Soaring fuel prices, cash restrictions in Crimea, and growing talk of forced mobilisation mean ordinary Russians could soon feel the cost of the war.

Kyiv is probing Russia’s weakened defences and testing the reach of Western cruise missiles in a bid to raise the Kremlin’s economic and military costs.

Energy shortages have continued to plague Sevastopol, the largest city in Russian-controlled Crimea, following repeated, intensified Ukrainian strikes on the peninsula.