Russian gains in the Donbas region have gone largely underreported by the UK Ministry of Defence, he claimed. Likewise, Ukrainian losses and struggles for military resources have not been covered in British intelligence releases. Security correspondent for the BBC Frank Gardner claimed the official UK defence coverage of the conflict has been significantly “over-optimistic” in hailing the successes of the Ukrainian defence.
Mr Gardner suggested Putin’s invading forces had been performing well in the Donbas region as troops expanded Russian-controlled territory in the east.
In his analysis of the fighting in the Donbas region, Mr Gardner said: “There’s a severe risk of quite a large number of Ukrainian armed forces, regular armed forces, getting surrounded and cut off from any kind of retreat around Severodonetsk, in the Donbas.
“They faced a choice some time ago, do they cut and run? - nope, they decided they would defend it and there was always the risk that they would get surrounded”.
The security correspondent suggested a large number of Ukrainian troops fighting in Severodonetsk would soon be...
English (US) ·