Ukraine’s Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi says Russia has intensified armoured assaults as battles rages over village near Bakhmut. What we know on day 781

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Germany will supply a US-made Patriot air defence system and air defence missiles to Ukraine at a “critical time”, as Kyiv struggles to defend its energy system from Russian bombardment, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday. Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app that he was grateful to Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, for the decision to supply an additional Patriot system, and missiles for existing air defence systems. Later in his nightly video address, Zelenskiy indicated talks were under way on expanding the transfer of another air defence system, though German officials did not reference this in their remarks. “We are also working with Germany on an additional Iris-T system, which is also a strong air defence system, and on missiles for our existing air defence systems,” Zelenskiy said in his video address.

Olaf Scholz said on X in response to the announcement: “We stand steadfast on the side of Ukraine”, adding that Zelenskiy had informed him in a telephone call on Saturday about “massive Russian air attacks on civilian energy infrastructure”. Germany’s ambassador to Ukraine, Martin Jaeger, said on X: “Other international partners must follow quickly now.”

Ukraine’s army chief said on Saturday the situation on the eastern front had worsened in recent days as Russia intensified its armoured assaults and battles rage for control of a village west of the devastated city of Bakhmut. “The situation on the eastern front has deteriorated significantly in recent days,” said Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, more than two years since Russia’s invasion reflected the grim mood in Kyiv as vital US military aid that Kyiv expected to receive months ago remains stuck in Congress. Zelenskiy said in his evening address that the “situation at the front, in some areas, is difficult”.

The US House of Representatives will make a change in its schedule to consider legislation that supports Israel, House majority leader Steve Scalise said in a statement on Saturday. It’s yet unclear whether Scalise was referring to a stand-alone bill to aid Israel, or the $95bn supplemental spending bill that includes $14bn for Israel, in addition to $60bn for Ukraine , and other humanitarian assistance. That package passed the Senate with 70% support in February but has been blocked in the house, whose Republican leaders will not call it up for a vote, largely because of their objection to further funding for Ukraine.

Russia’s defence ministry announced its troops had seized the village of Pervomaiske in the Donetsk region, about 11km (7 miles) west of the largely destroyed town of Avdiivka, captured by Russia in the middle of February. Ukraine did not confirm this, however. Its general staff said on Saturday evening that troops had repelled Russian attacks aimed at pushing them out of Pervomaiske and other villages nearby. Ukrainian prosecutors said Russia on Saturday launched airstrikes on villages in the Donetsk region, killing three, including a 60-year-old man and a 66-year-old woman, and wounding four.

In the south, Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of killing 10 by shelling the occupied town of Tokmak in the Zaporizhzhia region . Ukrainian authorities in Zaporizhzhia said Russia had struck the region more than 400 times in the past day, including from planes. Russia also said one man was killed by Ukrainian shelling of the occupied town of Oleshky in the southern Kherson region.

Safety at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine remains precarious but the shift to a cold shutdown of all six reactor units, completed on Saturday, is positive, the UN nuclear watchdog chief said in a statement. Drones attacked Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, on Sunday, hitting a reactor building in the worst such incident since November 2022, though nuclear safety was not compromised, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said. Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused one another of targeting the plant since Russia seized it weeks after it invaded Ukraine.

The London Metal Exchange on Saturday banned from its system Russian metal produced on or after 13 April to comply with new US and UK sanctions imposed for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions aim to restrict revenues for Russia from the export of metal produced by companies such as Rusal and Nornickel that help to fund its military operations in Ukraine.