VLADIMIR Putin has been left humiliated after admitting to facing a "difficult" situation in annexed regions of Ukraine.
Speaking at a televised meeting with officials on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin claimed the situation in the areas of Ukraine that Russia has annexed is "difficult in places".
The Russian leader added that he had all the resources to improve life in the four Ukrainian regions.
It comes as the tyrant demoted his top commander – the fifth since the invasion began last February – over his failure to end the war in Ukraine.
Mad Vlad and Defence Minister Sergeri Shoigu replaced Sergei 'General Armageddon' Shurovikin with Valery Gerasimov as Russian troops were humiliated on the battlefield.
Read our Ukraine war blog below for the latest news…
Rishi Sunak's spokesperson said on Wednesday that the UK government is looking to further support Ukraine with tanks.
The spokesperson said: "We are accelerating our support to Ukraine with the kind of next-generation military technology that will help them win this war.
"It is clear that tanks could provide a game-changing capability to the Ukrainians and the prime minister told President Zelensky last week that we’ll provide whatever support we can.
"The prime minister has asked the Defence Secretary to work with partners in the coming weeks to discuss how we can go further and faster on our support to Ukraine including the provision of tanks."
The spokesperson added that no decision has been made on providing Challenger 2 tanks so far.
Ukraine's Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba had a call with that of Estonia's Urmas Reinsalu.
The two officials discussed Ukraine's military requirement which Estonia can help provide.
Kuleba also displayed his gratitude for the help Ukraine has been receiving from Estonia.
In our call, @UrmasReinsalu and I discussed Ukraine’s military needs which can be covered by Estonia. Looking forward to good news. I also thanked Estonia for its initiative on a compensation mechanism and stressed it is an important element of our Peace Formula. Russia must pay.
As Russia ordered its top general to lead the invasion of Ukraine during the biggest shake-up of its military, now Wagner claims that it claimed Soledar.
Head of Russia's private military firm Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that the Ukrainian mining town of Soledar has been captured with 500 Ukrainian soldiers killed in the process.
Prigozhin said: "I want to confirm the complete liberation and cleansing of the territory of Soledar from units of the Ukrainian army … Ukrainian units that did not want to surrender were destroyed.
"The whole city is littered with the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers."
Ukraine is fearing an attack from Russian troops as they fear that they might build camp on their ally's territory in Belarus.
The fears of Russia striking in the northwest are deja vu from when the first attacks took place towards Kyiv last February.
Hence why, Ukraine's military troops are carrying out several exercises such as urban warfare, firing assault rifles, driving armoured vehicles and freeing hostages to prepare for any attacks which might happen.
Ukraine fears Russia could build up forces on the territory of its ally Belarus before striking in the northwest or even try to drive towards Kyiv as it did when it invaded last February.
Ukraine have dismissed claims that Russia have encircled and captured the eastern town of Soledar.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, the spokesperson for the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said: “Russians say that it is under their control, it is not true.”
He added: "The town is not under the control of the Russian Federation. There are fierce battles going on now.
"There is a complicated situation there."
The Kremlin has claimed that Vladimir Putin is open to talks with Ukraine.
The Kremlin has stated that achieving its goals by political and diplomatic means is "preferable" however Ukraine's relationship with NATO was preventing the possibility of talks.
Vladimir Putin is furious at deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov as he slammed him during a government videoconference for the failing war efforts and the collapsing economy in Russia.
Putin said: "There are no contracts. What are you going to tell me? I know there are no contracts at the companies, the directors told me. Why are you really fooling around?”
The Russian President gave Manturov a month to fix the crisis Russia finds itself in with a shortage of military aircraft.
He added: "This all must be done within a month, I am asking you, within a month… Don't we understand in what conditions we're living?”
For the first time, a Russian warship armed with hypersonic missiles entered the North Sea.
Admiral Gorshkov is officially on "combat duty," the Kremlin claimed.
The Gorshkov has deadly Zircon missiles that fly at five times the speed of sound.
The Royal Navy mobilised the HMS Portland to keep its eyes on the Gorshkov along with a tanker.
A spokesman for Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela defended the island's efforts to help the EU sanction Russian assets.
The spokesman said that Malta even helped other countries to seize assets such as yachts.
These yachts have been registered in Malta, however, were located elsewhere.
The spokesman said: "A lot of work has been invested by Malta in support of the common European efforts."
The spokesman also added how Malta stopped trading with Russia and halted the sale of passports to Russian and Belarusian applicants.
This comes after an EU official found it "surprising" that Malta only froze €222,000 in Russian assets.
An EU document seen by Reuters claimed that the nation froze an even lesser amount of €147,000 and not the one reported by Malta.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov as commander of the combined forces group in Ukraine.
This group is currently on a "special military mission" and sees Gerasimov hold the most senior position in Russia's military generals.
Both Gerasimov and Shoigu have been at the centre of criticism by Russia's pro-war military bloggers for the setbacks taking place during times of battle.
They were also criticised for Moscow's failure to win this battle in a short time, as the Kremlin had planned.
Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhaylo Podolyak spoke with AFP today on how Ukraine can win the war in 2023 with the help of more Western weapons.
Long-range missiles and heavy tanks will enable Ukraine to strengthen its forces in a war that's been taking place since mid-February 2022.
He also mentioned the "bloodiest" fighting currently happening in eastern Ukraine as the country fights to keep Bakhmut and Soledar.
Podolyak said: "Only missiles with a range of more than 100 kilometres will allow us to significantly accelerate the de-occupation of our territories.
Poland will send a company – an amount of 14 – tanks to Ukraine to help it fight the war against Russia.
This was confirmed by Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Mr Duda added that this will be possible with an international coalition of tank aid to Kyiv and added that he has been in talks with other countries.
