Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy and UK prime minister discuss accelerating military support for Ukraine – as it happened

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China's defence minister, Li Shangfu, will visit Russia from 16 to 19 April, and meet Russian military officials, Reuters reports the Chinese defence ministry said on Friday.

The UK's Ministry of Defence has claimed in its daily intelligence briefing that Ukrainian troops have been forced to make orderly withdrawals' from positions they previously held in the highly contested town of Bakhmut, and that the last two days have seen an intense artillery bombardment from Russian forces.

Russia has re-energised its assault on the Donetsk oblast town of Bakhmut as forces of the Russian ministry and Wagner group have improved cooperation.

The Ukrainian defence still holds the western districts of the town but has been subjected to particularly intense Russian artillery fire over the previous 48 hours.