Russian troops made no major gains in past 24 hours: UK

London, April 23: The Russian troops have failed to make any major gains due to Ukrainian counter-attacks, the UK’s Defence Intelligence (DI) said on Saturday. The UK ministry of defence’s DI said, “Despite increased activity, Russian forces have made no major gains in the last 24 hours as Ukrainian counter-attacks continue to hinder their efforts.” It further said that Russia’s air and naval forces “have not established control in either domain owing to the effectiveness of Ukraine’s air and sea defence reducing their ability to make notable progress”. It said, “Despite their stated conquest of Mariupol (in south-eastern Ukraine), heavy fighting continues to take place frustrating Russian attempts to capture the city thus further slowing their (Russia’s) desired progress,” it added. Earlier this week, Russia had announced the second stage of its “special military operation” in Ukraine and said it would now focus on taking control over Donbas, BBC reported. UNI