Crimea's governor Aksyonov is not sure Russian army will be able to defend peninsula - British intelligence

British intelligence shared the information in its report on Twitter.

"The leader of Russian-occupied Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, has been instrumental in setting up several local units, which often claim affiliation with the Cossack tradition. Most have been given some semi-official status as reserve units of the regular army," they said.

The main element of the Russian garrison in Crimea is the 22nd Army Corps, which is currently mostly deployed outside the peninsula and has suffered significant losses.

According to British intelligence, Aksyonov is concerned about the ability of the regular Russian army to defend the peninsula.

• Russians are exporting classified documents from the occupied Crimea.