This morning saw the aftermath of Russia's latest strikes on Ukraine, which resulted in at least six deaths. Here's a quick rundown of everything we've learnt since then:

• Ukraine now claims to control 100 Russian settlements and more than 1,294 sq km (500 sq miles) of Russian territory following the start of their incursion into Kursk three weeks ago
• The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog visited a power plant in the region today and subsequently underlined that it was vulnerable to missiles, drones and artillery as it doesn't have protective structures
• Meanwhile, at a news conference, President Volodymr Zelensky announced his intention to present the US with a plan to end the war - it will include consideration of the diplomatic and economic fronts, he said
• Zelensky has further vowed to respond to the latest Russian strikes - posting on social media, he wrote that "crimes against humanity cannot go unpunished"
• It comes as Ukraine repeated calls to be able to use Western-made long-range weapons inside Russia - that's been met with warnings from Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov

We're going to leave our live coverage there - for more on Zelensky's plan, head here, and you can also listen to the latest episodes of Ukrainecast here.

Today's page was written by Cachella Smith, Ben Hatton, Barbara Tasch and Adam Durbin. It was edited by Aoife Walsh and Sam Hancock.

A nuclear plant in Russia's Kursk region is especially vulnerable to missiles, drones or artillery because it lacks protective structures, Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, has surmised.

The site is not equipped with modern protective structures or a containment dome, Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says - having visited the station today.

"This means that the core of the reactor containing nuclear material is protected just by a normal roof. This makes it extremely exposed and fragile, for example, to an artillery impact or a drone or a missile," Grossi explains.

"This why we believe that a nuclear power plant of this type, so close to a point of contact or a military front, is an extremely serious fact that we take very seriously."

Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region began three weeks ago. Troops are reported to be less than 30 miles (48km) from the nuclear plant.

Image source, EPA

Tomorrow, Ukraine will update allies about the ongoing war with Russia at a meeting of the Nato-Ukraine Council.

It was convened by Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at Ukraine's request.

"Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov is expected to brief allies via video-link on the battlefield situation and priority capability needs," a Nato spokesperson says.

Russia has, in the past, used Nato's expansion as a justification for its invasion of Ukraine.

• A bit more on this: Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this year that Ukraine would need to officially give up on its efforts to join the military alliance before peace talks could begin. But since Ukraine's Kursk incursion three weeks ago, Moscow has suggested no ceasefire can take place.

We're just hearing that another person has been confirmed killed after Russia's attack on the central city of Kryvyi Rih.

In a post on Telegram, Serhiy Lysak, the regional head for Dnipropetrovsk, says one person remains missing at the scene of the attack at the Aurora hotel - adding that rescue operations are ongoing.

He also provides an update about the nearby city of Nikopol, saying a 70-year-old man has been killed by Russian shelling.

It is the second confirmed death in Nikopol, after a 65-year-old man was also reported killed by Russian artillery.

Image source, Serhii Lysak/Dnipropetrovsk region

Let's hear now from Kyiv resident Sophia, who's been telling the BBC about what life is like inside the Ukrainian capital.

She says she's had little sleep over the last few nights, resulting in her not being able to function properly - on top of which is the "fear" that a missile might hit close by.

As well as the sirens and the threat, Sophia describes life as "challenging" due to electricity cuts. She has an electric stove - so without electricity she can't cook or make hot drinks - meaning she has to adjust her lifestyle to fit with an electricity schedule.

"[It] means sometimes cooking at 2am in the morning for the next day," she tells BBC World Service's Newshour programme, adding that cooking in bulk is not an option as there's no power to keep a refrigerator running.

Sophia lists some other issues that stem from this - including the ability to do laundry, hot water for showers, using some ATMs and charging phones: "You have to adapt, you have to change your schedule and it does put a lot of frustration."

Will Vernon
Live reporter

Image source, Anna Pekareva

A Russian murderer who was released from prison to fight in the war in Ukraine, only to then kill an elderly woman, has been released a second time to return to the front, according to the woman's relatives.

"Grandma’s killer has escaped punishment for his crime - again - and has gone to fight in the war," Anna Pekareva, the granddaughter of Yulia Byuskikh, tells the BBC.

In 2022, Ivan Rossomakhin was released from prison, where he was serving a 14-year prison sentence for murder, to join the Wagner mercenary group.

He was later allowed to return home to the district of Vyatskiye Polyany in Russia’s Kirov Region. There, he attacked and killed 85-year-old Yulia in her own house.

In April this year, 29-year-old Rossomakhin was found guilty of Yulia’s rape and murder and sentenced to 22 years in a high-security prison, later increased to 23 years.

