The Ukrainian military will stabilise the battlefield situation shortly and aims to form units for counter-offensive actions later this year, according to Lt Gen Oleksandr Pavliuk, commander of ground forces, writes The Guardian. He said work was under way to withdraw military units and restore their combat potential. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has previously said Russia will try to mount a new offensive this spring or summer, but Kyiv has a battlefield plan of its own.

Ukrainian military spokesperson Dmytro Lykhoviy told national television that Russian forces were unable to gain new ground near Avdiivka. The Russians were instead focusing on an area to the south, near the village of Novomykhailivka. Maksym Zhorin, a Ukrainian commander in the area, also said Russian forces were having difficulty making headway. Their latest target was the village of Orlivka.

Britain’s foreign minister, David Cameron, will discuss boosting support for Ukraine in talks with his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, in Berlin. There may be awkward moments after Russian media published an intercepted online call between senior German military officials.

A deadly Russian missile strike on Odesa appeared to land near Volodymyr Zelenskyy and visiting Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who described the moment of the bombardment as “intense”. The attack on port infrastructure killed 5 people and left an unspecified number of wounded, according to Ukraine’s navy.

Ukraine stepped up its attacks behind Russian lines with the apparent car bomb killing of a Russian election official in the Russian-occupied city of Berdiansk; and 2 drones struck the Mikhailovsky GOK iron ore refinery in Russia’s Kursk region, where an industrial fuel tank exploded. Ukrainian military intelligence was responsible for the iron plant attack, a source told Reuters.