Russian troops reportedly ran over their own commander because they were upset with the number of casualties their unit was facing in their ongoing war against resisting Ukrainian forces.

The alleged intentional killing of the Russian colonel by his soldiers also comes as Vladimir Putin’s forces as a whole are facing heavy losses, and a substantial number of his generals are reportedly either going missing or being declared dead at the hands of Ukrainian soldiers as the Kremlin continues their vicious and violent invasion into their neighboring nation.

According to The Post, Colonel Medvechek of the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade was pronounced dead Friday after succumbing to fatal injuries caused when soldiers from his brigade crushed him with a tank.

Although a similar incident happened Thursday, it is unknown at this time if the colonel most recently pronounced dead is Colonel Yury Medvedev, who was also run down by a tank driven by his troops before being subsequently evacuated to a hospital in Belarus for his injuries.

These reoccurring incidents come not only as Russia continues to face heavy losses in the war they chose to wage against Ukraine, but also as multiple reports claim the Russian forces are quickly losing morale in their fight against the nation led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“Basically, it’s a s—show here, I’ll put it that way,” one Russian soldier recently revealed to a fellow fighter in a recording that was obtained earlier in the week by Ukraine’s Security Service.

The Russian soldier then reportedly went on to describe how their Ukrainian adversaries “tore apart” a fleet of Russian forces before also revealing how nearly half of his unit was suffering from frostbite on their feet because they weren’t provided proper gear to fight in Ukraine’s harsh climate.

“But they don’t plan to treat them in the [field] hospital,” the soldier added, claiming that those suffering from frostbite have no way to treat the affliction.

In the same recently obtained phone call, the Russian soldier went on to recall a conversation another soldier had with their general in which he tried to inform the commander that their unit’s Kevlar vests lacked adequate panels to provide sufficient protection.

“Comrade General, damn it, I have this situation,” the soldier recalled. “And he just says, ‘Son, be strong,’ and then he f—ed off. It’s such trash here…Our own plane dropped a bomb on us.”

As Radar reported, as Russian soldiers are quickly losing morale and even allegedly going so far as to kill their own superior officers, other top generals are either being killed or captured by Ukrainian forces as Russia’s Ministry of Defense tries to fudge the numbers regarding how many casualties their forces truly have endured.

NASSAU (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince William has said he supports and respects any decision Caribbean nations make about their future, as Belize, the Bahamas and Jamaica consider cutting their ties with the British monarchy.

At the end of a tour with his wife Kate that has been marked by protests about the legacy of the British Empire, William, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson, acknowledged the relationship between the three Caribbean states and the Crown was changing.

“Next year, I know you are all looking forward to celebrating 50 years of independence – your Golden Anniversary,” he said in a speech in the Bahamas capital Nassau.

“And with Jamaica celebrating 60 years of independence this year, and Belize celebrating 40 years of independence last year, I want to say this: We support with pride and respect your decisions about your future. Relationships evolve. Friendship endures.”

His speech is the clearest indication the royal family would back the three nations ditching the queen as their head of state, echoing the decision taken by Barbados last November.

Usually, Buckingham Palace says such matters are for the local people and politicians to decide.

During her 70 years on the throne – a landmark that the tour was to designed to mark – Elizabeth has watched as former British colonies have cut their ties, but she remains queen of 15 realms, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

However, the tour by William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, has thrown a spotlight on the waning support for the monarchy in the Caribbean. During the trip there have been protests and calls for reparations payments by Britain and an apology for slavery.

Meanwhile the Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told William directly at a meeting on Wednesday that his country wanted to be “independent”.

Some British media have also criticised public relations mistakes which have seen the royals shaking hands with Jamaican children through wire fences and other appearances, described as “tone-deaf” blunders by the Daily Mirror tabloid because it said they appeared to be a throwback to colonial times.

The tribulations of the tour have reflected wider questions about the role and future of the royals back in Britain following the scandal of a U.S. sex abuse lawsuit involving the queen’s second son Prince Andrew – settled last month – and criticism of the institution from William’s younger brother, Prince Harry.

(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Million Dollar Listing star Josh Flagg is dating again only a few weeks after announcing his divorce from Bobby Boyd following nearly five years of marriage.

