Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow claims Nato is ‘fighting against Russia’ after drones enter Romanian airspace

Russia has lost over one million troops in Ukraine since it started its full-scale invasion, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces has reported.

In its latest report, the General Staff claimed that enemy forces had lost 1,095,520 troops since 24 February 2022, including 910 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

Russia has also lost 11,184 tanks, 23,269 armoured fighting vehicles, 61,698 vehicles and fuel tanks, 32,784 artillery systems, 1,488 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,217 air defence systems, 422 airplanes, 341 helicopters, 59,409 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine, according to the report.

Belarusian opposition politician Mikola Statkevich, who refused to be deported to neighbouring Lithuania after being released from prison last week, has been returned to a penal colony, independent news outlet Nasha Niva reported on Monday.

“Statkevich has been found in the Hlybokaye prison colony,” exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya posted on X, citing the Nasha Niva report which was based on an unidentified source.

“We urge the international community to demand his freedom,” she said.

Statkevich was one of 52 prisoners freed in Belarus last week after an appeal from US president Donald Trump, including journalists and political opponents of president Alexander Lukashenko. All were taken to the Lithuanian border, but Statkevich was the only one who refused to cross.

The exiled opposition says freed prisoners should have the right to remain in Belarus rather than be forced to leave the country. Some of those released last week said they would rather have stayed.

Statkevich, 69, ran unsuccessfully against Lukashenko in a presidential election in 2010. He was arrested in May 2020 and sentenced in 2021 to 14 years in a maximum security prison for “organising riots”.

Nasha Niva said he had been in solitary confinement in the Hlybokaye prison for the past two years and seven months, with no contact with the outside world.

In a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday morning, the US president said he believes the Russia–Ukraine war would end if all Nato countries stopped buying oil from Moscow and placed tariffs on China of 50 per cent to 100 per cent for its purchases of Russian petroleum.

He wrote: “As you know, NATO’S commitment to WIN has been far less than 100%, and the purchase of Russian Oil, by some, has been shocking! It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia. Anyway, I am ready to ‘go’ when you are. Just say when?”

Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, has been summoned by the Foreign Office following the country’s “unprecedented violation” of Nato airspace.

Kelin, 68, who speaks English, Dutch and French, has been a diplomat for more than 45 years. He as appointed to the position of Ambassador of Russia to the United Kingdom in 2019.

Following the 2022 Russian invasion, he was banned from entering the Westminster Parliamentary Estate alongside all other Russian diplomats in the UK.

At least three Russian soldiers have died after Ukrainian special forces blew up a railway line and caused two trains to derail in separate attacks deep behind enemy lines.

Authorities said a diesel locomotive derailed close to St Petersburg, shortly after a freight train carrying empty fuel tanks came off its tracks in a similar area.

It followed an explosion on railway lines in Oryol, some 120 miles from the Ukrainian border, which killed three members of the Russian guard who were deployed to de-mine a bomb. The unidentified mines, found on the Maloarkhangelsk — Glazunovka section, exploded during the de-mining process.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday said Israel and Russia should be banned from international sports competitions until “barbaric acts” end, referring to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Sanchez said he condemned the violent protests by pro-Palestinian on Sunday in Madrid which disrupted the La Vuelta cycling race and ultimately led to the cancellation of the final leg and the podium ceremony.