The United Kingdom has said Russia lost more than 450 soldiers in its first day of invading Ukraine. 

Defence secretary Ben Wallace said on Friday 

said the Russian forces had failed to “deliver their main objectives” after invading on Thursday morning.

“Our assessment as of this morning is that Russia has not taken any of its major objectives,” Mr Wallace said. “In fact, it is behind its hoped-for timetable. They’ve lost over 450 personnel and indeed one of the significant airports they were trying to capture with their elite Spetsnaz has failed to be taken.”

However, Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday its forces had “successfully completed” their objectives for the day, claiming to have destroyed more than 70 Ukrainian military targets, including 11 airfields.

Peoples Gazette had reported that Russian forces had seized the Antonov International airport near Kyiv as well as the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant. 

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin began invading Ukraine after weeks of tension between both countries, threatening other global powers trying to interfere with “consequences you have never seen.” 

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in spite of strict sanctions doled out by Western powers like the United States, unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases and sending in troops and tanks from three sides.

Ukrainian and U.S. officials said Russian forces were attacking from the east toward Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city; from the southern region of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014; and from Belarus to the north.