A service member of pro-Russian troops inspects the street during Ukraine-Russia conflict southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters

Russian troops have “fully withdrawn” from northern Ukraine as they prepare to be deployed to battlefields in the east, according to British military intelligence.

In a new report, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said troops who had occupied northern parts of the country are now back in Belarus and Russia, with many of them expected to head east soon.

As these forces are in need of “significant replenishment”, their redeployment will take at least a week, the MoD said.

This comes after Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov admitted that Russia has suffered “significant” troop losses in Ukraine.

Since the war began on 24 February, Moscow has only given several death toll updates. Its latest said that 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed in action. However, the Ukrainian army believes the true figure could be as high as 18,900.

 A man walks past a building damaged by shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine. AP

Elsewhere, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the situation in the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka is “significantly more dreadful” than in nearby Bucha, where 320 bodies of civilians have been recovered.

Reports of rape, torture

There are more credible reports that Russian soldiers have tortured, raped, and killed people in Ukraine, the US said.

This is according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was speaking to reporters at Nato, after a meeting with foreign ministers.

He said that Washington will not let anything stand in the way of sending Ukraine the weapons it needs in its fight against Russia.

The US is “sustaining and building up pressure on the Kremlin and its neighbours,” Blinken also said.

Australian PM, officials banned from Russia

Hundreds of Australian government officials, including PM Scott Morrison, are now banned from entering Russia.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it had imposed entry bans on 228 Australian government members and MPs in response to sanctions imposed over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Independent