As we've been reporting, authorities in the northern city of Kharkiv have announced a curfew from tomorrow and public gatherings have been banned in the capital Kyiv.

The southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv won't have an extended curfew on Tuesday and Wednesday for the country's National Flag Day and Independence Day, the region's governor Vitaliy Kim says.

However, Mykolaiv's residents should be vigilant and avoid public places, the governor has said.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned about Russia potentially targeting independence celebrations and doing "something particularly ugly".

Mykolaiv was one of the first cities attacked when Russia's invasion began and has faced relentless bombing.

Read more about life in Mykolaiv from the BBC's Andrew Harding here

Image source, .

The south-eastern town of Nikopol, which is not far from Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, was hit again by Russian missiles on Sunday, Ukraine has said.

Russian missile attacks on Nikopol, Krivyi Rih and Synelnykovsky resulted in a “night with shelling and casualties” and “up to 2,000 people without electricity”, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said on Telegram.

Britain, France, Germany and the US have warned about the need to ensure the safety of nuclear installations threatened by the conflict in Ukraine.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been occupied by Russian forces since early March and Moscow and Kyiv have both previously accused each other of shelling the power station.

Image source, .

Russia is likely “increasingly struggling” to motivate auxiliary forces in the Donbas region of Ukraine, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD).

In its latest update on the war, external, it says commanders are likely resorting to financial incentives to encourage these troops, who are there to offer extra support to soldiers already in the area, to join the combat.

“A consistent contributing factor to these problems is Russia’s classification of the war as a ‘special military operation’ which limits the state’s powers of legal coercion,” it says.

It comes after a video was circulated on Ukrainian social media channels on 15 August reportedly showing elements from a military unit of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) refusing to be deployed as part of offensive operations in Donetsk, the report adds.

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, Reuters

President Zelensky has repeated his warning that Russia could be planning to do something “disgusting” to mark Ukraine’s 31st Independence Day on Wednesday.

There are reports, he says, that the Ukrainian defenders captured in the city of Mariupol would be put on an “absurd” show trial.

If this goes ahead, Zelensky says, it’ll be a violation of “all agreements” and “all international rules” and that any negotiation with Russia will be impossible.

“There will be no more conversations,” he says.

Cities across the country, meanwhile, have taken some security measures.

In Kharkiv, which has been under constant Russian bombardments in recent weeks, a curfew will be in place from tomorrow until Thursday.

Here in Kyiv, public gatherings have been banned until Thursday. At the weekend, thousands of people visited a display of destroyed Russian tanks on the city’s main street near Maidan Square.

Independence Day coincides with the six-month anniversary of Russia’s invasion. The war has reached a deadlock, with neither side making substantial military gains and no prospect of any diplomatic breakthrough.

Image source, Getty Images

A top Russian diplomat has ruled out the possibility of a negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine and cautioned that the invasion could turn into a protracted conflict.

In an interview with the Financial Times,, external Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, also said there would be no direct meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Gatilov claimed Kyiv and Moscow had been “very close” to a deal to end the conflict in April, and accused Western nations of prolonging the conflict “until the last Ukrainian”.

“The more this conflict goes on, the more difficult it will be to have a diplomatic solution,” he said.

But he praised the efforts of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who maintains a close working relationship with Putin, for “trying his best” to facilitate dialogue between Russia and Ukraine.

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine will celebrate 31 years of independence from Soviet rule on Wednesday 24 August, a date which also marks exactly six months since the Russian invasion.

Mass events are banned in Kyiv from Monday until Thursday because of the high risk of Russian missile strikes, while in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, an extended curfew is due to come into effect from Tuesday evening until Thursday morning.

Sound alarms indicating chemical and nuclear dangers have also been added to air-raid sirens.

In his regular address last night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: "The occupiers could not have imagined that even now, after six months of such a brutal war, we would celebrate our independence on our land and in our capital.

"One hundred and eighty days - almost six months - the absolute majority of our people have no doubt that we will achieve victory of Ukraine."

Image source, Office of the president of Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Russia could launch a "particularly ugly" provocation during Ukrainian Independence Day celebrations.

Speaking during his nightly address from Kyiv, Zelensky suggested Moscow could seek to put Ukrainian troops captured during intense fighting in the southern port city of Mariupol on trial to coincide with Wednesday’s anniversary.

He warned that such an action would mark “the line beyond which no negotiations are possible”.

“One of the key objectives of the enemy is to humiliate us," and "to sow despondency, fear and conflict”, the Ukrainian leader said.

"We have to be strong enough to resist all provocation" and "make the occupiers pay for their terror", he added.

Image source, REUTERS / Valentyn Ogirenko

Good morning and thanks for joining our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• Mass events have been banned in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv from today until Thursday because of the risk of Russian missile strikes
• An extended curfew lasting from tomorrow evening to Thursday morning has also been announced in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv - the country’s second largest city
• It follows a warning from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia could be planning “something particularly ugly” to coincide with Ukraine’s Independence Day on Wednesday
• The day also marks six months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started in the early hours of 24 February

• Meanwhile, there have been more Russian missile strikes on the south-eastern town of Nikopol over the weekend, near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Dnipropetrovsk governor says
• Western allies Britain, France, Germany and the US have all stressed the need to ensure the safety of nuclear installations threatened by the conflict in Ukraine

We'll bring you the latest throughout the day.