Ukraine is negotiating to maximise possible imports of electricity from European Union countries to compensate for the generation capacity destroyed by the Russian attacks, Ukrainian energy minister has said.

Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine‘s energy sector have intensified since March, resulting in significant damage and blackouts in many regions.

The attacks have caused more than $1 billion (£786 million) of damage to the sector, leading to the loss of 8,000 MWh of generating capacity from the energy system, the government says.

Currently, Ukraine can import from the EU states no more than 1,700 Mwh of electricity simultaneously.

“We’re negotiating. Our task is to maximise this figure,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko told parliament.

“Technically, we can receive (import) more than 2,000 Mwh, even 2,400 Mwh. I’m sure a decision will be made,” he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the northeast region of Kharkiv amid Russia’s fresh assault in the area.

The Ukrainian leader said he discussed the frontline situation, particularly in the town of Vovchansk, which has become a primary defensive position near the border with Russia.

The governor of the region, Oleh Syniehubov, and the mayor of the region’s namesake capital, Igor Terekhov, were both in attendance.

We have some more photos from the scene of a Russian missile strike on a printing press in Kharkiv, northeast Ukraine, yesterday.

You can read our full report on the strike here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to halt the war in Ukraine with a negotiated ceasefire that recognises the current battlefield lines, four Russian sources have told Reuters, saying he is prepared to fight on if Kyiv and the West do not respond.

Three of the sources, familiar with discussions in Putin's entourage, said the veteran Russian leader had expressed frustration to a small group of advisers about what he views as Western-backed attempts to stymie negotiations and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's decision to rule out talks.

“Putin can fight for as long as it takes, but Putin is also ready for a ceasefire to freeze the war,” said a senior Russian source who has worked with Putin and has knowledge of top level conversations in the Kremlin.

Putin has regularly suggested he is willing to negotiate a ceasefire, only to issue demands he knows Kyiv would never accept, and that permit him to steal swathes of Ukrainian territory.

The number of people held in Russian prisons dropped by 58,000 last year, Russian independent media has reported, continuing a steady fall spurred in part by the recruitment of convicts to fight in Ukraine.

In total, some 105,000 prisoners were released between 2022-2023, media reported, citing data published in the official journal of Russia’s prison service.

Russia has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world and a vast network of prisons and labour camps stretching across its 11 time zones.

Russia has recruited prisoners to fight in Ukraine since 2022, when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late head of the Wagner mercenary group, began touring penal colonies, offering prisoners a pardon if they survived six months at the front.

Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash last year two months after leading a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military leaders, said he had recruited 50,000 prisoners for Wagner.

Russia’s Defence Ministry has since continued recruiting convicts from prisons for its own Storm-Z formations.

Regional authorities in Siberia have said they plan to close several prisons this year amid a decline in inmate numbers driven by the recruitment of convicts for the war.

Fears that Russia would mount an attack on any Nato member are unfounded, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed, adding that the war in Ukraine that is now in its third year showed the limits of Russia’s capabilities.

Hungary, a member of the European Union and Nato, has been refusing to provide military assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Budapest also seeks to opt out of Nato long-term plan to aid Ukraine, with its foreign minister calling it a “crazy mission”.

Nationalist Orban, in power since 2010, has built his campaign for next month’s European Parliament elections on the agenda of avoiding deeper involvement in the conflict, saying the vote could determine the course of war and peace in Europe.

“The Russian military is fighting a serious and difficult war with the Ukrainians,” Orban told public radio in an interview. “If the Russians were strong enough to wrestle down the Ukrainians in one go, they would have done so already.”

Orban said Nato military capabilities far exceeded those of Ukraine, therefore it was unlikely that Russia or any other country would mount an attack against Nato.

“I do not consider it logical that Russia, which cannot even defeat Ukraine, would all of a sudden come and swallow the Western world whole,” said Mr Orban. “The chances of this are extremely slim.”

He said he considered references to the Russian threat as a prelude to deeper Western involvement in the Ukraine war.

Relations between Budapest and Washington have soured because of Hungary’s foot-dragging over the ratification of Sweden’s Nato accession and also over MrOrban’s warm ties with Moscow despite the war in Ukraine.

The first group of Ukrainian pilots taking part in the F-16 fighter jet training programme in the US have graduated, a spokesperson for the US Air National Guard has confirmed.

Ukraine is set to receive dozens of the US-made fourth generation fighter jets, though it is unclear when. Ukrainian military officials say they are vital to counteracting Russia’s aerial threats, most significantly their use of glide bombs, a deadly explosion nicknamed the “building destroyer” by pro-Kremlin military bloggers.

The pilots will now move to Europe for additional training, according to Politico.

The group began their training at Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, Arizona, last October. The lessons are facilitated by the Air National Guard’s 162nd Wing.

Other pilots are receiving training in Denmark, and Romania also opened an F-16 training facility for Ukrainian aviators.

Earlier this week, the Dutch Defense Ministry announced that the first 10 Ukrainian military personnel completed F-16 maintenance training in the Netherlands.

Good morning.

Below are the latest photos from Ukraine.

The United States is expected to announce an additional $275 million in military aid for Ukraine on Friday as Kyiv struggles to hold off advances by Russian troops in the Kharkiv region, two U.S. officials say.

This will be the fourth installment of military aid for Ukraine since Congress passed a long-delayed foreign aid bill late last month and comes as the Niden administration has pledged to keep weapons flowing regularly and to get them to the front lines as quickly as possible.

The package includes high mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, as well 155 mm and 105 mm high-demand artillery rounds, according to the two U.S. officials. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details of the aid package before the public announcement.