Kyiv: As per the latest update by the intelligence agencies, Russian forces suffered losses of one-third of its ground force combat since February. Russian forces are retreating from the north following Ukraine’s counteroffensive but are intensifying attacks in the east, it added. Locals from Kharkiv also confirmed the Russians were withdrawign from its surroundings.

The ministry in a statement said- Russian forces are increasingly constrained by degraded enabling capabilites, continued low morale andreduced combat effectiveness. Many of these capabilties cannot be qucikly replaced or reconstituted, and are likely continue to be hinder Russian opeartions in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s State Border Service says Russian troops opened fire across the frontier in the Sumy region on Monday, adding that “border guards fought enemy saboteurs” who tried to enter Ukrainian territory from the village of Lokot. Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine lies 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the border with Russia, and Sumy was one of the first cities to be attacked in the Russian invasion. The State Border Service claimed the Russians had “fired mortars, grenade launchers, machine guns and automatic rifles. Border guards fought the saboteurs and forced them to retreat beyond the state border.”

At a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin, Germany’s Annalena Baerock said it would provide military assistance ‘ for as long as Ukraine needs this support for the self-defence of its country’.