Telegraph Live Blog - Putin: We'll kick the enemy out of Russia

Despite Russia’s weak response, it is “unlikely” that Kyiv would “want to sustain a large incursion for months,” said Matthew Savill, director of Military Sciences at the Royal United Services Institute. “The Russians have been severely embarrassed and the loss of territory and evacuation of civilians will play poorly back in Russia as evidence they ‘can’t defend themselves’,” he added. However, Mr Savill noted that Ukraine “must now make a decision about the best time to trade in the ground they have captured, and to what end”. “Sustaining a force of any size in Russia, and defending against counter-attacks, will be hard, given the limited reserves available to Ukraine. Neither has it – thus far – resulted in the Russians slowing their advances around the Donbas, where the situations around Chasiv Yar and towards Povrovsk remain difficult,” he said.