Russia's bungled invasion of Ukraine may have hit another snag amid suggestions Vladimir Putin is running out of missiles.
The head of Britain's armed forces said the Russian president could be facing an arms deficit after underestimating the Ukrainians' resistance.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said he thinks Russia is locked in a "logistics war" to keep Putin's troops supplied with missiles and other armaments as their use of them since the start of the invasion on February 24 has been far greater than they anticipated.
Referring to Putin during an interview with TalkTV, Sir Tony said: "He potentially has a problem, because the rate of expenditure and the toughness of the fight is totally different to the one that he perceived on the 24th of February.
“I think there are several wars going on. There's a tactical, geographical war going on in Ukraine. There's a logistics war going on, in terms of how do you maintain that rate of expenditure."
Sir Tony, who is the Chief of the Defence Staff, also said Russia had lost a quarter of its forces in Ukraine and is floundering in the key battleground of the Donbas region in the country's east.
“We're talking severe impact on their armed forces," he said. "We’ve had 25% of their forces effectively being taken out - either through people being killed, or through the damage to their battalion tactical groups.”
Sir Tony continued: "You're also seeing, on a daily basis, Russia struggling to get the momentum, struggling to align its air forces with its land forces and struggling to get what we call a modern campaign which creates that momentum."
He argued that Putin is coming under "incredible pressure" from a political and military point of view to secure victory in Donbas and that it would be a "hard slog".
"You're seeing the tactical fight, where he's trying to rush to a tactical victory, and then he'll push that with his own people," Sir Tony added.
