General Valery Zaluzhny says Ukraine successfully downed 47 of the 55 missiles launched by Russia following west’s offer of tanks

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Ukraine’s top general vowed that his country would not be “broken” after the successful downing of 47 of the 55 missiles launched by Russia in a mass attack that followed the western offer of tanks.

General Valery Zaluzhny, commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said 20 of those intercepted had been heading to the Kyiv region, where one 55-year-old man was killed and two injured by falling fragments.

It is claimed 6,543 Russian personnel have surrendered since the hotline launched in September 2022

More than 6,500 Russian military personnel have sought to surrender through a bespoke “I want to live” hotline, Ukraine’s government has claimed, with the call centre said to have been recently moved to a secret location to avoid Moscow interference.

Vitaly Matvienko, spokesperson at the department for prisoners of war, said those who had made contact through the service had been verified as serving in the Russian forces using their personal data and service number.

Germany to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, according to reports; Ukraine government sees wave of resignations

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The United States appears poised to start a process that would eventually send dozens of its M1 Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine, US media reported, in a reversal that could have significant implications for Kyiv’s efforts to repel Russian forces.

The move follows reports on Tuesday that Berlin has succumbed to huge international and domestic pressure and was set to announce that it will send German-manufactured tanks to Ukraine, and allow other countries to do the same.

The decision is expected to be made officially on Wednesday and Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is due to be questioned in the Bundestag in the morning in a debate likely to be dominated by the tank decision.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said he was confident the alliance will find a solution soon, after meeting Germany’s defence minister. “At this pivotal moment in the war, we must provide heavier and more advanced systems to Ukraine, and we must do it faster,” Stoltenberg said.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Kyiv needed allies to decide on whether they would deliver modern tanks to strengthen the country’s defence against Russia. Zelenskiy said the issue was not about five, 10 or 15 tanks, as Ukraine’s needs are greater, but about reaching final decisions on real deliveries. “When the needed weighty decisions are made, we will be happy to thank you for each weighty decision,” Zelenskiy said.

In Ukraine, fifteen senior officials have left their posts since Saturday, six of whom have had corruption allegations levelled at them by journalists and Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities. The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on Tuesday he had asked Zelenskiy on Monday to relieve him of his duties as part of the wave of government resignations and dismissals.

Deputy defence minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov, responsible for supplying troops with food and equipment, also resigned, citing “media accusations” of corruption that he and the ministry say are baseless. Deputy prosecutor general Oleksiy Symonenko has been removed from his post, and two deputy ministers resigned from Ukraine’s ministry of communities and territories development.

Five regional governors are also being removed from power: Valentyn Reznichenko, of Dnipropetrovsk, Oleksandra Starukha of Zaporizhzhia, Oleksiy Kuleba of Kyiv, Dymtro Zhivytskyi, of Sumy and Yaroslav Yanushevich, of Kherson. Kherson and Zaporizhizhia are two of the regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation has claimed to annex.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has set its Doomsday Clock, intended to illustrate existential risks to the world, at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight the clock has ever been since it was first introduced in 1947. It is “largely” because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they said.

Ukraine has enough coal and gas reserves for the remaining months of winter despite repeated Russian attacks on its energy system, prime minister Denys Shmyhal has said.

Finland’s foreign minister Pekka Haavisto has signalled a possible pause in discussions with Turkey over Finnish ambitions to join Nato alongside Sweden, which he says is due to the pressure of Turkey’s forthcoming election.

Supporters of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny gathered for a protest in Berlin on Tuesday to highlight the prison conditions in Russia he is being kept in.

Russia does not plan to rebuild the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol which were the site of heavy bombardment in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

Russian football officials met their counterparts at Uefa on Tuesday as they tried to negotiate Russia’s return to international football in Europe. It has been banned by Uefa and Fifa since the invasion of Ukraine.

Media reports say German chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to send the vehicles and allow other countries to send their German-made tanks

• Russia-Ukraine war at a glance

Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne has posted the following summary update to the Telegram messaging app, saying:

In the morning, Russian troops shelled Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region: residential buildings were hit, large-scale fires broke out.

In occupied Crimea, the Russian FSB [Federal Security Service] searched the homes of six Crimean Tatars. They were detained. Their relatives do not know where they are, Crimean Solidarity reports.

Key officials have been dismissed or resigned since Saturday, with six facing corruption allegations

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

A number of Ukrainian officials have been dismissed or resigned over the last four days amid corruption allegations as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, attempts to take a zero-tolerance approach to the issue.

Fifteen senior officials have left their posts since Saturday, six of whom have had corruption allegations levelled at them by journalists and Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities.

This live blog is now closed. You can find our latest report here

• What we know on day 334 of the invasion

Russian secret service the SVR has claimed that Ukraine is storing weapons and ammunition supplied by the west on the territory of nuclear power plants, reports Tass.

The Russian-owned news agency reports that the SVR says, without citing any evidence, that this is been done in the expectation that Russia would not target them, due to the risk of a nuclear accident.

This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. I will be with you for the next few hours.

It is a question of justice and fairness,” the FT quoted Michel as saying in an interview. “It must be done in line with legal principles – this is very clear.”

Former UK PM Boris Johnson makes surprise visit to Ukraine; Russia claims to have made advances in Zaporizhzhia region

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Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has made a surprise visit to Ukraine, where he said that it was “the moment to double down and to give the Ukrainians all the tools they need to finish the job”. Downing Street said Rishi Sunak is “supportive” of Boris Johnson’s visit, despite warnings that it would undermine the current prime minister’s authority.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz, under pressure to allow the shipment of German-made tanks to Ukraine, said on Sunday that future decisions on weapons deliveries will be made in coordination with allies, including the United States. Scholz, when asked at a news conference about providing tanks to Ukraine, said that all weapons deliveries to Ukraine so far have taken place in close coordination with western partners.

French president Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday he does not rule out the possibility of sending Leclerc tanks to Ukraine. He was speaking at a summit with German chancellor Scholz.

The UK foreign secretary said the UK wants to see Ukraine equipped with Leopard 2 tanks. “I would like to see the Ukrainians equipped with things like the Leopard 2, as well as the artillery systems that they’ve been provided by us and by others,” he said. “I will keep having those conversations with our Nato allies and friends.”

Russia has claimed to have made advances in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. After months of stalemate in the south-eastern region, Moscow-installed officials say the front is now “mobile” while the Ukrainian army reported that 15 settlements had come under artillery fire.

Talks between government representatives from France and Germany took place in Paris, as officials mark the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty and the relationship between the two nations. It comes as the two countries seek to overcome differences exposed by differing attitudes about how the continent should proceed and whether Germany will agree to send tanks to Ukraine.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz promised that Germany will “continue to support Ukraine – for as long and as comprehensively as necessary”, adding: “Together, as Europeans – in defence of our European peace project.”

Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, criticised Germany’s failure to supply tanks to Ukraine. “Germany’s attitude is unacceptable. It has been almost a year since the war began. Innocent people are dying every day,” Morawiecki said.

An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that caution and slow decision making over whether to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine is costing lives. Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted on Saturday his frustration at “global indecision” over arms supply to Ukraine: “Today’s indecision is killing more of our people. Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think faster.”

Baltic countries have told Germany to send the tanks “now” to Ukraine after perceived heel-dragging by the government in Berlin. The Latvian foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs, tweeted they are “needed to stop Russian aggression”. The same tweet was put out by his counterparts in Estonia and Lithuania.