NEW PUTIN ONSLAUGHT AS WEST FACES RACE TO ARM UKRAINE

U.S. WARNS OF 'CRITICAL MOMENT' AT NATO TALKS | Putin’s troops ‘will struggle to make advance’

- Nicholas Cecil and David Bond

VLADIMIR PUTIN appears to have ordered Russian troops to advance in “most sectors” of eastern Ukraine — but they are struggling to make a decisive breakthrough, British defence chiefs said today.

They believe Putin’s “private army”, the Wagner Group, has made “small gains” around the town of Bakhmut, where some of the fiercest fighting is raging in the Donbas region.

However, Russia’s army is believed to be suffering heavy casualties, as thousands of poorly-trained soldiers are thrown into battle, and to have made “little progress” to the south of the town. As Putin unleashed his new onslaught, defence ministers of Nato countries were holding urgent talks on speeding up the supply of tanks, longrange artillery, ammunition and other weapons to Ukraine.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said that Kyiv had “urgent requirements” in terms of more military aid at a “critical moment” in the war which the Russian president launched nearly a year ago. With many military analysts believing that Putin is now starting his full-scale spring offensive, Mr Austin emphasised at the Nato meeting in Brussels the West’s “shared resolve” to “sustain Ukraine’s momentum in the weeks ahead”. He added: “We still have much more to do together and we must intensify our focus. The Kremlin is still betting that it can wait us out.”