Russia-Ukraine war live: US House speaker negotiates with White House over wartime funding for Ukraine

Speaker Mike Johnson has delayed aid for Ukraine for months in effort to include Republican demands in package

Good morning. The US House speaker is negotiating with the White House on advancing wartime funding for Ukraine and Israel, the Associated Press is reporting.

Speaker Mike Johnson has delayed for months on advancing desperately needed aid to Ukraine, in an effort to include some politically advantageous Republican demands in the package – as well as due to pressure from some hard-right Republicans aligned with Donald Trump.

Ukraine’s parliament passed a controversial bill on Thursday that will change the rules on civilian military mobilisation in an effort to address fledgling manpower among its forces. The legislation, which must be signed by the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is seen as crucial for Ukraine to address what military analysts say are major manpower problems as it fights a better armed and larger foe.

Russian forces outnumber Ukrainian troops seven to ten times in eastern regions, Ukraine’s Gen Yuriy Sodol told parliament on Thursday. “The enemy outnumbers us by 7-10 times, we lack manpower,” said Sodol, who is commanding the troops in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.

Russian missiles and drones destroyed a large electricity plant near Kyiv and hit power facilities in several regions of Ukraine on Thursday, officials said. The major attack destroyed the Trypilska coal-powered thermal power plant near the capital, a senior official at the company that runs the facility told Reuters.

The mass use of “drop-and-forget” guided bombs containing foreign components is driving Russian advances in Ukraine, with up to 500 now being fired a week, according to a Ukrainian government analysis. High explosive and cluster bombs fitted with “UMPC” guiding systems with a range of 40-60km (25-37 miles) are now said to be a central threat on the frontline, forcing back Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine and Latvia signed a bilateral security agreement, Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced during a visit to Vilnius. Zelenskiy said: “It envisages Latvia’s annual military support for Ukraine at 0.25% of GDP. Latvia also made a 10-year commitment to assist Ukraine with cyber defence, demining, and unmanned technologies, as well as support for Ukraine’s EU and Nato accession.”

Drone attacks on the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine must stop as they could pose “a new and gravely dangerous” stage in the war, the UN nuclear watchdog chief, said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of targeting the plant since Russia seized it weeks after invading Ukraine. Both countries requested an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)‘s board after an attack on Sunday. “It is of paramount importance to ensure these reckless attacks do not mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war,” IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said, adding: “Strikes must cease.”