Putin appears to admit severe Russian losses in Ukraine

According to Jack Watling, a senior analyst at the Royal United Services Institute, Russian troops around Kherson have retreated to their second line of defence to shorten their frontline. “There’s no evidence of surrender or collapse [of Russian forces] … like we saw in Kharkiv region,” said Watling, noting the political importance for Russia of holding on to Kherson city, the only regional centre it has managed to acquire since February. But if Ukraine’s forces manage to break through Russia’s second line of defence, they will be able to cut the Russian supply lines with a wider range of cheaper artillery and trap them on the western bank of Kherson, he added.