President Zelensky warns Russia of a "powerful response" to any attacks timed to coincide with Ukraine's Independence Day tomorrow
Earlier this week, he said Russia could do "something particularly ugly" ahead of Wednesday's anniversary
The US state department has also warned Russia is planning to launch fresh attacks against Ukraine's civilian infrastructure and government buildings
Kyiv has already banned public events to commemorate Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union
Tensions are particularly high following a string of explosions and attacks in Russian-occupied Crimea
A memorial service has been held in Moscow for journalist Darya Dugina who was killed by a car bomb outside the city on Saturday
Russia has blamed Ukraine for the attack, but Kyiv denies involvement
We're pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for now. Thanks for following along.
Our writers today were Matt Murphy, Thomas Mackintosh, James Fitzgerald, Oliver Slow and Marita Moloney. The page was edited by Chris Giles, Laurence Peter and Alexandra Fouché.
We'll be pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine shortly. Here's a summary of today's developments:
Image source, ReutersRussia's wheat exports in July and August are down by 27% from the same time last year, according to new figures from the SovEcon agriculture consultancy.
Some 5.9 million tonnes were exported over the two months of the 2022-2023 season, which is the lowest volume in five years, it is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency reports.
The figures come after Russian wheat export prices fell last week, with analysts saying the pace of exports remained slow and farmers were concerned about storage capacity, Reuters says.
Ukraine’s participation in the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November will depend on the status of the conflict with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
Asked at a press conference earlier on Tuesday about the prospects of talks with Moscow, including on the G20 sidelines, Zelensky said it was “too early to discuss this”, the Ukrainian UNIAN news agency reports.
"I am grateful for Ukraine having been invited [to G20]. Which format [participation will take] depends on numerous factors. Primarily, for myself, on the situation in our country, on the battlefield, on the frontline,” he said.
It has been reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend the G20 summit, raising speculation that a meeting with Zelensky could take place at the event.
Image source, Getty ImagesUkraine last week staged an exercise in case of a possible nuclear disaster
Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned Zaporizhzhia in his latest remarks, and there have been warnings that shelling at the Russian-held nuclear power plant could trigger a Chernobyl-style disaster.
Our Europe editor Paul Kirby has examined the risks involved:
Image source, EPAPresident Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine will get Russian-occupied Crimea back by whatever means it considers necessary.
"We'll get back Crimea by any means we deem right, without consulting other countries," he told reporters after summit talks in Kyiv which focused on Crimea. Most leaders participated via video call.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and used the peninsula as a launchpad for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine this year.
Zelensky also said the Russians had tried, but failed to disconnect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant from the Ukrainian power grid. There has been shelling at the site of the huge installation in southern Ukraine, seized by Russian forces in March.
Zelensky said he saw no sign of Russian readiness for negotiation.
“They’re not thinking about any dialogue, they made a decision to occupy our country, just as in 2014 they made this decision,” he said.
“As the world didn’t hit them in the face, they decided to go further, but now we are hitting them in the face.”
When asked about Western military assistance for Ukraine, he said his forces needed more 155mm artillery and armoured vehicles - “as many as possible”, Reuters news agency reports.
Image source, ReutersPeople wait to collect humanitarian aid at a Red Cross distribution point in Mykolaiv
Ahead of tomorrow's six-month anniversary of the Russian invasion, the Red Cross warns that Ukrainian people are at "a critical breaking point".
The president of the humanitarian organisation, Francesco Rocca, says the "devastating knock-on effects" of the war, like rising prices and food shortages, are only growing as the conflict continues.
The Red Cross, which now counts more than 100,000 local volunteers and staff in Ukraine and nearby countries, is continuing to scale up humanitarian provisions, the AFP news agency reports.
It warns that "even if the conflict were to end tomorrow, it will take years to repair the damage to cities and homes and the impact on families".
Paul Kirby
Digital Europe editor
Image source, Getty ImagesMourners were told Darya Dugina had died "on the front lines" for Russia
Ukrainian officials are adamant their security services had nothing to do with the car-bomb attack that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of ultranationalist thinker Alexander Dugin, in Moscow on Saturday. The accusation comes from Russia's FSB, who have identified the killer as a Ukrainian woman who rented a flat in Ms Dugina's building last month.
Hundreds of people have attended a memorial service for Ms Dugina, who became a pro-war commentator on Russian TV. The victim's father told mourners she had "died for Russia" and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said there can be no mercy for her killers.
But Ukraine's authorities says she doesn't work for them, and defence ministry adviser Yuriy Sak says the attack was probably a Russian "false flag" operation made to blame Kyiv.
