Commander of Ukraine ground forces underlines importance Kyiv attaches to holding Bakhmut as preparations continue for a counterattack. This live blog is closed

• Russia-Ukraine war at a glance

Reuters has a quick snap to say that all parties in the Black Sea grain initiative will meet for talks on Wednesday, according to a senior Ukrainian source.

The deal is, according to Russia’s timetable, due to expire on 18 May. The Kremlin has been lukewarm about the prospect of it being extended, arguing that restrictions on Russia’s banking and insurance sector have damaged the country’s own agricultural exports.

Our state has already proven that it can win. We have proven that we can liberate our land from the occupier. All those who ensure the de-occupation have proven that, together with the blue and yellow flag, normal life returns for every person and every family. Our goal is to return this life to the whole of Ukraine, to all those areas that are still temporarily under occupation.

US estimates 20,000 Russian soldiers have died in five months; Black Sea grain initiative talks scheduled for Wednesday

Ukraine intercepts 15 out of 18 missiles as Moscow launches strikes apparently designed to hamper Kyiv’s plans for a counteroffensive

• Russia launches new wave of missiles against Ukrainian cities – live

Russian missiles have struck warehouses reportedly storing ammunition at a railway depot in the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad, in an apparent effort to slow Kyiv’s preparations for its much anticipated counteroffensive expected to start shortly.

Video posted on social media showed secondary detonations amid a significant blaze at the site of the strike, which came amid overnight missile launches against a number of Ukrainian cities by Russian strategic bombers.

A strike that killed 23 people far from any frontlines has forced residents to understand that one could come anywhere

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Huddled under a blanket, Iryna Babii turned away from the empty space where, until Friday, nine floors of apartments had been stacked, one of them home to her daughter’s best friend.

The apartments were obliterated when a Russian missile crashed into this residential block, which sits beside a school in a neighbourhood just near the botanical gardens of Uman, a central Ukrainian city that before the war was known mostly as a Jewish pilgrimage site.

Crimea navy oil depot fire extinguished after reported Ukrainian drone strike on fuel tanks; Nancy Pelosi speaks about her ‘dangerous’ Kyiv visit

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

Five children among dead as toll from Russian missile attacks across Ukraine rises to 26; five EU countries agree on Ukrainian grain transit deal

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

Young Veronika’s neighbours stunned at brutal arrival of Russia’s invasion in the suburb to where she fled to avoid the missiles

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

The Russian attack killed Veronika in her bed on Friday morning, but left her childish chalk drawings of a happy family intact on the wall of their home.

Portraits of “Mama”, “Nika” (her nickname), her uncles, grandparents and even the family cat “Kuzia” – the names written in by an adult – stretch all along the front of the house.

More than 20 people confirmed dead in wake of Russian aerial bombing of Ukrainian cities on Friday morning

• What we know on day 429 of the invasion

The Kyiv Independent is now reporting that the air defence systems are at work in Kyiv and that people should remain in shelters.

A missile has reportedly hit a high-rise building in Uman, in the Cherkasy region on central Ukraine. Euromaidan, Kyiv Operativ and Faytuks news have posted videos of the reported attack, which shows a large part of a residential building totally blown apart. It is unknown at this stage how many people were inside.

Woman and child die in Dnipro, while missile strikes in Uman, south of Kyiv, kill 19

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates

Russian cruise missiles have killed at least 19 people in the central Ukrainian cities of Uman and Dnipro, days after Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, begged his allies for more air defence supplies.

The attacks were part of a wave of Russian missile and drone strikes in the early hours of Friday morning, the most intense aerial bombing of major Ukrainian cities in weeks.

International human rights body calls for immediate and urgent action to halt movement of children from Ukraine by Russia. This live blog is closed

• Russia-Ukraine war at a glance

Reuters has taken a hard look at satellite imagery of Russia’s “vast network of fortifications, sweeping down from western Russia through eastern Ukraine and on to Crimea” and built in readiness for Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive.

The news agency says it has examined thousands of defensive positions, both inside Russia and along Ukrainian front lines, and concluded Russia is most heavily defended in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and the gateway to the Crimean Peninsula.

It’s not the numbers for the Ukrainians. It’s can they do this kind of warfare, combined arms operations? The Russians have shown they can’t do it and they’ve gone back to their old Soviet method of attrition.

We’ve cleaned out most of the stocks in the West. It’s going to take some years to rebuild. I think this is Ukraine’s big opportunity to press on.