Ukraine says Russian advance has slowed significantly

Ukraine's military says that "the enemy is continuing an offensive operation, but the pace of advance of its troops has slowed significantly," reports BBC.

According to the agency, on 13th day of the Russian assault, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said that, as of 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT) on 8 March, Ukrainian troops were continuing to defend in the southern, eastern and northern sectors. It reported that Kyiv, as well as the northern city of Chernihiv, were still in Ukrainian hands.

It added that the country's air defences were successfully repulsing missile and air strikes.

"The occupiers are demoralised, and are increasingly resorting to looting and violating the rules of international humanitarian law on military conflict," it said.

According to BBC, the Ukrainian military also claimed that Russia was now resorting to psychological warfare, saying that groups of Russian forces were created to carry out tasks related to "conducting propaganda work" in occupied territories to influence local residents.