Russia’s ability to outmatch Ukraine with artillery barrages on the battlefield has significantly reduced to just 1.5 Russian rounds for every Ukrainian shell fired back, Western officials have said.

This compares with Russian forces launching at least five times as many artillery rounds as Ukraine could in the war previously – with the ratio at times much higher even than that.

The Western officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, put the levelling out down to a “wide variety of factors”.

These factors include limitations in Russia’s defence production lines, difficulties with transporting more rounds to the frontline by rail, and strikes by Ukrainian drones against strategic stockpiles of Russian and North Korean ammunition supplies inside Russia.

In addition, they said Western supplies of ammunition were helping to bolster Ukraine’s armoury.

However, vast quantities of Russian glide bombs appear to be compensating for the reduction in the country’s advantage on the artillery front, the Western officials signalled.

One official said there had been a “massive increase in Russian glide bomb use on the frontline to devastating effect”.

They said Russian forces were still gaining ground in Ukraine but at a terrible cost.

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The Western officials repeated earlier Ukrainian claims that Russia lost more than 2,000 troops, killed or injured, in a single day last month fighting against Ukraine – the highest casualty rate of the war.

Moscow has consistently dismissed Russian casualty estimates by Ukraine and its allies.

The Kremlin does not publish up-to-date figures. Ukraine is also secretive about its losses.

One of the Western officials said the figures “speak to the brutality of the frontline – very Somme-esque”.

The Battle of the Somme in France was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the First World War.

The Western official said Russian forces suffered 2,030 casualties on 28 November – “a new war high” and the first time the rate of dead and wounded had breached the 2,000-mark.

The official said the average daily rate of Russian dead and injured in Ukraine for the whole of November had topped 1,500 for a third straight month, putting the average at 1,523 personnel.

South Korea’s president needs to be removed from power after his shock decision to impose martial law this week, the country’s ruling party leader has said.

Yoon Suk Yeol rescinded the declaration six hours later on Tuesday, but protesters and opposition MPs have called for him to be impeached, with a vote due on Saturday.

People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon had said they are against impeachment, but he suggested that may change in light of “credible evidence” the president planned to arrest political leaders.

“I believe that President Yoon Suk Yeol’s immediate suspension of office is necessary to protect the Republic of Korea and its people in light of the newly revealed facts,” he said.

He did not explicitly call for impeachment, but claimed the president had ordered the arrest of prominent politicians on the grounds they were among “anti-state forces”.

The presidential office later denied any such order had been given, according to the Yonhap news agency, while the government said it was not preparing another martial law declaration.

Fearing another attempt to declare martial law, opposition politicians were rotating through parliament’s hall to block any attempt, a Democratic Party official said.

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It’s unclear if the president was meant to arrive at the National Assembly, where protesters have gathered to call for his impeachment.

For an impeachment to pass, the bill would need support from two-thirds of the 300-member assembly.

As the president’s party has 108 politicians, eight would need to side with the opposition for the bill to succeed.

If the president is impeached, he would be suspended until a trial can be held at the Constitutional Court, while the prime minister would serve as acting leader.

Meanwhile, the national police is investigating the president and Kim Yong-hyun, the defence minister who resigned after allegedly encouraging martial law.

Broadcaster YTN reported government and military prosecutors are also carrying out a joint investigation, while South Korea’s defence ministry said on Friday it has suspended three commanders.

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The country’s special warfare commander, Kwak Jong-geun, claimed he defied an order from the former defence minister to drag politicians out of parliament. Instead, he said, he ordered troops not to enter.

“I knew it would be disobedience, but I did not order that mission,” he told an opposition politician’s YouTube channel, adding he ordered against carrying live ammunition.

“I told them not to go in.”

A Syrian rebel who took part in the capture of the city of Hama has told Sky News they will continue to push on.

In the latest blow to President Bashar al Assad, rebels in the Middle Eastern country took control of the central city on Thursday.

Speaking to Sky News, one rebel said: “Just as we liberated Aleppo and now Hama, we will proceed to Homs, and Damascus, and Deir el Zor.”

He also claimed to have received support from the people in Hama.

Abu Omar, a resident in the city, said they had been waiting “45 years… for this moment”.

When asked if he was afraid of the rebel attack, he said: “On the contrary, we’ve been waiting for this moment. Our children, our family, they’ve all come back to us.

“Everyone was a million times more scared before, praise God, we’ve been liberated. No more oppression and tyranny.”

Mr Omar added: “What’s happened to us here, has happened in Idlib and Aleppo… and the regime has completely failed.”

Rebels seize Hama

The Syrian army said it had withdrawn and taken up positions outside the city to protect civilians, hours after opposition fighters said they were marching towards its centre.

The insurgents said they had entered Syria’s fourth-largest city on Thursday after days of intense fighting with government forces on its outskirts.

The fall of Hama follows a lightning offensive by the jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army.

The surprise assault saw militants capture much of Syria’s largest city Aleppo last week and reignited the country’s civil war, where the frontlines have largely been frozen in place over the last few years.

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The battle for Hama saw fierce battles inside the city, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“If Hama falls, it means that the beginning of the regime’s fall has started,” the monitor’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said before the city was captured.

Hama is one of the few cities that remained under Mr Assad’s control during Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 following a popular uprising.

The central city of Homs, Syria’s third-largest, is around 40km (25 miles) away and is likely to be the rebels’ next target.

It sits on a major crossroads in Syria, linking the capital Damascus to the north and the coast to the west.

Jihad Yazigi, editor of the Syria Report newsletter, said: “Assad now cannot afford to lose anything else.

“The big battle is the one coming against Homs. If Homs falls, we are talking of a potential change of regime.”

Mr Assad has been able to stay in power largely thanks to the help of his allies, Russia and Iran, but both countries – as well as the Iran-backed Hezbollah group – have been distracted by their own wars.

Russia has been preoccupied with its invasion of Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah in Lebanon has suffered heavy losses in its war with Israel.