Andrew Humphrey
Live page editor

Image source, EPA

Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk advanced a few kilometres further today, according to its army chief, though Moscow claims to have repelled attacks in numerous areas and has dug defensive trenches in order to slow Ukraine’s progress.

The aim of the attack on Kursk was to force Russia to the negotiating table for peace talks, an aide to President Zelensky said, but the conflict shows no signs of letting up with more fighting in eastern Ukraine and Russian forces pushing further towards Pokrovsk.

We also heard that the US would be announcing a new package of aid to bolster Ukraine’s war effort.

We’re bringing out coverage of the conflict to a close for the day, but you can read more on Ukraine's assault on Kursk and the destruction of the Glushkovo bridge in our latest story here, and for an in depth look at where the frontlines lay, take a look at our article showing maps tracking the war.

Some more news on the bridge collapse over the Seym River of the Kursk region of Russia.

The region's acting governor, Alexsei Smirnov, says the bridge collapsed as a result of a Ukrainian strike in a statement on Telegram.

It's believed that the bridge's collapse will make it harder for Russia to supply their troops in the area.

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, will evacuate residents from five villages as the area comes under heavy attack from Ukraine, according to the AFP news agency,

Vyacheslav Gladkov posted on Telegram that "access to five settlements" will be closed and residents will be removed in the coming days.

Report of bridge collapse in Kursk regionpublished at 19:02 British Summer Time 16 August

19:02 BST 16 August

By Richard Irvine-Brown

A pro-Kremlin Telegram channel has reported that a bridge over the Seym River at Glushkovo, in the Kursk region, has collapsed, showing images of the bridge and quoting an adviser to the acting governor of the region.

We have looked for previous versions of these images online and believe they must have been first posted online this afternoon.

Details in the image, such as the fencing along the side appear to match video we've seen of the bridge when it was still intact.

This isn't the first time the bridge has been struck. Yesterday, a separate pro-Russian channel reported that the bridge had been hit "again" and remained up, while a video showed damage sustained to the road surface.

We can’t verify who struck the bridge and what other damage was caused.

Thomas Copeland
Live reporter

The European Union has given Ukraine two mine-clearing machines and other specialised de-mining tools.

The equipment is worth over €1.8m (£1.5m), according to a statement from the EU Delegation to Ukraine.

It's the latest in a package of de-mining aid announced by the EU last year and worth €25m (£21m) in total.

The two mine-clearing machines given today will be named "Vira", Ukrainian for "Faith", and "Lyubov", meaning "Love",

The first machine in this aid package was delivered earlier this year and named "Nadiya", meaning "Hope".

According to the statement, "Ukraine is among the countries most contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war worldwide."

"These demining machines and equipment will contribute to faster demining of territories and reduce the risks from explosive remnants of war for the civilian population," said Brigadier General Oleksandr Yakovets.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Nine people - including journalists, lawyers and activists - linked to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been added to Moscow's blacklist of "terrorists and extremists," according to AFP.

Today is exactly six months since Navalny, Russia's most significant opposition leader of the past decade, died in an Artic Circle jail. He was serving a 19-year-sentence on "extremism" charges.

Moscow said Navalny, 47, died of natural causes but his exiled widow - who was added to the blacklist last month with an arrest warrant issued for her - maintains her husband was tortured and killed.

The nine people - added to a list compiled by the Russian financial monitoring service called Rosfinmonitoring, which can freeze the assets of those listed - include:

• Navalny's former spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh
• Chair of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation Maria Pevchikh
• Alexei Malyarevsky, a programmer who donated to Navalny's foundation who has been jailed for seven years
• Navalny's lawyers Olga Mikhailova and Alexander Fedulov (both in exile)
• Journalist Antonina Kravtsova and activist Olga Komleva (both in pre-trial detention)
• Host of Navalny's YouTube channel Dmitry Nizovtsev and producer Nina Volokhonskaya

Ukraine's commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi says the country's forces are advancing one to 3km (0.62 to 1.86 miles) in Russia's Kursk region, according to the Reuters news agency.