The real estate mogul shared the happy news of his unexpected romance on Friday, March 25.

“After Bobby and I split, I did start to see somebody,” Flagg explained in an interview with People. “I was not looking to date anybody because I was married,” he continued, noting they “never went on a date until after Bobby and I left our marriage.”

Although he didn’t elaborate on exactly who his new mystery man is, he did confess he was a friend he’s known for a long time, and that he was also “in real estate.”

‘MILLION DOLLAR LISTING’ STAR JOSH FLAGG DROPS $9 MILLION ON L.A. MANSION AMID BOBBY BOYD DIVORCE

“We were friends for a while. It just happened organically. I like him very much, and he’s a very nice guy,” the celebrity real estate broker added.

As OK! previously reported, Flagg took to Instagram to announce the end of his marriage on Friday, March 4.

OK! EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: JOSH FLAGG PRANKS JOSH ALTMAN WITH MYSTERY PACKAGE IN MILLION DOLLAR LISTING LOS ANGELES CLIP

“Bobby and I are divorcing,” he wrote to friends and fans via social media. “This might sound abrupt but I felt I should be transparent from the top rather than bury the headline.”

“It was not a lack of love but rather the two of us growing in different directions and wanting very different things for ourselves,” Flagg went on, assuring fans he cares “deeply” about his ex and that their split happened with respect for each other as they part ways to go on separate paths in life.

Part of that new journey for Flagg was purchasing a brand new home! The reality television personality shelled out a whopping $9.2 million on a sprawling Beverly Hills mansion located on North Bedford Drive.

The property boasts seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a three-car garage and a total of 7,100 square feet of living space.

By Jarrett Renshaw and Karol Badohal

WARSAW (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday that Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” in a fiery speech pushing the world’s democracies to unite to support Ukraine, though the White House later said Biden was not calling for regime change in Moscow.

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden told a crowd in Warsaw after condemning Putin’s month-long war in Ukraine as an assault on global freedom and security.

The comments sharply escalated conflict between Moscow and the West over its invasion of Ukraine.

But a White House official said the remarks did not represent a shift in Washington’s policy that it is not seeking regime change in Russia.

Still, they came on a day of escalating rhetoric as Biden also described branded Putin a “butcher” during a meeting with refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine to the Polish capital.

“The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region,” the White House official said. “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”

On Saturday, Biden said the West was united against Russia’s invasion but also added that NATO was a defensive security alliance which never sought Russia’s demise.

Biden’s speech was delivered at Warsaw’s Royal Castle before hundreds of Polish elected officials, students and U.S. embassy staff, many holding U.S., Polish and Ukrainian flags.

“The West is now stronger, more united than it has ever been,” Biden said.

Calling the fight against Vladimir Putin a “new battle for freedom,” Biden said Putin’s desire for “absolute power” was a strategic failure for Russia and a direct challenge to a European peace that has largely prevailed since World War Two.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Karol Badohal in Warsaw and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets in Lviv, Nandita Bose in Washington, Humeyra Pamuk, Alan Charlish, Justyna Pawlak and Joanna Plucinska in Warsaw and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Heather Timmons, Grant McCool, Frances Kerry, Timothy Heritage, Andrea Ricci and Nick Zieminski)

J.K. Rowlingis taking a stand against Vladimir Putin.

During a call with officials on Friday, March 25, Putin tried arguing that he has a lot in common with the Harry Potter author — a claim that didn’t seem to sit well with her.

He attempted to use Rowling’s previous scandals as an example of Western “cancel culture,” which he likened to the Western nations that he believes are just “trying to cancel” Russia amid the invasion of Ukraine.

But the novelist wasn’t too pleased about Putin’s comparison, prompting her to take to Twitter to call out his far-out claims.

“Critiques of Western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics,” she wrote in a Tweet on Friday, adding the hashtag “#IStandWithUkraine.”

CYNTHIA NIXON SLAMS J.K. ROWLING’S ANTI-TRANS REMARKS: ‘IT’S REALLY BAFFLING’

She also included a reposted article from BBC News to reference Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Putin critic.

