out wreckage of a tank in Kolychivka village, Chernihiv region, northern Ukraine. EPA -
A Ukrainian flag flies in a park in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. A rocket attack on the city railway station earlier in April killed at least 50 people. AFP -
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses a meeting of MPs in St Petersburg. EPA -
Youngsters Faddei and Oleksandr play in front of a church damaged during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in the Chernihiv region. Reuters -
A demonstrator turns emotional as she attends a rally in Kyiv demanding a humanitarian corridor to rescue civilians from Mariupol. Reuters -
A Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-25 releases decoy flares as it provides air support to Ukrainian ground forces near central city of Yampil. AFP -
An officer from National Guard of Ukraine surveys weapons left behind by Russian troops in Chernobyl. AFP -
Mr Putin attends a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Moscow. Reuters -
Members of a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency carry equipment as they arrive at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine. AP -
Ukrainian troops fire rockets from the city of Popasna, near Luhansk. EPA -
Lithuanian musician Darius Mazintas plays a piano in front of the Central House of Culture destroyed during Russia's invasion, in the town of Irpin, outside Kyiv. Reuters -
Ukrainian refugees Julia, second left, 32, and Miroslava, left, 11, walk away with relatives who received them after they crossed into Poland from Ukraine at the Dorohusk border. AFP -
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets Mr Guterres in Moscow. AFP -
US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Mark Milley, left, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, second left, and Ukrainian Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov, right, attend the Ukraine Security Consultative Group meeting at Ramstein airbase in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany. Getty Images -
Smoke rises from an oil terminal hit by fire in Bryansk, Russia. AP -
People take pictures by the wreckage of a Russian military vehicle, in the village of Rusaniv, Kyiv region. Reuters -
Smoke rises above the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant amid fighting in Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters -
People carry a large Ukrainian flag as they attend a rally to mark the 77th anniversary of Liberation Day in Milan, Italy. The day remembers Italians who fought against the Nazis and Mussolini's troops during the Second World War. EPA -
A Ukrainian soldier looks at a Russian ballistic missile's booster stage that fell in a field in Bohodarove, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
People watch as a residential building burns after Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP -
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. Reuters -
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the Orthodox Easter service at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. EPA -
A young girl in front of people carrying a huge Ukrainian flag during a peaceful demonstration entitled 'Solidarity with Ukraine' in Krakow, Poland. Reuters -
A boy stands next to a wrecked vehicle in front of an apartment damaged during the conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters -
This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows damage at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine. AP -
A Ukrainian man rides in front of a destroyed building in Kharkiv which had been shelled by the Russians. EPA -
A Ukrainian Territorial Defence fighter in a shelter with an Easter Cake near Kharkiv. Ukrainians mark Orthodox Easter today. EPA -
Residents receive Easter cakes and apples handed out by pro-Russian troops on Easter Day at the Svyato-Troitsky Church in the southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters -
A woman photographs the scene of yesterday's shelling in the southern Ukraine city of Odesa. Eight people were killed, including a three-month child, and about 20 were wounded. EPA -
A military chaplain blesses Ukrainian soldiers on the occasion of Orthodox Easter not far from the city of Izyum in Kharkiv. EPA -
An internally displaced man walks with dogs in the Palace of Culture, which was damaged by shelling in Rubizhne, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
Tulips grow next to a building destroyed by shelling in Rubizhne. AFP -
Internally displaced people wait to receive food inside a factory that has been turned into a shelter, in Severodonetsk. AFP -
Members of the Ukrainian Red Cross carry a woman, 92, to an ambulance from a bunker at a factory in Severodonetsk. AFP -
Ambulance workers move an injured Ukrainian serviceman to a hospital in Donetsk. AP -
A woman sits inside a subway station that has been turned into a shelter, on the outskirts of second largest Ukrainian city, Kharkiv. AFP -
Residents shelter in a subway station in Kharkiv. AFP -
Anastasiya Kryvoho attends a candlelight vigil for Ukraine on the Orthodox Holy Saturday, in Toronto, Canada. Reuters -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses a press conference with international media in an underground metro station in Kyiv. AFP -
Firefighters work at the scene of a fire after shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine. EPA -
A family from Myrne, a town occupied by Russian forces, wait to register with police at an evacuation point for people fleeing from Mariupol, Melitopol and surrounding towns. Getty Images -
Oleksandr, 25, meets his parents Olga, 49, and Oleksandr, 50, who fled from the Russian-occupied village of Lyubimivka, at the evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia. EPA -
Residents walk near a damaged military vehicle in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol. AP -
A heavily damaged apartment building in Horenka. Getty Images -
Residents wrapped in blankets stand near their houses damaged by Russian shelling in Odesa. AP -
A Ukrainian flag is installed on top of a gob pile in Lysychans, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
A Ukrainian soldier rests at a checkpoint in Severodonetsk. AFP
While Moscow’s generals have promised to seize the entire Black Sea coast to link up to the small Russia enclave of Transnistria in Moldova, the realisation of that ambition is unlikely as they would have to take the now heavily defended city of Odesa, requiring an amphibious assault.
“We've seen from the sinking of the Moskva [flagship cruiser] that the Russian navy is now wary of approaching that coastline for fear of a subsequent attack, so it has moved farther away from the coast.”
Officials also confirmed that the West’s main effort was to “inflict cost” on Moscow by supplying weapons to degrade its military, agreeing with a British defence minister's claim that it was “completely legitimate” for Ukraine to attack targets in Russia.
“We are trying to inflict cost on Russia to reduce its offensive capabilities,” the official said. “Many of our policies are designed to have that effect.”
