US House of Representatives moves closer to passing Ukraine aid; bureaucracy delays £500m in foreign assistance channelled through UK Ministry of Defence. What we know on day 787

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Ukraine said it shot down a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber from a distance of 308km (180 miles) after it took part in a long-range airstrike that killed eight people including two children in Dnipro. “I can only say the plane was hit at a distance of 308km, quite far away,” said Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military spy agency, the GUR.

An intelligence source told Reuters the plane was hit with a modified S-200 Soviet-era long-range surface-to-air missile system . Unconfirmed social media footage showed a warplane with its tail on fire spiralling towards the ground. The Russian defence ministry confirmed the crash in Russia’s southern Stavropol region but claimed it appeared to have been caused by a technical malfunction. Four aircrew ejected with one dead, two rescued and another missing, the Russian regional governor said.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited the site of the strike in Dnipro and again called on Ukraine’s allies to rush in more air defences . Zelenskiy said Russian missiles also struck the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi in the southern Odesa region on Friday afternoon, destroying grain storage facilities and the food inside.

In the US, the House of Representatives has pushed ahead through procedural hurdles towards passing a foreign aid package that includes $61bn for Ukraine, Joanna Walters writes . The House is expected to vote on Saturday on the legislation. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic party leader in the Senate, has told senators to be prepared to return this weekend if the package passes the House and goes back to the Senate. If passed by the Senate, it must be signed into law by president Joe Biden – after which the US would ship arms to Ukraine “right away” , the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters on Friday.

More than half of an international £900m military fund for Ukraine run by the British Ministry of Defence has not been used because of bureaucratic delays in handing out contracts , Daniel Boffey reports . Critics claim slow provision of weapons to the frontline by the International Fund for Ukraine, with just £404m spent and ministers admitting some of the equipment is not expected to reach Ukraine until spring next year .

The fund was set up in August 2022 and was designed to be “flexible” and “low-bureaucracy” . Delays are said by MoD officials to have been caused by a need to assess each of the huge number of defence companies that have tendered for contracts. An MoD spokesperson said: “Thousands of responses have been received from industry to International Fund for Ukraine requirements, each of which have had to be individually reviewed. We make no excuses for having made sure this was done properly and in a way that most effectively helps Ukraine.”

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Russell Bentley, 64, reported killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk by Russian state media and confirmed by his battalion

A US citizen known to have fought with pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine between 2014 and 2017 has been killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk, according to Russian media reports.

Russia-installed authorities in eastern Ukraine had earlier this month reported the American – 64-year-old Russell Bentley – as missing.

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Two Polish citizens detained earlier on suspicion of attacking Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov in Lithuania

A Belarusian national has been detained in Poland on suspicion of ordering the attack on a top Russian opposition leader, Leonid Volkov, on Moscow’s behalf, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, has announced.

Volkov, a close aide of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was briefly admitted to hospital last month after he was ambushed and attacked outside his house in Vilnius , the capital of Lithuania. The assailant smashed open Volkov’s car window and repeatedly struck him with a hammer, breaking Volkov’s left arm and damaging his left leg before fleeing the scene.

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy calls on allies to send air defence support after at least 16 killed in north Ukraine city

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At least 16 people have been killed after three Russian missiles hit the centre of Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine near the Russian border, in an attack that wounded dozens more.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Kyiv’s allies to send air defence support after Chernihiv, which had a prewar population of 300,000, became the latest target of an intensifying Russian airstrike campaign.

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Residents of Ukraine’s second city tell of the impact of increasing Russian attacks targeting suburbs and power supplies

Kharkiv is at risk of becoming “a second Aleppo” unless US politicians vote for fresh military aid to help Ukraine obtain the air defences needed to prevent long-range Russian attacks, the city’s mayor has warned.

Ihor Terekhov said Russia had switched tactics to try to destroy the city’s power supply and terrorise its 1.3 million residents by firing into residential areas, with people experiencing unscheduled power cuts for hours at a time.

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Polls suggest Croatian Democratic Union could lose majority to Social Democrat-led coalition headed by populist president

Croatian voters are going to the polls in a high-stakes parliamentary election that could significantly change the country’s pro-western stance on issues including European support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia.

Polls suggest the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of the prime minister, Andrej Plenković, could lose its majority to a Social Democrat-led coalition headed by the populist president, Zoran Milanović, who is not officially a candidate.

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Olaf Scholz says Chinese president agreed to back June peace talks that Russia is not attending while Xi says efforts for a resolution must involve both sides

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, says he has urged Xi Jinping to press Russia to end its “senseless” war in Ukraine and that the Chinese president has agreed to back a peace conference in Switzerland.

Scholz said after a meeting with Xi in Beijing on Tuesday that “China’s word carries weight in Russia”.

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Invaders breaking out and making headway in absence of US help, says thinktank; Zelenskiy signs mobilisation law to boost Ukrainian ranks. What we know on day 784

Russia-Ukraine war: who will finance Ukraine’s defence?

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