In his initial statement on Friday, Putin claimed that Western nations — which have lodged numerous sanctions against the invading nation — “are now trying to cancel our country. I’m talking about the progressive discrimination of everything to do with Russia.” as Radar reported. He also went on to liken cancel culture to Nazis burning books in the 1930s.

When he mentioned Rowling, Putin explained that the West “canceled Joanne Rowling recently — the children’s author, her books are published all over the world — just because she didn’t satisfy the demands of gender rights.”

As we know, the Fantastic Beasts writer faced major backlash after making offensive transphobic comments in the past.

In response to an article that used the phrase “People who menstruate,” Rowling tweeted: “People who menstruate. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpound? Woomd?,” causing an uproar among the LGBTQ+ community.

VLADIMIR PUTIN’S ELDEST DAUGHTER’S MARRIAGE IS CRUMBLING AMID RUSSIAN INVASION OVER UKRAINE

But despite her controversial history, Rowling doesn’t think her comments in the past should be considered on the same scale as Russia’s deadly invasion of Ukraine.

She followed up her Tweet on Friday with a series of messages about the emergency Ukrainian appeal set up by her charity Lumos, vowing to personally match all donations up to 1 million euros.

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democratic Senator Joe Manchin on Friday said he would vote to confirm U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, with the support from the influential moderate signaling that she will have the votes to overcome widespread Republican opposition.

Manchin’s announcement is further evidence that Democrats are united on supporting President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. With a simple majority needed for confirmation and the Senate divided 50-50 between the parties, Jackson would get the job even if no Republicans vote for her.

“After meeting with her, considering her record, and closely monitoring her testimony and questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, I have determined I intend to vote for her nomination to serve on the Supreme Court,” Manchin said in a statement.

“Her wide array of experiences in varying sectors of our judicial system have provided Judge Jackson a unique perspective that will serve her well on our nation’s highest court,” he added.

Biden in February nominated Jackson to replace liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who intends to retire at the end of June. The committee is likely to vote on April 4 on sending her nomination to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote.

Jackson faced two days of hostile questioning from Republicans during her confirmation hearing earlier this week, with several accusing her of being lenient in her previous role as a federal trial court judge in sentencing child pornography offenders. Sentencing experts said her approach was similar to most federal judges.

(Reporting by Lawrence HurleyEditing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)

By Gleb Garanich and Natalia Zinets

BUCHA/LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Moscow signaled on Friday it was scaling back its ambitions in Ukraine to focus on territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists as Ukrainian forces went on the offensive, recapturing territory on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv.

In the first big sign that Western sanctions on Russia were impacting investment from China, sources told Reuters state-run Sinopec Group, Asia’s biggest oil refiner, had suspended talks on a petrochemical investment and a venture to market Russian gas.

In the month since they launched their invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops have failed to capture any major city. An assault that Western countries believe was aimed at swiftly toppling President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government was halted at the gates of Kyiv.

The Russians instead have been bombarding and encircling cities, laying waste to residential areas and driving around a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes.

U.S. President Joe Biden was visiting Poland for a first-hand look at the refugee crisis. Poland has taken in more than half of the 3.7 million Ukrainians who have fled abroad.

Battlelines near Kyiv have been frozen for weeks with two main Russian armoured columns stuck northwest and east of the capital. A British intelligence report on Friday described a Ukrainian counter-offensive that had pushed Russians back in the east.

“Ukrainian counter-attacks, and Russian forces falling back on overextended supply lines, has allowed Ukraine to reoccupy towns and defensive positions up to 35 km east of Kyiv,” the report said. Britain has provided Ukraine with weapons and military training.

In an announcement that appeared to indicate that Moscow may be switching to more limited goals, the Russian Defence Ministry said the first phase of its operation was mostly complete, and it would now focus on “liberating” two eastern regions claimed by Russian-backed separatists.

Volodymyr Borysenko, mayor of Boryspol, an eastern suburb where Kyiv’s main airport is located, said 20,000 civilians had evacuated the area, answering a call to clear out so Ukrainian troops could counter-attack. Ukrainian forces recaptured a nearby village the previous day and would have pushed on but halted to avoid putting civilians in danger, he said.