Speaking to President Volodymyr Zelensky via a video link, he reported fighting in the area of Malaya Loknya, which is about 11.5km (7.14 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Syrskyi says the operation in Kursk is "strengthening" its positions, adding that he hopes the fighting near the Malaya Loknya would allow the Ukrainian military to capture "many prisoners".

As a reminder, a senior Ukrainian government advisor said earlier that Russian prisoners of war would be used at a later date in an exchange with Ukrainian prisoners of war kept by Russia.

President Zelensky shared the report from Syrskyi in a post on X, external, which stated that the frontline remains "our top priority, particularly the Pokrovsk and Toretsk directions".

Clearer weather reveals extent of Russian trenches in Kurskpublished at 18:11 British Summer Time 16 August

18:11 BST 16 August

By Paul Brown

Earlier this week we reported on the emergence of defensive trenches in the Kursk region dug by the Russians with the apparent intention of inhibiting Ukrainian advances.

Our analysis of satellite imagery at the time was only partial due to cloudy weather. However, the cloud has shifted and a fuller picture of Russia's defences has emerged.

BBC Verify has identified around 27km of trenches dug since 6 August running parallel to a main road located around 50km from the border with Ukraine.

This includes a continuous stretch of 22km which runs from an area south of Kursk's nuclear power plant to the small settlement of Chermonshoi, which lies around 20km southwest of the city of Kursk.

Elsewhere shorter sections of trench are visible between natural obstacles such as lakes and woodland.

The US will reportedly announce more security assistance for Ukraine in the coming days as Kyiv briefed its international partner on what it requires on the battlefield.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told US media the announcement would be happening soon but he did not give details, according to Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said he briefed the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown on the situation with Russia.

Syrskyi posted on Telegram that he had "informed my American counterpart about changes in the operational and strategic situation and discussed current and most critical needs of the Ukrainian forces in weapons and military equipment".

Hundreds of people evacuated from their homes in Kursk border towns and villages are receiving humanitarian aid in downtown Kursk.

Ukraine's surprise offensive along Russian border regions including Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk has seen thousands of people displaced.

In the pictures below, people gather daily essentials like clothes, blankets and water from collection points in the city centre.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Let's bring you up to speed with the main developments in the Russia-Ukraine war today:

• A senior aide to President Zelensky has said the country's attack on the Kursk region aims to get Moscow to start fair peace talks to end the war
• Ukraine's forces in Russia's Kursk region have crossed into the neighbouring Belgorod province and a major river crossing to the north has been destroyed
• Russian attacks on Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region killed three civilians and injured five others in the last 24 hours, according to the Reuters news agency

• Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Pokrovsk in the Donetsk Oblast was one of numerous areas "facing the most intense Russian assaults", with the city's military administration saying it's important residents "don't delay" evacuating the city
• Meanwhile a Ukrainian attack on Russian-occupied central Donetsk caused a fire in a shopping centre that left least seven people injured.

Poland has denied any involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, after accusations from a former German intelligence chief.

"I think this is Russian disinformation resonating through the words of German politicians," deputy prime minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski, told Polish TV channel Polsat News.

"Poland did not take part in anything. It has to be said clearly that this is a lie," he added. Kyiv has also denied any involvement.

The ex-German intelligence chief - who left his post in 2005 - accused Poland of working with Ukraine on the sabotage in an interview with a German daily, saying both countries should pay Germany compensation.

In September 2022, around seven months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, key pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia to Germany were badly damaged under the Baltic Sea in an apparent act of sabotage.

Almost two years on, it's still not clear who was responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines.

But speculation has been rife. And there has been renewed attention in recent days after German state prosecutors issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday for a Ukrainian diving instructor who lives in Poland.

To find out more about the Nord Stream pipeline saga, read on here.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian troops in the Donetsk region yesterday celebrated the Christian event of the feast of the Assumption.

