UK: Russia could send "more cannon fodder" after Kherson loss

Russia could send "more cannon fodder" to Ukraine after losing control of a strategically important city, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has warned.

Moscow’s withdrawal from Kherson prompted jubilant scenes with residents hugging and kissing Ukrainian troops – but Mr Wallace has urged caution, according to Metro.

"History will remind you that Russia can be brutal to their own," he said. "If they need more cannon fodder, that is what they’ll be doing."

It came as British experts warned that Russia, which has mobilised 300,000 reservists, planned to reprise a Soviet scheme for schools to give "mandatory military training".

Mr Wallace said that it showed "the type of regime we're up against" and the Kremlin's retreat from Kherson, the only regional capital it had taken since February’s invasion, would have Russian citizens asking: "What was it all for?"

However, Mr Wallace believes it should be up to Ukraine to decide on peace talks. "I don’t think we should be grateful when the thief gives back stolen goods – and that’s effectively what Russia has done," he added.

Chief of the defence staff Adm Sir Tony Radakin told the BBC Moscow’s plan to weaken NATO had failed as it is now "even stronger".

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to keep pushing Russian forces out of Ukraine, telling those still under occupation: "We don't forget anyone; we won't leave anyone."

Despite the retreat, one Ukrainian official described the situation in Kherson as a humanitarian catastrophe.

Those remaining lack water, medicine and food, and power supplies are poor. Hundreds of police officers have been sent to document war crimes.

Meanwhile, Russian officials in the illegally annexed Kakhovka district, east of Kherson, have been ordered out over fears it will be the next to fall.