But Anna says the prison governor has now notified the family that Rossomakhin was released on 19 August - just one week after the start of his sentence.

• Read more on this here

Will Western gloves come off?published at 15:28 British Summer Time 27 August

15:28 BST 27 August

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Ukraine’s President Zelensky certainly hopes so.

How, he argues, can his country hope to defend itself against this incessant battering from Russian missiles and drones if the West won’t let it use long-range weapons to hit target inside Russia?

Specifically it wants to be able to fire the Anglo-French Storm Shadow/Scalp cruise missiles to take out those Russian bases across the border from which Moscow is launching its constant attacks on Ukraine’s cities and infrastructure, as well as on military positions on the front line.

Western reluctance, which is far from universal, stems from a fear of escalation.

Namely, concerns that allowing such powerful Nato-supplied weapons to hit targets deep inside Russia could, potentially, push the Kremlin to retaliate against the West and trigger a full-scale war between Nato and Russia.

President Putin has been playing on those fears ever since February 2022.

Those now pushing for the West to take the gloves off and help Ukraine fully defend itself argue that every time Putin has hinted at retaliation, it has turned out to be a hollow bluff.

Image source, PA Media

The UK's position on Ukraine using long-range weapons in Russia has not changed, Keir Starmer has said.

In May, before Starmer became prime minister, it was confirmed that the UK had donated Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine and the Ministry of Defence later said it was on the understanding that the long-range weapons would not be fired at targets inside Russia.

Speaking to reporters in London a little earlier, Starmer said "no new decisions or different decisions have been taken" on the matter since he took office.

He added that the UK has committed more help for Ukraine in terms of both money and weapons: "As I've said to President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine, we will stand with them for as long as it takes."

• For context: Ukraine's Western allies can impose restrictions on the use of some of their weapons systems inside Russian territory. Ukraine has repeatedly called to be able to use Western-supplied long range weapons - like the Anglo-French-made Storm Shadow missiles - on Russian targets.

Ben Hatton
Live reporter

It's been three weeks since Ukraine launched a lightning offensive into Russian territory - the deepest into Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

The surprise move is said to have involved 10,000 elite Ukrainian troops, and took ground quickly.

But the pace of the advance has since slowed.

Kyiv's top military commander says Ukrainian troops now control 1,294 sq km (500 sq miles) of Russian territory and 100 settlements in the Kursk region - a larger area than Russia has gained in Ukraine so far this year.

He also says the advance is continuing, and around 594 Russian servicemen have been captured there.

Ukraine has previously said it has no intention of holding onto the territory and that one motivation for the incursion is to distract Russia's forces away from their own offensive in eastern Ukraine, which is continuing.

Russia has vowed to respond - the nature of that has not been specified, but the last two days have seen an increase in aerial attacks on Ukraine.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said Ukraine's demands for the West to allow it to strike deep into Russia with Western weapons amounts to blackmail, Reuters is reporting.

Lavrov is quoted by the news agency as saying Russia is "adjusting" its nuclear weapons doctrine, and that it's dangerous for Western nuclear powers to be "playing with fire".

Ukrainian President Zelensky has argued that using Western-made weapons to strike targets deeper inside Russia would reduce Moscow's ability to attack Ukraine.

Image source, EPA

We've an update now on the number of people who've died after Russia's overnight strikes on Ukraine.

Ivan Fedorov the regional administration head of Zaporizhzhia, says an elderly woman died in hospital after suffering from "severe burns".

"Doctors fought for her life for several hours," he adds, "but could not save her."

It follows earlier figures shared by Fedorov, which said four people had died across Ukraine and 16 were injured. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the same this morning.

As we've been reporting this morning, we know at least four people have been killed in Ukraine following another wave of strikes from Russia.

Explosions were reported in regions across the country including in Kyiv and in Sumy.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says he's going to present a plan to the US on how he intends to end the war with Russia.

Zelensky - who is currently giving a news conference to mark Ukraine's independence day which was on Saturday - says he will present the plan to presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, as well as current President Joe Biden.

The plan will include steps on the diplomatic and economic fronts, he says - separate to Ukraine's incursion in Kursk, which has also been part of a strategy to get Moscow to start peace talks.

Zelensky also tells the news conference in Kyiv that Ukraine had carried out its first test of a domestically-produced ballistic missile.

Ukraine has already used some ballistic missiles against Russia that were provided by the US.

Hanna Chornous
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, Reuters

Seeing pictures of the rubble that used to be the Aurora Hotel in Kryvyi Rih in Ukraine this morning is chilling.

