Ukraine-Russia: Vladimir Putin has embarked on ‘deadly war of attrition’, UK intelligence chief warns

Vladimir Putin has embarked on a deadly war of attrition and the bombardment could last for weeks, the UK’s intelligence chief has warned, as the western Ukrainian city of Lviv came under attack from Russian forces.

Lieutenant General Sir Jim Hockenhull said the Kremlin has been forced to switch tactics, turning to the “reckless and indiscriminate” use of firepower which will inevitably lead to more civilian casualties.

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The Russians have “enormous” stocks of artillery ammunition and could maintain their attacks for weeks in an attempt to force Ukraine into submission, Western officials say.

The warning came as Putin made a rare public appearance to address a mass flag-waving rally at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium to mark the eighth anniversary of his country’s annexation of Crimea, while continued shelling hampered attempts to evacuate civilians from the beseiged city of Mariupol.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in a rare public appearance at the flag-waving rallyRussian President Vladimir Putin in a rare public appearance at the flag-waving rally
Russian President Vladimir Putin in a rare public appearance at the flag-waving rally

In other developments President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping spoke for nearly two hours by video call as the US seeks to deter Beijing from providing military support for Russia, and Ofcom revoked Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT’s UK licence with immediate effect after the regulator said it was not “fit and proper”.

Gen Hockenhull said that, more than three weeks into the campaign, it is clear the Kremlin has still not achieved any of its initial objectives.

“It has been surprised by the scale and ferocity of Ukrainian resistance and has been bedevilled by problems of its own making,” he said. “Russian operations have changed. Russia is now pursuing strategy of attrition. This will involve the reckless and indiscriminate use of firepower.

“This will result in increased civilian casualties, disruption of Ukrainian infrastructure and intensify the humanitarian crisis.”

The Ukrainian city of Lviv has come under attack from Russian forces (Photo by Getty Images)The Ukrainian city of Lviv has come under attack from Russian forces (Photo by Getty Images)
The Ukrainian city of Lviv has come under attack from Russian forces (Photo by Getty Images)

In Lviv, a city where many Ukrainians had taken shelter after fleeing other parts of the war-torn country, several missiles hit a facility for repairing military planes near the city's international airport and also damaged a bus repair site.

Shelling around the capital of Kyiv also continued as the number of refugees estimated to have fled exceeded 3.4 million.

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Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky told Russia’s Interfax news agency that Moscow and Kyiv were "somewhere halfway" when it comes to demilitarisation of Ukraine as part of the ongoing negotiation process between the parties – but added that a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents could only take place once the text of any peace treaty had been finalised.

In Moscow, Putin praised the efforts of Russia’s forces at the mass rally, declaring: “Shoulder to shoulder, they help and support each other.”

"We have not had unity like this for a long time," he added to cheers from the crowd.

The event included patriotic songs, including a performance of Made in the USSR, with the opening line, "Ukraine and Crimea, Belarus and Moldova, it's all my country."

However, the broadcast cut away from Mr Putin during a speech in what was described later as a “technical problem” with the server, while some reports claimed that attendees said they did not know what the rally was for and had been bussed there from their places of work.

Meanwhile, the desperate search continues for hundreds of people still missing after Wednesday’s theatre bombing in Mariupol.

Officials from Mariupol said more than 2,200 people had been killed in the city, with 600 believed killed or injured in the theatre attack. Ukraine’s human rights chief said rescuers have freed 130 people, but warned that up to 1,300 remain trapped. No bodies have been found, while only one person has been found with serious injuries.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said authorities in Mariupol were struggling to establish humanitarian corridors due to ongoing shelling.

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The deputy mayor of Mariupol, Sergei Orlov, said he believed around 600 people had been injured or killed in the bombing, but said official figures had not yet been collected. Overall, he said, around 2,200 people are believed to have died in the city.

In an interview with a French television channel, Mr Orlov said: “The city is constantly bombed. [The theatre] was a huge centre where a lot of people were sheltered. We think there were 800 people, 100 people have come out. We think about 600 people suffered from this bombing but we don't know who was killed, injured.

“The city has been under siege for more than 15 days, the civilians will not be able to endure the situation for long. But I am convinced that our soldiers will continue to protect the city as much as possible.”

Meanwhile, a lengthy meeting between US president Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping took place on video call.

Chinese state media reported Xi as saying on the call that "the Ukraine crisis is something that we don't want to see".

The UK Government armed forces minister, James Heappey, said the early-morning attack on Lviv showed Russia was broadening its strikes.

Mr Heappey said indiscriminate shelling on cities were "very probably" war crimes and said the Russian President bears the ultimate "culpability" for atrocities.

"The areas of Ukrainian territory that have been taken by the Russians haven't changed for a week or so. The Russians are way behind in their plan; they are failing to achieve their military objectives and that may be some cause for optimism," he said.

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"But what that doesn't show is that in the cities that are besieged, Mariupol, most concerningly, but Kharkiv, Sumy and others as well there is just this incredible weight of artillery fire being used indiscriminately to flatten those cities irrespective of who is beneath the shells as they fall."

Mr Heappey warned that "every single person" in the military chain of command could be prosecuted for war crimes as he hit out at the "barbaric tactic" of trying to destroy a city forces have been unable to seize militarily.

He said: "The evidence being gathered points very much towards war crimes being committed in Ukraine. The culpability for war crimes sits absolutely with the leader of the Russian government, the man who decided to do all of this in the first place,"

No causalities were immediately reported in the strikes on Lviv, which has had its population swelled by some 200,000 people seeking refuge.

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