Ukraine crisis: Russia has failed to take any of its major objectives, lost 450 personnel and made 'limited progress', Ministry of Defence says

Russia had not taken any of its major objectives in the first 24 hours of its invasion of Ukraine and has lost more than 450 personnel, according to the UK's defence secretary.

Ben Wallace told Sky News it was the UK government's view that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends "to invade the whole of Ukraine".

But he said Russia was "behind its hoped-for timetable" in the military action against its neighbour.

Russian troops enter Kyiv - follow latest updates

"Our assessment, as of this morning, is that Russia has not taken any of its major objectives," the defence secretary said.

"In fact it's behind its hoped-for timetable. They've lost over 450 personnel.

"One of the significant airports they were trying to capture with their elite spetsnaz [special forces] has failed to be taken and, in fact, the Ukrainians have taken it back.

"So I think, contrary to great Russian claims and indeed President Putin's vision that somehow the Ukrainians would be liberated and would be flocking to his cause, he's got that completely wrong.

"And the Russian army has failed to deliver on day one its main objective."

Read below for an update from Defence Intelligence: pic.twitter.com/TGJq09M9hy — Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) February 25, 2022

Later, in a intelligence update posted to its Twitter account on Friday afternoon, the Ministry of Defence said that fighting "continues in key locations".

"Russia has made limited progress so far today and Ukraine retains control of key cities," the MoD said.

In a further update, the MoD said that Russian forces had opened up a new route of advance towards Ukrainian capital Kyiv, having failed to capture Chernihiv, a city 150km to the north west.

"The bulk of Russian forces advancing on Kyiv remain more than 50km from the centre of the city," the MoD added.

"There are reports of sporadic clashes in the northern suburbs of Kyiv, which we continue to monitor."

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 0:18 Large explosion seen over Kyiv

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Image: Where Russian forces have struck so far

PM to speak with NATO leaders

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday hit Russia with what he described as the "largest set of sanctions ever imposed anywhere by the UK government", after the attack on Ukraine.

He spoke with leaders of the Joint Expeditionary Force today - made up of the UK, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway - and will also join a virtual meeting of NATO leaders at 2pm.

On Friday morning, Mr Johnson spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"President Zelenskyy updated the PM on the most recent Russian military advances, including missile and artillery strikes on Ukrainian cities and the terrible developments in Kyiv in the early hours of this morning," a Downing Street spokesperson said.

"The PM assured President Zelenskyy that the world is united in its horror at what Putin his doing.

"He paid tribute to the bravery and heroism of the Ukrainian people in standing up to Russia's campaign of violence, and expressed his deep condolences for those who have been killed."

Posting on Twitter after his call with Mr Johnson, Mr Zelenskyy said his country needed "the support of partners more than ever".

"We demand effective counteraction to the Russian Federation," he added. "Sanctions must be further strengthened."

Image: Boris Johnson held a call with members of the Joint Expeditionary Force. Pic: Simon Dawson/Downing St

Downing Street said the PM was expected to raise the prospect of banning Russia from the Swift international payment system in the meeting with NATO allies, amid reports of a reluctance among some European nations to take such action.

Number 10 said "nothing is off the table" in support of Ukraine.

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would be ready to hold talks with Kyiv but only once Ukraine's military had laid down its arms.

He also said the Kremlin did not want "neo-Nazis" to govern Ukraine.

The Belarusian ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Office on Friday afternoon, a day after the Russian ambassador was handed a dressing-down by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

Belarus is an ally of Russia and the two countries recently conducted joint military drills ahead of the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian troops entered north Ukraine on Thursday from across the Belarus border.

After the summons, Foreign Office minister James Cleverly said: "The UK condemns the role Belarus is playing in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"Belarus must stop supporting Russia's illegal and unprovoked actions. We must be united against Russian aggression."

Mr Cleverly told the ambassador that UK sanctions on Russia would also apply to Belarusian individuals, entities and organisations who have aided and abetted the invasion of Ukraine.

Image: Ukrainian servicemen stand guard next to a destroyed armoured vehicle on the outskirts of Kharkiv

Minister pushes back at calls for no-fly zone over Ukraine

Appearing in the House of Commons on Friday, armed forces minister James Heappey pushed back at calls from MPs for a no-fly zone to be enforced over Ukraine.

He warned that it could trigger a wider conflict between NATO countries and Russia under the alliance's Article 5 mutual defence clause.

"We need to have our eyes wide open to the reality that in such an event, NATO jets would not possibly but would most certainly probably come into a combat situation with Russian jets," Mr Heappey told MPs.

"And the risk of miscalculation and escalation and the triggering of Article 5 could not be understated in those circumstances."

Mr Heappey said, for operational reasons, he could not specify exactly what extra military support the UK would supply to Ukraine.

But he reassured MPs the government wanted to see "as much British kit in hands of Ukrainians as we can manage".

The minister said military officers had been instructed to "look across the full UK inventory for everything we have right now and look at what might be usable in the circumstances".

Mr Heappey said anti-tank missiles had "already proven to be invaluable" in the conflict in Ukraine, with unsubstantiated reports they had "been used to defeat Russian armour".

He also told MPs that a total of 1,000 UK troops are on stand-by to support Ukraine's neighbours with a likely influx of refugees.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 2:10 How Russia Invaded Ukraine

Russia's aggression against Ukraine came despite a recent flurry of diplomatic activity to try and persuade Mr Putin to withdraw his forces from Ukraine's borders.

But, speaking to Sky News, Mr Wallace dismissed the suggestion that Western nations had failed in their efforts to avert a conflict.

The defence secretary used a newspaper interview earlier this month to suggest there was a "whiff of Munich" about the Ukraine crisis.

Explaining those comments, he said: "It wasn't the bit about appeasement I was referring to, I was referring that in Munich in 1938, Adolf Hitler all along had a plan to invade parts of Europe.

"And all the diplomacy was about a straw man attempt by him to buy time. Putin has been set on this for many, many months and certainly over a year.

"It doesn't matter how much effort we made, and we all made unbelievable efforts... it didn't matter."

Mr Wallace accused Moscow of acting on a "greed to subsume Ukraine into the Russian Federation, or indeed for President Putin to land-grab".

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Mr Wallace said that Mr Putin had "clearly broken international law" with his actions over Ukraine.

"He's occupying or trying to occupy a sovereign country who made one mistake in his eyes," he said.

"Their mistake in his eyes was not to choose the Kremlin as a way for their future. And that's all they have done."

Mr Wallace, who was this week overheard claiming Mr Putin had gone "full tonto" over Ukraine, added: "Putin didn't need to do this, he didn't need to occupy - which he's doing right now - a sovereign country.

"None of it stacked up, none of the reasons why he would do it stacked up.

"A few of us felt that - and I made a few comments the other day about President Putin - he's not doing something that's logical.

"He's doing something that is about his ego and his legacy."

In another broadcast interview, Mr Wallace suggested Mr Putin could turn his aim on the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after Ukraine.

"He won't stop... He will use everything in the Baltic states. He doesn't believe the Baltic states are really countries," the defence secretary told BBC Radio 4.

Labour calls for government to 'go further' on sanctions

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted the government to "go even further" than the latest package of sanctions.

"In the past we have not been strong enough in response to Putin," Sir Keir told Sky News.

"That has given him the idea that the benefits of his aggression outweigh the costs.

"We cannot allow that to happen again. The package we put in now must be enough not just to isolate Russia but to cripple its ability to function."