Russian commander killed by his own troops, Western officials believe, as frustrations begin to show

The news came as UK intelligence suggested that Ukrainian troops were pushing back Putin’s forces around the capital Kyiv, more than four weeks after the incursion began.

The death toll continues to rise across Ukraine and in the besieged city of Mariupol, where 300 people are now believed to have been killed in a Russian airstrike on a theatre.

Western officials said yesterday afternoon that a colonel, commanding the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade, is believed to have been deliberately run down by his own men.

“The brigade commander was killed by his own troops and killed by his own troops, we believe, as a consequence of the scale of losses that have been taken by his brigade,” one official said.

“We believe that he was killed by his own troops deliberately. We believe that he was run over by his own troops.”

The official said that a lieutenant general commanding the 49th Combined Arms Army has also died in the fighting, making him the seventh Russian general to be killed in combat since the invasion began.

The latest assessment from the Ministry of Defence said the Ukrainians were expected to continue to try to push the Russians away from the capital.

“Ukrainian counter-attacks, and Russian forces falling back on overextended supply lines, has allowed Ukraine to reoccupy towns and defensive positions up to 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of Kyiv,” it said.

In the south of the country, it said the Russian advance on the key Black Sea port city of Odesa was being slowed by “logistic issues and Ukrainian resistance”.

In the besieged city of Mariupol, the authorities said about 300 people died in a Russian airstrike earlier this month on a theatre where hundreds of people were sheltering.

If confirmed, it is likely to lead for renewed calls for Western powers to step up military support for the Ukrainian forces.

World leaders are continuing to discuss the events in Ukraine regularly, and Boris Johnson had a “frank and candid discussion” with China’s President Xi Jinping yesterday, Downing Street said.

Nato leaders have urged Beijing to “abstain” from supporting Russia’s war effort and to refrain from any actions that would help it circumvent sanctions.

In a terse readout following the 50-minute call, a No 10 spokesman said they had discussed “a range of issues of mutual interest” including the situation in Ukraine.

“It was a frank and candid conversation lasting almost an hour. They agreed to speak again soon,” the spokesman said.

A No 10 spokesman said: “Obviously, the Prime Minister has been talking with a lot of world leaders and quite regularly throughout the course of what has happened in Ukraine.

“This is part of the Prime Minister’s wider engagement with world leaders so he can set out our position on where we think the current situation is.”

In a statement following Thursday’s emergency Nato summit in Brussels, alliance leaders called on the Chinese government “to cease amplifying the Kremlin’s false narratives”.