On the other main front outside Kyiv, to the capital’s northwest, Ukrainian forces have been trying to encircle Russian troops in the suburbs of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel, reduced to ruins by heavy fighting over the past few weeks.

In Bucha, 25 km (15 miles) northwest of Kyiv, a small group of Ukrainian troops armed with anti-tank missiles was digging foxholes. Andriy told Reuters he had enlisted to defend the town as soon as the invasion began.

“I told my wife to grab the children and to hide in the basement, and I went to the drafting station and joined my unit straight away,” he said. “My wife and children were under occupation for two weeks, but then they managed to escape through a humanitarian corridor.”

BURIED IN FLOWERBED

Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” to disarm its neighbour. Kyiv and its Western allies call it an unprovoked war of aggression and say Russia’s true aim was to overthrow the government of what President Vladimir Putin regards as an illegitimate state.

Unable to capture cities, Russia has resorted to pounding them with artillery and air strikes.

Worst hit has been the eastern port of Mariupol, a city of 400,000 under siege since the war’s early days. It is the biggest Ukrainian-held city in the territory Russia demands be ceded to the separatists.

Tens of thousands of people are still believed to be trapped inside with no access to food, power or heat, while the city around them has been reduced to ruins.

In a district captured by the Russians, one woman waiting in line to receive food supplies told Reuters her diabetic husband had slipped into a coma and died. He was buried in a flowerbed.

“We are planning on leaving but it’s very difficult at the moment,” the woman, who gave her name as Alexandra, said. “I can’t leave my husband in a flowerbed.”

Mariupol’s city council for the first time gave an estimated death toll for the bombing of the main theatre on March 16, saying witnesses now said 300 people had been killed among many hundreds sheltering in the basement. Russia denies blame.

The United Nations said it was looking into reports of mass graves inside Mariupol, including one with at least 200 corpses.

The cities of Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy in the east have also endured devastating bombardments. Chernihiv was effectively surrounded by Russian forces, its governor said.

In Kharkiv, officials said six people had been killed by the shelling of an aid distribution site at a supermarket. Video posted on the internet showed a blast striking a car park where scores of people were queuing. People fled in terror after the explosion. Reuters was able to confirm it was filmed outside a supermarket in Kharkiv.

CHINESE INVESTMENT SUSPENDED

Western economic sanctions on Russia have isolated it from global trade to a degree never before visited on such a large economy. China is the biggest power not to have condemned the Russian invasion and Washington has been putting pressure on Beijing to rebuff Moscow.

The Reuters report that Sinopec had suspended discussions about investments potentially worth $500 million was the first concrete sign that sanctions are interfering with trade between Moscow and Beijing.

Beijing has repeatedly voiced opposition to the sanctions, insisting it will maintain normal trade links. But behind the scenes, the government is wary of Chinese companies running afoul of sanctions, and pressing them to tread carefully.

“Companies will rigidly follow Beijing’s foreign policy in this crisis,” said an executive at a Chinese state oil company.

The West has ruled out intervening on the ground or answering Ukraine’s plea for a no-fly zone but has supported Kyiv with hundreds of anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.

(Reporting by a Reuters journalist in Mariupol, Natalia Zinets in Lviv and Reuters bureaus worldwide; Writing by Peter Graff, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Celebrities planning to attend Jay-Z‘s eagerly anticipated Oscars afterparty will have to pass boycotters as they head into the controversial Chateau Marmont on Sunday.

The LA hotspot has been facing backlash since 2020, when more than 200 workers were fired allegedly without insurance or severance during the pandemic. Since then, there have also been allegations of racial discrimination and harassment from former staff members, which the hotel has denied, amid lawsuits against the famed location.

“Compensation is not determined or defined by ethnicity or any other such factor. Wages are set based on the work assigned,” a representative for the hotel previously said in response to discrimination claims. “We take very seriously our equal-opportunity employment obligations.”

A-list guests will have to bypass a picket line organized for around 8 p.m. if they plan on joining Jay-Z’s star-studded shindig. The event is known for drawing out some of the biggest stars in the world as the rapper, 52, previously held his “Gold Party” two years ago with attendees including Rihanna, Adele and Kim Kardashian. It’s said Jay-Z will later be joined by his wife, Beyoncé, who is set to take the stage for the 2022 Oscars telecast from the Compton tennis court.

