As the war enters its 777th day, these are the main developments.

Fighting

• Explosions were heard in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv early on Thursday morning as it came under Russian missile attack, Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
• Separately, Zaporizhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said blasts were heard in the southern Ukrainian region, and Ukrainian media reported a cruise missile attack was under way.
• Russian forces also launched deadly attacks in the south and north of Ukraine, in Kharkiv and Odesa regions, killing seven people and injuring many more, officials said on Wednesday.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the civilian deaths in his nightly video address saying, “Russian terror persists day and night at our border and in front-line areas.”
• Ukrainian politicians sparked anger by scrapping a clause in a draft law that would have allowed soldiers who had spent long periods on the front lines a chance to return home. With Ukraine’s army outnumbered by Russia on the battlefield, military leaders pressured politicians to ditch a draft amendment that would have given soldiers serving for more than 36 months the possibility of being discharged.

Politics and diplomacy

• Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs again criticised plans for a Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland. Moscow claimed the talks were a futile initiative of the US Democratic Party ahead of the November presidential election. The high-level conference is to be held in Switzerland on June 15-16 and Swiss media have said US President Joe Biden is expected to attend.
•  Russian businessmen Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven won a court case on Wednesday over a European Union decision to sanction them for their alleged role in Russia’s war against Ukraine. The court said a lack of evidence justified their removal from a list of people who faced restrictive measures between February 2022 and March 2023.

Weapons

• Ukraine and the United Kingdom signed a framework agreement to cooperate in defence and arms production, part of a wartime effort to build up Ukraine’s domestic weapons industry by working with allies. The document was signed at a military industry conference in Kyiv that was attended by about 30 British defence companies.
• The top general for US forces in Europe told Congress that Ukraine risked being outgunned 10 to one by Russia within a matter of weeks if they did not quickly find a way to approve sending more ammunition and weapons.
• Ukraine said it had been rationing munitions because of the prolonged delay in passing the $60bn package, which has been blocked by right-wing Republicans.