Lord Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British armed forces has warned Vladimir Putin that his soldiers are “absolutely confused” and “frightened” with many “refusing to return to Russia.”

Since 24 February Russia has had more than 14,400 soldiers killed in action and has so far lost five Generals.

Lord Dannatt said the Putin’s soldiers were “briefed really poorly” and are hungry as they have no food and are stealing from houses to eat.

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Lord Dannatt told BBC Breakfast on Saturday, “We understand that they were briefed really poorly, that they would go, that they’d be moving quickly, they’d be welcomed as peacekeepers and liberators, but in fact what they found was that the Ukrainian armed forces, Ukrainian civilians were fighting resolutely against them.

“These young men are absolutely confused, many of them are very young, frightened, exhausted from weeks of exercising.”

He added, “These young men, not only frightened, are now hungry, the fuel for their tanks is not available, so they’ve been placed in a terrible situation.

“It’s therefore no surprise the Russian army has not made progress on the ground. They’ve had to resort now to this morally indefensible tactic of shelling defenceless civilians.”

The Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky gave an address to his nation on Thursday evening saying that Russian prisoners of war (POW) do not want to go back to Russia.

Zelensky also said that Russia are not taking many of the POWs back and some of them have “received death notices.”

The Ukrainian President said, “More Russian conscripts have been taken prisoner of war.

“Among them, there are those who refuse to return to Russia.

“There are many who are not even talked about in Russia, who are not being taken back.

“Families of some soldiers have received death notices, although they are in captivity and alive.”