Russia invades Ukraine news: Russian soldiers could be encircled as counter attacks disrupt Putin’s offensive, says UK

Volodymyr Zelensky has sought Nato’s “effective and unrestricted” support to Ukraine, including any weapons it needs to fight the Russian invasion.

“We ask that the alliance declare that it will fully assist Ukraine to win this war, clear our territory of the invaders and restore peace in Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said in a video released late on Wednesday.

His remarks come on the eve of a Nato summit slated to be held later today, where he will be addressing the leaders virtually.

Mr Zelensky has also asked western powers to stay united amid what he called Russia’s efforts to “lobby its interests” with “some partners” to bring them over to its side.

“We will see who is a friend, who is a partner and who has sold out and betrayed us. Together we should not allow Russia to break anyone in Nato, the EU or G7, to break them and drag them to the side of war,” he said.

Russian forces that had advanced towards Kyiv in the last few days have been pushed back on the frontlines east of the capital, a US official said.

The troops sent in by Moscow are now about 55km (about 34 miles) away from Kyiv to the east, compared to their position recorded yesterday between 25-35km from the capital.

“To the northwest of Kyiv’s city centre, Russian forces are digging in, and they are establishing defensive positions,” the US official said, reported CNN.

Russian forces have struggled to advance along this line and remain 15-20km (9-12 miles) away from Kyiv’s city centre to the northwest, the official said.

The White House has put together a team of national security officials for charting out the US and its allies’ response if Russia uses the deadliest weapons it has — chemical, biological and nuclear — against Ukraine.

Known as the Tiger Team, the battery of national security officials are also preparing the US’s response if Russia attacks convoys in Nato territory carrying weapons and aid to Ukraine, reported The New York Times, citing the officials present in the process.

All the contingencies being assessed by the team will be key to an upcoming Nato meeting today where leaders of all members states of the alliance will be present.

Between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine, Nato said in fresh estimates released on Wednesday.

Russia started its invasion exactly a month ago on Wednesday and may have already lost as many soldiers as it did in the entire 10 years of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Nato estimate suggests.

The Nato estimate was based on information received from Ukrainian authorities, as well as whatever information Russia has shared — purposefully or not — and from intelligence inputs collected from open sources, an official from the alliance said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Casualties on Ukraine’s end also remain unclear as the Zelensky administration has released little information about its own military losses.

No confirmed figure has been shared by the US and its allies monitoring the war.

Nearly two weeks ago, Mr Zelensky had said that about 1,300 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed in the war.

One of Ukraine’s best-known theatre directors Oleksandr Kniga has been taken hostage “in a fascist manner” by Russian troops early on Wednesday, the country’s culture minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said.

Mr Kniga has been taken to an unknown location, the culture minister said on Facebook.

According to witnesses, nine Russian military vehicles pulled up to the director’s home and led him out.

They warned neighbours that if they stepped out of their homes they would be killed, the witnesses said. “The whole world should know about this!” Mr Tkachenko said.

The 62-year-old theatre director founded the international theatre festival Melpomene of Tavria.

He had also protested against the presence of Russian troops in Kherson.

ICYMI: Earlier today, an unnamed Nato military officer estimated that Russia may have suffered as many as 40,000 casualties.

See here for more details about how this total was calculated:

ICYMI: The first shipment from a new, $800 million arms package for Ukraine that US President Joe Biden authorised last week will start flying out of the United States in the next day or so, and will not take long to reach Ukraine, a senior defence official said.

The official did not specify which systems would be included in the first shipments but said priority would be given to the kinds of defensive weapons already being used by Ukrainian troops.

“We are already aggregating stocks in the United States and we’re getting ready to ship them over there,” the official said.

ICYMI: New drone footage and satellite imagery shows the large-scale devastation of the southern port city of Mariupol.

After more than three weeks of constant Russian bombardment, it resembles “hell on earth”, according to some residents who were able to escape.

My colleague Tom Batchelor has this report:

A Russian journalist working for an independent news outlet was killed in shelling in Kyiv.

Oksana Baulina died in Russian rocket fire as she reported for The Insider in the capital’s Podilskyi District. A civilian was also killed in the incident, which saw two people with her wounded and hospitalised.

“The Insider expresses its deepest condolences to Oksana’s family and friends,” the outlet said in a statement.

“We will continue to cover the war in Ukraine, including such Russian war crimes as indiscriminate shelling of residential areas where civilians and journalists are killed.”

A delivery firm CEO, food production boss and wine store marketing director tell The Independent’s Bevan Hurley how they have transformed their businesses to aid the war effort.