Image source, Reuters

We're pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. Here's a recap of what's happened on Friday:

• There is a need for a visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russia's President Putin and France's President Macron agreed in a phone call
• A visit to the facility, which is under Russian control, could take place in September, a Russian diplomat said
• It came after Ukrainian officials accused Russia of planning to cut off the plant from the Ukrainian power grid
• UN chief António Guterres, who is visiting Ukraine, warned Moscow against doing so - and called for an end to military operations around the plant
• Both sides have accused each other of shelling the facility - Russia says its troops are at the plant to prevent nuclear disaster
• Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Zelensky welcomed a new $775m US military support package
• A Western official says more than half of Russia's naval aircraft in its Black Sea fleet had been disabled by Ukrainian strikes on an airbase in occupied Crimea

For more coverage, you can read our latest articles on the situation:

• How risky is stand-off over Zaporizhzhia?
• Crimean fightback having 'psychological impact' on Russia
• Russia must leave Zaporizhzhia power plant - UN chief says

Today's live updates were brought to you by Alexandra Fouche, Chris Giles, James Clarke, Laura Gozzi, James Fitzgerald, David Brown, Heather Sharp and George Bowden. Thanks for joining us.

Ukraine's President Zelensky has welcomed the new package of military aid from the US.

Zelensky tweeted that he was highly appreciative of the decision.

Russia has "no moral right to sit at the G20 while its aggression in Ukraine persists", a spokesperson for the British Foreign Office has said.

"We welcome Indonesia's efforts to ensure that the impacts of Russia's war are considered in G20 meetings, as well as indications that Ukraine may be represented by President (Volodymyr) Zelensky," they added.

As we reported earlier, Indonesian president Joko Widodo has said that Russia's Vladimir Putin plans to attend the G20 summit in Bali in on 15 and 16 November.

Throughout the war, photographers have been capturing images showing the realities of the conflict and attempts to live everyday life while the fighting goes on.

Here is a selection of images taken today in Ukraine and Russia.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has welcomed recent statements that both Ukraine and Russia support a potential IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia power plant.

"There is an urgent need to lower the tension" between the two parties," Grossi said in a statement, external. The agency said he would lead the mission himself, and that it was "in active consultations with all parties".

The IAEA has not been able to visit the power plant since before the conflict began half a year ago.

The agency said two of the plant's six reactors were still operating, and added that Ukraine had informed it that two other reactors would be maintained in cold shutdown.

Ukrainian forces are inflicting losses on their Russian enemies in "all directions where active hostilities continue", according to the regular evening update from the Ukrainian armed forces.

The dispatch says Russian attacks were repelled in a number of places, including around Bakhmut.

It says the Kremlin's troops "suffered losses and ran away" following a failed effort to break through Ukrainian defences in areas near the city of Slovyansk.

It also accuses Russia of strikes on civilian infrastructure in the Kharkiv region, where local authorities have reported at least 20 deaths in recent days.

It was not possible for the BBC to independently verify the information in the report.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

We've been reporting that Russia's President Putin and France's President Macron have agreed on the need for inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. But what is the IAEA?

It was set up in 1957 as an autonomous body of the United Nations and is based in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

Over the past few years, the IAEA has shifted its emphasis from the promotion of atomic energy to aiming to ensure nuclear safety - though that has long been one of its roles.

The IAEA was given the specific role of defining and inspecting safeguards when the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons - a landmark deal aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology - came into force in 1970, signed by 188 states.

Image source, Getty Images

When the Chernobyl nuclear power disaster happened in the USSR in 1986, it was the IAEA that investigated and reported on both the immediate consequences and the long-term effects.

Since the 1990s the IAEA has inspected - or been prevented from doing so - nuclear facilities in countries such as Iraq, Iran, Syria and North Korea, and investigated the core meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, which followed an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Image source, Reuters

Russian gas supplies to the European Union look set to be disrupted later this month, following an announcement that the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline is to be closed for maintenance for three days.

The conduit will close from 31 August to 2 September, says Russian state-controlled energy firm Gazprom.

