Live Updates | UK: Russian military ‘significantly weaker’

LVIV, Ukraine – British military believes Russia’s military is now “significantly weaker” after suffering casualties in its war against Ukraine.

The British Ministry of Defense issued its daily statement on Twitter on Tuesday about the war.

It said: “Russia’s military is significantly weaker, both materially and conceptually, as a result of the invasion of Ukraine. Recovery from this is made more difficult by sanctions. This will profoundly affect Russia’s ability to deploy conventional military forces.”

The ministry added that while Russia’s defense budget doubled from 2005 to 2018, the modernization program it implemented “has not enabled Russia to dominate Ukraine.”

“Failures in both strategic planning and operational execution have made it impossible to convert numerical strength into decisive advantages,” the ministry said.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

– A US official says Russia plans to annex parts of eastern Ukraine

— Civilians rescued from the Mariupol Steel Plant move to safety

– Push to arm Ukraine puts strain on US arms stocks

— UEFA bans more Russian football teams from its competitions

all consequences AP Stories about Russia’s war against Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

LVIV, Ukraine — Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show nearly 50 Russian military helicopters at a base near the Ukrainian border.

Image taken by Planet Labs PBC on Monday shows the helicopters based in Stary Oskol, Russia, about 175 kilometers (110 miles) northeast of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

The helicopters are stationed on the tarmac, runway and grass of the otherwise civilian airport. Military equipment is stationed nearby to support the aircraft.

In its war against Ukraine, Russia has used its military attack helicopters, which fly low to avoid anti-aircraft missiles.

Meanwhile, another satellite image showed a bridge repeatedly attacked by Moscow near the Black Sea port city of Odessa, which was still standing around noon Monday. This strategic bridge connects Odessa to the outskirts and would be key to defending the area.

A breakaway region in neighboring Moldova, where Russian troops live nearby, has seen a series of mysterious explosions in recent days, raising concerns about the widening conflict.

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ROME – Pope Francis has told an Italian newspaper he offered to travel to Moscow to meet the Russian president about three weeks after the invasion began, but received no response.

Francis was quoted by Corriere della Sera on Tuesday as offering to visit the Russian president Wladimir Putin in Moscow was made by Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 20 days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He said: “Of course it would be necessary for the Kremlin leader to provide a time slot. But we still haven’t received an answer and we keep pushing, even though I fear that Putin cannot and does not want to have this meeting at this moment.”

Francis said he spoke for 40 minutes via video conference with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, and spent the first half “reading paper in hand all the justifications for war. I listened and said to him: I don’t understand all this. Brother, we are not clerics of the state, we cannot use the language of politics, but Jesus’ language. … For that we need to find ways of peace to stop the firing of guns.”

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OTTAWA – Ukraine’s ambassador-designate to Canada says Russia must be held accountable for its troops’ commission of sex crimes, including against children.

Yulia Kovaliv told a Canadian House of Commons committee on Monday that Russia uses sexual violence as a weapon of war and said rape and sexual assault should be investigated as war crimes.

She said Russia also kidnapped Ukrainian children and took them to the Russian-occupied territories and now to Russia itself. Ukraine is working with partners to find and bring back the children.

“A few days ago, Russians killed a young mother and taped her live child to her body and fixed a mine between them,” the ambassador said. She said the mine exploded.

All of Russian society and not just President Vladimir Putin “and his deputies” should bear responsibility for the war against Ukraine, as more than 70% of Russians support the invasion, Kovaliv said.

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WASHINGTON – Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrived at the Capitol on Monday after leading a surprise delegation trip to Ukraine and vowed the US Congress had “more work to do” to help the country fight the Russian invasion.

Pelosi is the highest-ranking US elected official to land in Kyiv since the war began, and she called the congressional delegation’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “informative and inspiring.”

The trip with Democratic lawmakers comes as Congress prepares a $33 billion package of military and humanitarian aid, but now some lawmakers are also discussing a “Marshall Plan”-type effort to eventually help rebuild Ukraine as the USA helped Europe after World War II.

Pelosi returned to the Capitol in Washington to sign and deliver to President Joe Biden legislation passed by Congress last week updating a World War II-era military lending lease law and the process for deployment of aid to Ukraine. Biden is expected to sign the law.