The other nations have not been revealed.
President Duda told a news conference in Lviv: "Within this potential international coalition, we have taken the decision to contribute a first package of tanks, a company of Leopard tanks, which, I hope, together with other companies of Leopard and other tanks that will be offered by other countries, will be able to strengthen Ukraine's defense."
Ukraine's neighbouring country Moldova will host the next European Summit on June 1, 2023.
The ex-Soviet Union country was chosen as a symbolic host as it aims to get rid of Moscow influence and join the European Union.
The summit will see all 27 EU countries attend, and non-members such as Britain, Turkey and Ukraine.
A Greek official said that €212,000 exhausted all assets identified in Athens and listed on the EU sanctions while adding: "Greece's investment environment does not favour the inflow of Russian capital and off-shore companies."
Meanwhile, a Maltese government spokesman said: "Assets have been frozen or sold off under court orders and the proceeds frozen due to Malta's cooperation with other European jurisdictions."
The spokesman added that Malta is even giving more information out to help assets become frozen away from the island.
However, he declined to comment on whether Malta will decrease more assets under the existing sanctions.
The 27 EU countries reported freezing around €20.3billion of sanctioned Russian assets with Italy, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria recording more than a billion euros.
A document seen by Reuters showed that EU members Greece and Malta were barely close to those amounts.
Greece froze £212,000 worth of Russian assets while Malta recorded €147,000.
An anonymous EU official spoke to Reuters, saying: "That is a bit surprising.
"Either they don't have much, or they are not doing their job. Or they have done something but not communicated to us even though they had chances."
Maria Zakharova – a spokeswoman for Estonia's Foreign Ministry – issued a statement asking Russia to reduce the number of diplomats in its embassy in Tallinn.
Estonia wants Russia to equal the number of diplomats to that found in the Estonian embassy in Moscow.
The Russian embassy in Tallinn lists 17 diplomats on its website, with Estonia expelling three since the invasion started last year.
Zakharova's statement read: "In light of the fact that during the war of aggression, the staff of the Russian embassy is not engaged in advancing Estonian-Russian relations, it is our view that there are no grounds for the current size of the Russian embassy.
"It is long been no secret that Estonia is one of the most hostile states towards Russia.
"Russophobia has been elevated to the level of an official doctrine."
Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova met with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets in Turkey.
The ombudsmen held a meeting in the Turkish city of Ankara.
The meeting concluded that 40 prisoners will be exchanged between Russia and Ukraine.
Ms Moskalkova said: "It is very important that the ombudsmen of Ukraine and Russia, in the absence of diplomatic relations (between the two countries), take concrete actions to help people."
During the meeting, other matters such as missing servicemen and civilian humanitarian issues were also discussed, she added.
Germany's interior ministry Nancy Faeser revealed that eight out of 10 people seeking protection in Germany hailed from Ukraine.
Since the invasion took place in mid-February 2022, 1,045,185 Ukrainians were registered in Germany as they escaped the war in their country.
Ms Faeser revealed in a statement that Vladimir Putin's "criminal war of aggression against Ukraine has triggered the largest flight movement in Europe since World War Two."
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said that the European Union – whose presidency is currently held by Sweden – will keep supporting Kyiv against Russia's attacks for as long as it takes.
Billstrom told a news conference: "Despite Russia's continued attempts to divide us, unity within the EU and across the Atlantic has been strong. The EU is prepared for a long war and will continue to stand by Ukraine's side with political, economic, military and humanitarian support for as long as it takes.
"Sanctions are the EU's best tool to help Ukraine win this war, which is the ultimate goal of what we are doing.
"The EU stands ready to continue to reinforce the sanctions, to ensure an effective and coherent implementation of the sanctions and also to prevent their circumvention by Russia."
If Ukraine loses Bakhmut, it will surrender supply lines, thus giving Russia another pathway for its forces to invade Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
However, Michael Kofman, the director of Russia Studies at the CAN non-profit organisation in Virginia, US said that it might not be worth it for the Russian forces.
He claimed on Twitter that victory might cost Putin as much as defeat due to the number of casualties which might take place during the efforts to take over such land.
Ukrainian forces are still holding strong and fighting for Soledar as the Kremlin eyes up an acquisition after a period of no good news.
Taking over Soledar will give Russian troops a strategic advantage in obtaining other lands in the province of Donetsk.
President Zelensky said that everything has been destroyed in the area due to heavy shelling from Russia.
The salt-mining town doesn't have much value to Russian troops, however, its geographical location will play a key role as it is 10km north of Bakhmut – which Russian forces aim to surround.
A Russian warship, equipped with hypersonic missiles, has conducted drills in the Norweigan Sea, according to the Kremlin’s Ministry of Defence.
“The crew of the frigate ‘Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov’ conducted an air defence exercise in the Norwegian Sea,” the ministry said.
Only last week Putin sent the vessel to the Atlantic carrying new missile technology as Russia continues its brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister said on Wednesday that Russian forces were trying without success to take over the eastern town of Soledar.
The official, Hanna Maliar, wrote on Telegram: "Heavy fighting continues in Soledar…The enemy has again replaced its units after sustaining losses, has increased the number of Wagner (Russian mercenaries) and is trying to burst through our forces’ defence and fully seize the city, but is not having success."
Vladimir Putin is facing a hard situation in Ukraine as the areas that Russia had claimed to have annexed are "difficult in places".
Speaking at a televised meeting with officials, Vladimir Putin claimed Russia had all the resources to improve life in the four Ukrainian regions.
Belarus's defence ministry has said that "anti-aircraft missile units" have taken up positions ready for "combat duty".
In a brief statement, the ministry said: "Anti-aircraft missile units advanced to designated areas and took up combat duty."
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