The pipeline has already been running at just 20% capacity during an energy standoff between Moscow and Europe, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Western nations have repeatedly accused the Kremlin of using fuel supplies as a political weapon. The latest round of maintenance was unscheduled, Reuters news agency reported.

Read more: Can the world cope without Russian oil and gas?

Image source, Reuters

Our Europe editor, Paul Kirby, has been speaking to nuclear safety experts to gauge just how dangerous the situation at Zaporizhzhia is.

Modern nuclear power plants are designed to withstand shocks of all kinds - from earthquakes to airliners crashing into them.

One of the experts' chief concerns is that Ukrainian staff - which have carried on working despite the Russian army's takeover of the power plant in early March - could eventually succumb to stress and fatigue.

A letter signed by dozens of employees at the plant on Thursday made a reference to this possibility.

"We can professionally control nuclear fission," it said, "but we are helpless in the face of people's irresponsibility and madness."

Read the piece here.

Image source, Reuters

Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk defends his world heavyweight titles against Britain's Anthony Joshua tomorrow - and will then return to defending his country, his team says.

The Ukrainian beat Joshua in London last September to take his world titles but any basking in the glory was interrupted five months later when Russia invaded his country.

Usyk was in London taking part in negotiations over the rematch with Joshua when the attacks on his home city of Kyiv began. His family were at home celebrating his daughter's birthday and cancellation of international flights into Ukraine meant it took him three days to get back.

Like most Ukrainian men, the 35-year-old started to help with the war campaign, joining a community self-defence organisation.

But he returned to boxing with the blessing of President Volodymyr Zelensky, keen for the Ukrainian people to see their flag on the international sporting stage.

And Usyk's promoter, Alexander Krassyuk, tells BBC Sport that after this weekend's fight "he will return to territorial defence, there is no hesitation about it".

You can read more here

Hugo Bachega
BBC News, Odesa

Image source, Getty Images

UN secretary-general António Guterres says the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, is "very confusing", as Russia and Ukraine blame each other for shelling the site, tensions that have raised fears of a catastrophe.

Guterres' call for the creation of a demilitarised zone around the complex has been rejected by Moscow, which claims it would make the facility "more vulnerable".

He responded in a BBC interview in Odesa by saying "there's a long way for serious discussion", without getting into detail.

Similarly, there has been no deal to give access to monitors from the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

But Guterres hinted at "discreet diplomacy" and referenced the deal that allowed Ukraine to resume its grain exports.

The agreement, brokered by the UN and Turkey, came after a months-long blockade imposed by Russia that worsened a global food crisis, and is the only diplomatic breakthrough in this conflict so far.

Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

Thanks for joining our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. Let's have a quick look back at what's been happening today.

• Russia's President Putin has agreed in a call with France's President Macron on the need for a visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). the Kremlin says
• A visit to the facility could take place in September, a Russian diplomat has said
• Ukrainian officials have accused Russia, which occupies the plant, of planning to disconnect the energy produced at Zaporizhzhia from the Ukrainian grid. UN chief António Guterres, who's visiting to Ukraine, has warned Moscow against doing so, again calling for an end to all military activity around the complex
• Both sides have accused each other of shelling the plant - Russia says its troops are there to prevent a nuclear accident
• A Western official has said more than half of Russia's naval aircraft in its Black Sea fleet have been disabled by Ukrainian strikes on a Russian airbase in occupied Crimea
• The US has announced a $775m military aid package for Ukraine, including funding for rocket systems and howitzers
• The death toll in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, has risen to at least 20 following a period of heavy shelling in recent days

Image source, Maxar Technologies

Russia has submitted a letter to the UN Security Council detailing the "provocations" that it accuses Ukraine of plotting at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Both sides have been accused of planning a "false flag" incident there: a staged disaster which could be blamed on the enemy in an attempt to raise the stakes of the war.

The Russian mission to the UN alleges that the Ukrainians want to cause "what they believe to be a minor accident", consisting of a radiation leak, which could see Russia accused of "nuclear terrorism".