This was a place our team stayed at every time we were in the area. We joked about its unusual breakfast menu, but the hotel provided respite and room to edit our reports.

Centrally located, it was a convenient accommodation option for many journalists. We've also seen it being used as a place to give out humanitarian aid for people in need.

Now there's a dusty void where the hotel lobby used to be. A part of the building is reduced to rubble. The rescuers and their dogs are still looking for survivors.

This is not the first time hotels in Ukraine have been hit by missiles.

Last weekend a hotel in the eastern city of Kramatorsk was hit. The Reuters crew were staying there at the time. Their safety adviser, a British citizen, was killed. Two of the agency's journalists were hospitalised, one of them is fighting for his life.

At least two popular hotels were hit in Kharkiv last winter. Journalists were among the injured in each of them.

Image source, Reuters

A little more information has just come in from Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine has just said it has seized more than 100 towns and villages in the three weeks since it began a cross-border incursion there.

A Reuters reporter on the ground says air raid sirens went off briefly on Tuesday in Kurchatov in western Kursk - suggesting a missile threat.

Kursk nuclear power plant is located in Kursk - where the head of the UN's nuclear agency is visiting today.

Ukraine is continuing its offensive into Russia's Kursk territory, Kyiv's top military commander says.

Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi says Ukrainian troops control 1,294 sq km (500 sq miles) of Russian territory and 100 settlements. About 594 Russian servicemen were taken prisoner, he adds.

Last week, President Zelensky said Ukraine controlled more than 1,250 sq km of Russian territory.

Speaking via video link on Ukrainian TV, Syrskyi says one of the objectives of Ukraine's incursion into Kursk was to "distract significant numbers of enemy troops from other areas", such as Pokrovsk and Kurakhove in Donbas, and it was achieved successfully.

He adds that Russia was aware of this objective and is "concentrating its most combat-ready units in the Pokrovsk area".

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, says three villages have been attacked.

Vyacheslav Gladkov says a warehouse was damaged by shelling in Petrovka, a car was damaged in Novoye by a grenade dropped by a drone, and a shop caught fire in Golovchino after a "kamikaze drone" blast.

There are no reports of anyone being hurt, he adds in a post on Telegram.

Cities across Ukraine were hit by another wave of Russian air strikes overnight and this morning, with most of the attacks in or near major population centres and regional capitals.

The latest attack comes after more than half of Ukraine's regions were attacked by drones and missiles on Monday.

Ukraine's capital Kyiv, the central city of Kryvyi Rih and the Zaporizhzhia region in the south east were among the areas targeted – the map below highlights where they're located:

Image source, Reuters

• At least four people have been killed after Russia launched a second wave of strikes across Ukraine overnight, with explosions reported in the Kyiv, Sumy, Khmelnytsky and Mykolaiv regions
• In the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, a hotel has been hit, with at least two people reportedly killed there
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Kyiv "will undoubtedly respond" to the strikes and "all other attacks"
• Russia used more than 90 "aerial targets" - including missiles and 81 drones - against civilians and infrastructure, according to Zelensky
• It comes a day after Ukraine was bombarded in one of the biggest air attacks of the war, with more than half of the country's regions targeted

• Meanwhile, the head of the UN's nuclear agency, Rafael Grossi, is visiting a power plant in Russia's Kursk region, following Russian claims it has been attacked – Ukraine has not yet responded to the claim
• Ukrainian forces are just 25km (15 miles) away from the nuclear plant, having crossed the border into Russia three weeks ago

Stay with us for more.

'Complicated' negotiations over use of long-range weapons to attack Russiapublished at 10:51 British Summer Time 27 August

10:51 BST 27 August

Jonathan Beale
Defence correspondent

The United States has given Ukraine more weapons than any other country.

But Washington has also been the biggest obstacle in allowing Ukraine to use western supplied long range weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

So far President Zelensky’s repeated pleas and requests have been rebuffed by the White House.

Some western allies, most notably Britain, have indicated they’re willing to give Kyiv the green light.

Many in the UK's Ministry of Defence have been making the case to allow Ukraine to use British-made Storm Shadow missiles to hit targets inside Russia.

But a number of allies are reticent - fearing escalation. A UK defence source told the BBC that discussions were "complicated” - involving a number of allies.

MBDA, the company which manufactures Storm Shadow and its French counterpart Scalp, is a European joint venture.

The reality is that Ukraine’s allies are reluctant to act alone.

Persuading Washington may be the hardest. It was slow to send its Abrams tanks to Ukraine and to support Danish and Dutch efforts to provide Ukraine with F-16 jets.