“For Jay-Z to choose the Chateau Marmont for their Gold Party is shockingly insensitive,” Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, said in a statement on Thursday. “They must move their event and choose an afterparty hot spot that treats its workers, especially Black women, with dignity and respect. Jay-Z has a responsibility to do better.”

“We hope Jay-Z joins Gabrielle Union, Spike Lee, Issa Rae, Robin Thede, Quinta Brunson, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Roxane Gay, Ashley Nicole Black and Samira Wiley in boycotting Chateau Marmont,” Peterson continued, mentioning celebs who are in support of their mission.

Peterson noted that individuals like Jay-Z can make a difference as they have power and influence in a separate statement to Page Six, adding, “Jay-Z has the opportunity right now to do just that by listening to the stories of Chateau Marmont workers and move his event.”

Former Olympic gold medal winner Caitlyn Jenner is speaking out against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas winning the women’s NCAA Swimming Championship. The former California gubernatorial nominee said the 22-year-old swimmer was “not the rightful winner,” naming second place winner Emma Weyant as the true victor of the final race.

Thomas made headlines being the first transgender woman to win the NCAA’s championship. She was viewed as an inspiration to many but also garnered a lot of vitriol from others claiming she shouldn’t have been allowed in the women’s swimming competition, to begin with.

Jenner —who’s a fellow trans community member and a former athlete — is one of these people.

The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star retweeted a story about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis denouncing Thomas. “Agreed! [Weyant] is the rightful winner!” Jenner responded, adding, “It’s not transphobic or anti-trans, it’s COMMON SENSE!”

Jenner’s show of support for the governor, who had actively fought against gay and trans rights, has drawn the attention of many that disagree with the former Olympic gold medalist, claiming what she said is, in fact, transphobic.

The comments on Jenner’s tweet range from support to criticism with one follower asking, “Why do you always ignore all the times a trans athlete doesn’t win? It creates a baffling paradox when you say thy give cis women no chance despite them not winning more often than them doing so.”

Another comment read, “Common sense is not something you or Governor Ron DeSantis has a lot of.”

In an official proclamation, DeSantis announced Weyant as the NCAA championship winner, saying, “A male identifying as a woman was allowed to compete in and was declared the winner of the race by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Emma was determined to have come in second place.” He continued to claim, “actions served to erode opportunities for women athletes and perpetuate a fraud against women athletes as well as the public at large.”

Last year, Florida signed a bill into law called The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. The anti-trans legislation became effective on the first day of Pride month, banning trans female athletes from competing in public high school and college sports.

The former athlete has faced criticism several times in the past for being against several trans issues despite coming out as a trans woman herself in 2015.

Caitlyn Jenner Says Transgender Girls In School Should Not Compete On Girls’ Sports Teams

Her rocky history concerning the trans community had a spotlight shined on it when Jenner decided to run for Governor of California against Governor Gavin Newsom during the 2021 recall election. The reality TV star was only able to accumulate 1% of the vote commenting, “I can’t believe that this many people actually voted to keep him in office” during her concession speech.

Trans athletes have been a topic of contention between party lines. With the few athletes choosing to compete in their preferred gender-separated sports, the likes of Jenner, as well as popular podcaster Joe Rogan and many others have been against the idea of non-cis female athletes competing with biological females.

There have been a number of trans athletes who have failed to secure the gold, but it’s been the few cases where they have that it has become an issue with those involved in the industry.

By Natalia Zinets, Natalie Thomas and Vitalii Hnidiy

LVIV/MYKOLAIV/KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – A veteran aide of President Vladimir Putin has resigned over the Ukraine war and left Russia with no intention to return, two sources said on Wednesday, the first senior official to break with the Kremlin since Putin launched his invasion a month ago.

The Kremlin confirmed that the aide, Anatoly Chubais, had resigned of his own accord. Chubais hung up the phone when contacted by Reuters. The sources did not say where he was.

