Russian defences in Ukraine have been stronger than the West anticipated, the head of the British armed forces has admitted.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, suggested expectations may need to be “adjusted” about what Kyiv can achieve in the short term after the counteroffensive failed to deliver the decisive breakthrough many hoped for at the beginning of the summer.
Radakin yesterday accompanied Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, to Ukraine. It was Shapps’s first visit to Kyiv since he replaced Ben Wallace earlier this month.
The trip was an opportunity for Shapps to meet both President Zelensky and Rustem Umerov, the new Ukrainian defence secretary. Umerov replaced Oleksii Reznikov earlier this year after the military was embroiled in a series of