A Ukrainian army chaplain gave a homily, which is a type of religious speech, with soldiers in a forest.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

At least seven people have been injured in central Donetsk following a Ukrainian strike that caused a fire in a shopping centre, news agencies are reporting.

The city - currently under Russian military control - has been shelled by Ukraine since late this morning, according to Denis Pushilin, the Russia-backed governor of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

"Since 12 noon today, the enemy has been carrying out targeted massive strikes on the Petrovsky district of the regional capital. According to preliminary information, seven civilians, including a teenager, were wounded," Pushilin said in a statement on Telegram.

Image source, X @POTUS

Joe Biden has met with one of 24 prisoners released on 1 August, in the largest Russia-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War.

In a post on X, external, formerly Twitter, the US President said he "welcomed Vladimir Kara-Murza and his family to the White House today to celebrate his return to America".

Kara-Murza, a Russian writer and activist, spent over two years in a facility in Omsk, which he described as one of the harshest prisons in Russia.

He spent 11 months in solitary confinement and told the Washington Post he was certain he would die.

Kara-Murza, who is also a British citizen, was arrested in 2022 for his strong opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.

Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin says there is a "high probability of an armed provocation" from neighbouring Ukraine, according to local state-run media.

Khrenin, who did not provide any evidence to back his claims, made the comments at a meeting on military security with President Alexander Lukashenko.

"Given the presence of Ukrainian armed formations in border areas, there remains a high probability of armed provocations being prepared and carried out on our territory," he says.

Yesterday, Lukashenko - who is a close ally of Vladimir Putin - was interviewed on Russian media and reportedly asked both sides to "sit down at the negotiating table" and end the conflict, according to the Reuters news agency.

While Belarus has not been involved in the war, Russia launched its full-scale invasion into Ukraine in February 2022 from Belarussian soil.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has been chairing a security council meeting this afternoon.

According to the Reuters news agency, Putin said the discussion would focus on "new technical solutions" being employed in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Russia's defence ministry suggested its forces have repelled Ukrainian attacks on villages in the Kursk and Bryansk regions.

The BBC's James Waterhouse says there is a constant flow of armoured vehicles supplied by the West, on the main route from Ukraine's Sumy region into Russia.

Sumy borders the Kursk region in Russia, which came under a surprise attack last week by Ukrainian forces.

Russian authorities have declared a state of emergency in the area and as James reports, must now decide how it responds to the incursion into its territory.

Thomas Copeland
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

It has been a "very, very, extremely anxious" time and "very frightening" since the Ukrainian incursion began, a Kursk resident has told the BBC's Ukrainecast programme.

"It's anger, it's fright, it's fear, it's anxiety, it's sadness, it's grief," says Zhenya, whose name has been changed.

She says the hardest part has been seeing destruction in the city where she grew up, "where I know everything, a post office, the shops, everything, it's devastating".

It was at this moment that Zhenya realised that the war had finally reached her, "like a boomerang".

"Some people are just literally paralysed by the horror of everything that's going on," she says.

But others are refusing to admit what is happening, Zhenya says, "even though that's harder and harder every day".

Watching this war since it began two years ago, Zhenya kept thinking "this could have been my city".

"Well now it is."

Thomas Copeland
Live reporter

Ukraine is free to use weapons donated by Canada on Russian territory, Canada's Department of National Defence has said.

"Ukrainians know best how to defend their homeland, and we're committed to supporting their capacity," said Andrée-Anne Poulin, a defence department spokesperson.

It comes after video footage reportedly showed a Canadian-made patrol vehicle crossing into Russia.

"Canada places no geographic restrictions on the use of military equipment that we donate to Ukraine," Poulin added.

Canada has committed $4.5 billion (£3.5 billion) in military aid since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including tanks, drones, anti-aircraft artillery, ammunition, missiles and armoured vehicles.

Image source, Reuters