Ukrainian fighters have said they destroyed a "large supply" of Russian ammunition as the Kremlin continues seeing setbacks in its invasion of Ukraine.
The fighters said they located warehouses in the city of Izyum that contained large amounts of Russian ammo, according to a Monday report from Ukraine's General Staff of the Armed Forces. The ammo was destroyed "as a result of fire," according to the government report, which outlined updates in the Ukrainian military's efforts to defend the country against the Russian invasion.
The reported loss of the large ammunition stockpile has added to the mounting setbacks the Kremlin has seen in recent weeks.
Russia's widely condemned invasion that began during the last week of February has been met with strong Ukrainian resistance and has largely failed to see any of Russian President Vladimir Putin's main goals accomplished. The Ukrainian military has held off Russian troops from taking major cities, while experts have said Russian troops have sustained significant losses.
Ukrainian authorities did not provide information about exactly how much Russian ammunition was destroyed or about what specific types of ammunition were in the warehouses. Newsweek reached out to Ukraine and Russia's defense ministries for comment and more details.
Ukrainian defense forces also damaged a separate field ammunition warehouse in the area of Davidov Brid, a village located near the city of Kherson, the report said.
According to Ukraine's defense ministry, the Russian military has sustained significant combat losses in Ukraine, including the loss of 1,228 tanks, 2,101 vehicles and 577 artillery systems. Additionally, Ukraine claims more than 27,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the fighting.
Several recent reports indicated the Russian military is losing ground in Ukraine nearly three months after the fighting began. One Ukrainian battalion said over the weekend that it managed to push Russian troops back across the border.
The British Ministry of Defence said in a report Sunday that Russia has likely lost "one-third" of the ground combat forces initially committed to Ukraine when the invasion began at the end of February.
The report said that Russian forces are "constrained by degraded enabling capabilities, continued low morale and reduced combat effectiveness."
"Many of these capabilities cannot be quickly replaced or reconstituted, and are likely to continue to hinder Russian operations in Ukraine," the report continued.
British intelligence also concluded that these failures would be likely to endure in Ukraine "given the relative lack of operational command experience of the officers promoted in place of those killed." U.S. Lieutenant General Scott Berrier last week pointed to chain-of-command issues as part of the reason why Russia has struggled.
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Andrew Stanton is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in Maine. His role is reporting on U.S. politics and social issues. ... Read more
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