Exhausted Russian fighters complain of conditions in eastern Ukraine

Pro-Russian troops inspect an anti-tank launcher belonging to Ukrainian forces outside Svitlodarsk in the Donetsk region last month. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Russia’s assault on Ukraine’s east has brought it some battlefield success as its military has advanced slowly in fierce fighting in Donbas.

But those gains have come at a high price for the Russian invasion force, with evidence that high-level casualties are growing and that some units may be approaching exhaustion as the war moves past its 100-day mark.