Chubais was one of the principal architects of Boris Yeltsin’s economic reforms of the 1990s and was Putin’s boss in the future president’s first Kremlin job. He later ran big state businesses under Putin and held political jobs, lately serving as Kremlin special envoy to international organisations.

U.S. President Joe Biden flies to Europe on Wednesday for an emergency NATO summit on Ukraine, where invading Russian troops are stalled, cities are under bombardment and the besieged port of Mariupol is in flames.

Four weeks into a war that has driven a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes, Russia has failed to capture a single major Ukrainian city or depose the government, while Western sanctions have ostracised it from the world economy.

Russian forces have taken heavy losses, been frozen in place for at least a week on most fronts and face supply problems and fierce resistance.

They have turned to siege tactics and bombardment, causing massive destruction and many civilian deaths.

Moscow says its aim is to disarm its neighbour, and its “special military operation” is going to plan. It denies targeting civilians.

Worst hit has been Mariupol, a southern port completely surrounded by Russian forces, where hundreds of thousands of people have been sheltering since the war’s early days, under constant bombardment and with food, water and heat supplies cut.

New satellite photographs from commercial firm Maxar released overnight showed massive destruction of what was once a city of 400,000 people, with columns of smoke rising from residential apartment buildings in flames.

No journalists have been able to report from inside the Ukrainian-held parts of the city for more than a week, during which time Ukrainian officials say Russia has bombed a theatre and an art school used as bomb shelters, burying hundreds of people alive. Russia denies targeting those buildings.

Biden, due to arrive in Brussels on Wednesday evening on his first foreign trip since the war began, will meet NATO and European leaders in an emergency summit at the Western military alliance’s headquarters.

The leaders are expected to roll out additional sanctions against Russia on Thursday. Sources said the U.S. package would include measures targeting Russian members of parliament.

Biden will also visit Poland, which has taken in most of the more than 3.6 million refugees who have fled Ukraine and has been the main route for Western supplies of weapons to Ukraine.

In a sign of Moscow’s further isolation, Poland announced it was expelling 45 Russian diplomats accused of either being undercover spies or “associated” with them. Several other eastern European countries have announced similar moves in recent days, although not on such a large scale. Russia has rejected all the accusations.

‘NOWHERE TO GO’

“I have never seen such cruelty before,” said Kateryna Mytkevich, 38, who reached the Polish border transit hub of Przemysl with her child after fleeing the heavily bombarded eastern city of Chernihiv, which she said was “fully destroyed”.

“There is no electricity, no gas, no mobile connection in Chernihiv. We came through Kyiv, and we didn’t know whether Kyiv was still standing,” she said, breaking into tears.

In Kharkiv in the east, a maternity clinic had moved patients into the basement for safety. Tearful mother Yana cradled her baby in a room with beds lining the walls. Her house has been bombed. “I have nowhere to go,” she said.

In another maternity ward far away in Mykolaiv, a southern port which Russian forces tried and failed to storm over the past 10 days, Tamara Kravchuk, 37, lay blissfully with her baby just minutes old on her chest. She had been scared, especially when explosions burst just 500 metres from the hospital, she said. But baby Katya melted her fears away.

“I think the war will end and we will live as it was before, our life will be calm again,” she said. “I hope our children won’t see all these crazy things and everything will be good.”

Despite its losses so far, Russia may still be hoping to make more gains on the battlefield, especially in the east, in territory including Mariupol which Moscow demands Ukraine cede to Russian-backed separatists.

In a daily intelligence update, Britain’s defence ministry said the entire battlefield across northern Ukraine – which includes huge armoured columns that once bore down on Kyiv – was now “static”, with invaders apparently trying to reorganise.

But in the east, the Russians were trying to link troops at Mariupol with those near Kharkiv in the hope of encircling Ukrainian forces, while in the southwest they were bypassing the city of Mykolayiv to try to advance on Odesa, Ukraine’s biggest port.

Ukrainian officials described sporadic shelling in other cities overnight, with two civilians killed in the Mykolayiv region, a bridge destroyed in the Chernihiv region, and residential buildings and a shopping mall struck in two districts of Kyiv, wounding at least four people. Reuters could not immediately verify the reports.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)