Ukraine has repelled ‘numerous’ assaults in the Donbas and is inflicting ‘significant cost’ on Putin’s forces, says UK

The Ukrainian army has repelled assaults in the Donbas and is inflicting “significant cost” on Putin’s forces, the UK has said.

In an intelligence update on Sunday morning, the Ministry of Defence said low morale, as well as “limited time to reconstitute, re-equip and reorganise forces” were “likely hindering Russian combat effectiveness”.

It added that Ukrainian forces had successfully repelled “numerous” assaults along the line of contact in the Donbas this week - the new focus in the war.

It comes amid reports Russian forces tried to storm a steel plant housing soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet US secretary of state Antony Blinken and secretary of defence Lloyd Austin in Kyiv on Sunday.

Speaking at a news conference, Mr Zelensky gave little detail about logistics of the encounter but said he expected concrete results — “not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons.”

It would be the first high-level US trip to Kyiv since the war began on February 24.

While visiting Poland in March, Mr Blinken stepped briefly onto Ukrainian soil to meet with the country’s foreign minister.

Mr Zelensky’s last face-to-face meeting with a US leader was on February 19 with Vice President Kamala Harris.

In attacks on the eve of Orthodox Easter, Russian forces pounded cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine.

A three-month-old baby was among eight people killed when Russia fired cruise missiles at the Black Sea port city of Odesa, officials said. Mr Zelensky said 18 more were wounded.

“The war started when this baby was one month old. Can you imagine what is happening?” Mr Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian military said on Saturday it destroyed a Russian command post in Kherson, a southern city that fell to Russian forces early in the war.

The command post was hit on Friday, killing two generals and critically wounding another, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency said in a statement.

Russia said it took control of several villages elsewhere in the eastern Donbas region and destroyed 11 Ukrainian military targets overnight, including three artillery warehouses.