Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin announces plan to strengthen cooperation with Chinese armed forces

Russian president and Chinese counterpart Xi vow to deepen ties in bilateral talks

Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the governor of Sumy region, which is in Ukraine’s north-east and borders Russia, has posted to Telegram to say that overnight three settlements in the area were fired on by Russia. He said details about the consequences were being clarified.

Reuters has a quick snap to say that Ukraine’s air force has reported on Friday morning that Russia launched 16 so-called kamikaze drones overnight, and that Ukrainian air defences destroyed all of them. It added that the drones had been sent from the south-east and north.