The letter denies that Russian troops are storing weapons on site. It repeats an allegation that the Ukrainians have been shelling the plant. Kyiv accuses Russia of doing the same thing.

Dominic Bailey
BBC News Visual Journalism Team

Satellite images show a long queue of traffic in Crimea heading towards Russia, just a few days after explosions struck a military airbase on the peninsula.

Image source, .

The high resolution images captured on 12 August by the US-based Planet Labs, do not show the full extent of the tailback, but clearly shows dozens of lorries and cars queuing for about a mile on the eastbound carriageway near Kerch.

The road leads to the bridge built across the Kerch Strait after the Russian annexation.

There were several explosions at the Saky military base near Novofedorivka on the peninsula's western coast on 9 August.

Videos on social media appeared to show visitors fleeing from a beach as smoke rose in the distance.

Despite the war, the Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014 has continued to be a popular destination with Russian tourists.

We've got a bit more information now on the latest package of military aid being promised to Ukraine by Washington.

The US Defense Department's $775m (£656m) package will include high-mobility artillery rocket systems, artillery and mine-clearing equipment.

"We want to make sure that Ukraine has a steady stream of ammunition to meet its needs, and that's what we're doing with this package," AFP reports a senior official as saying.

He also says Russian forces are showing a "total lack of progress on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The US has made regular pledges of financial and military aid for Ukraine since Russia's invasion began. Today's announcement is significantly smaller than some have been - on 19 May, for example, the Senate approved a package worth $40bn.

Image source, Reuters

Russia's President Putin and China's President Xi will both attend the G20 meeting of world leaders in November, says the leader of host nation Indonesia.

It was not known whether the pair would attend the summit in Bali, due to international tensions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and efforts by China's President Xi to limit trips as a Covid-19 measure.

But Indonesian President Joko Widodo told Bloomberg he's expecting both men to appear in person.

A White House spokesperson declined to confirm the travel plans of President Biden, but said if Putin appeared, the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky should take up his invitation to attend, too.

The US is providing a $775m military aid package to Ukraine, the Pentagon announces.

It will include funding for rocket systems and howitzers, a spokesman says.

Paul Myers and the BBC Disinformation Team

Footage has emerged, external which shows the interior of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after Russian troops moved in with their vehicles.

It’s not clear who filmed the video, or exactly when.

The BBC and other journalists have verified the location in which it was taken, with the help of another video from 2019, external, shot in 3D, which provides a tour of the facility. The older video is available on a YouTube account connected to the power plant.

NPR journalist Geoff Brumfiel shared a string of images, external which show features seen in both videos, and can be used to confirm the location.

Image source, @gbrumfiel/Twitter

Image source, @gbrumfiel/Twitter

The Russian presence is signalled in the footage with vehicles marked with the letter Z – a symbol of the invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow insists it's working to protect the facility.

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Image source, Reuters

During his visit to the city of Odesa, UN chief António Guterres also said a lot needed to be done to guarantee that the world had access to Ukrainian grain, and Russian food products and fertilisers.

"This is an agreement between two parties locked in bitter conflict. It is unprecedented in scope and scale. But there is still a long way to go on many fronts," he said.

He asked rich countries to help those most in need during the food crisis.

"It is time for massive and generous support, so developing countries can purchase the food from this and other ports - and people can buy it."

Guterres said developing countries needed help to purchase such grain and called for unimpeded access to global markets for Russian food and fertilisers which are not subject to sanctions.

He also warned that without enough fertilisers this year, there may not be enough food next year.

Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron have spoken over the phone and discussed the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant.

In a statement following the call, the Kremlin said that Putin "stressed that the systematic shelling by the Ukrainian military" of the power plant "creates the danger of a sizeable disaster".

Both presidents agreed on the need to send a mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the power station to assess the real state of affairs and the Kremlin said the Russian side would "provide the inspectors of the agency with the necessary assistance".

The Elysee Palace also put out a statement, saying that Macron had "once again underlined his concern at the risks posed by the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant".

The two presidents are set to talk to each other again in the coming days after discussions between the technical teams have taken place, and ahead of the deployment of the mission.