Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said 25,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion as he insisted Russia’s war was “failing”.

Speaking at the Nato summit in Madrid, Mr Wallace told LBC: “I would still say the Ukrainians are winning. They are extracting huge amounts of cost from the Russian armed forces.

“Twenty five thousand Russians, we think, have been killed in that fight in the space of 112, 115 days. Russia has failed on all its major objectives.

“It is now reduced to a grinding advance - a few hundred metres every few days at massive cost in one small part of eastern Ukraine along two or three axes. That is not a victory in anyone’s book.”

It comes as Mr Wallance called for a “reality check” on Britain’s defence spending amid reports of a Cabinet split over investment in the UK’s military.