Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has asked military chiefs to draw up plans to gather a “million-strong” fighting force equipped with western weapons to recapture its southern territory from Russia, the country’s defence minister said.

Zelenskiy has ordered his military to recover occupied areas around the Black Sea coast that are vital to the country’s economy, Oleksii Reznikov said in an interview with the Times.

Reznikov said:

We understand that, politically, it’s very necessary for our country. The president has given the order to the supreme military chief to draw up plans. After that the general staff are doing their homework and say to achieve this goal we need XYZ.

Reznikov said he was writing letters to his counterparts in partner countries to talk about “why we need this kind of weaponry and then we get the political decisions”.

His British counterpart, Ben Wallace, was “key” to helping shift the approach to providing Nato standard artillery, guided multiple launch rocket systems and hi-tech drones, he said.

Reznikov said he had a “great relationship” with Wallace and the UK’s armed forces minister, James Heappey, adding that he saw “a lot of Ukrainian flags” while in London.

He said he was satisfied with the support Ukraine was receiving from Nato partners but said it needed “more, quickly, to save the lives of our soldiers”.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here taking over from Martin Belam to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.