Around 1,300 Ukrainian troops have been killed since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and between 500-600 Russian soldiers had surrendered to Ukrainian forces on Friday. Volodymyr Zelensky said today.

The Ukrainian president, speaking at a news briefing, said that negotiating teams from Kyiv and Moscow had started discussing concrete topics rather than exchanging ultimatums.

He urged Western nations to be more involved in negotiations to end the war, but welcomed efforts by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to mediate between Ukraine and Russia.

The Ukrainian president said he had spoken to German chancellor Olaf Scholz and French president Emmanuel Macron about pressuring Russia to release the mayor of the city of Melitopol, who Ukraine says was kidnapped on Friday by Russian forces.