"We don't work this way; we have more important tasks for our boys and girls," says the head of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov.
He's accused Moscow of organising a string of mass-casualty attacks inside Russia to mobilise flagging support for its war, which began six months ago tomorrow.
Image source, AFPTourists enjoying the sea at Sevastopol
We often talk about Crimea in the context of conflict, but the southern peninsula has long been a hotspot for Russian holidaymakers.
That could be changing, however, with the number of Russian tourists holidaying in Crimea this summer falling by half compared with last year.
The decline was reported by Sergei Romashkin, deputy head of the Association of Russian Tour Operators.
The Black Sea peninsula was annexed by Russian forces in 2014 and became a launchpad for the February invasion of Ukraine. Crimean resorts have drawn crowds of Russian holidaymakers since the 19th Century.
The summer season has nearly ended, and according to Romashkin, 90% of Russian tourists visiting Crimea have either been already or are on holiday there now. So the fall in tourism predates this month’s attacks on Russian military bases there.
Romashkin didn’t link the halving of tourism directly to the fighting in Ukraine. Russian media note, however, that Russia now restricts flights to Crimea and other areas near the war zone. Nearly all the Russian tourists travelled to Crimea by car.
Image source, Polish Presidential Press ServiceUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) and Poland's President Andrzej Duda in Kyiv
Poland's President Andrzej Duda says there can be no return to business as usual in relations with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
He called for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, built to deliver Russian gas to Germany, to be scrapped completely.
“At a time when Russia is waging war against Ukraine, when it attacked Ukraine, when Russia is occupying internationally recognised territories, this requires a change in Western policy that will not only stop Nord Stream 2, but also get rid of the gas pipeline Nord Stream 2,” Duda said in Kyiv.
Until Russia's February invasion of Ukraine, Germany imported about a quarter of its gas through Nord Stream 1, which opened in 2011. It runs from the Russian coast near St Petersburg to north-eastern Germany. Germany also agreed to the construction of a parallel Nord Stream 2, which was completed but never became operational, because of the invasion.
Duda also said Crimea should be returned to Ukraine, after the peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014.
“Crimea was and is as much a part of Ukraine as Gdansk or Lublin are parts of Poland, as Nice is part of France, Cologne is part of Germany, as Rotterdam is part of the Netherlands,” he said at the Crimea Platform summit in Kyiv.
Image source, Getty ImagesUkraine's PM Denys Shmyhal
Ukraine's prime minister says the country expects to get up to $16bn (£13.5bn) of additional assistance from its international partners this year.
Denys Shmyhal said Ukraine had remained financially stable thanks to lenders' support since Russia invaded in February.
But he added that over 40% of the Kyiv government's spending so far this year - some $11.5bn - had been allocated to military needs.
That included some $7.7bn for military salaries and another $3.65bn to source equipment, Reuters news agency reports.
A senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticised Western embassies for urging their citizens to evacuate Ukraine ahead of the country's independence day.
Mykhaylo Podolyak's remarks follow a US state department warning that Russia could launch intense attacks to mark the Ukrainian holiday on Wednesday.
Referring to Russia, he said: "Six months. Monster continues to terrorise due to the lack of global leadership, political will and weapons. Maybe it is time to change the approach."
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Members of Ukraine's Honour Guard have attended a ceremony in Kyiv for the raising of Ukraine's biggest national flag.
It is National Flag Day, celebrated a day before Independence Day, which marks Ukraine's break from Soviet rule in 1991.
"This year, more than in any other year, the yellow and blue colours symbolise freedom that refuses to surrender to tyranny," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.
Image source, Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
Image source, Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
Image source, Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
Image source, Ukrainian Presidential Press ServiceTomorrow will mark the six month point of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Here is a quick recap of how the war has progressed so far:
Image source, Getty ImagesTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he hopes to arrange a meeting between Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the not too distant future".
Erdogan has sought to play the role of peacemaker since the conflict broke out. Speaking after a cabinet meeting, he said he hoped to arrange a summit between the leaders "to completely solve this crisis".
Both Kyiv and Moscow have dismissed any prospect of a meeting between Putin and Zelensky in recent weeks.
Yesterday, Russia's representative to the UN in Geneva told the Financial Times that such a summit was unlikely.
And Zelensky also dismissed the prospect last week during a meeting with Erdogan, telling the Turkish leader he was "very surprised" to hear that Moscow was "ready for some kind of peace".
Image source, ReutersThe Shakhtar v Metalist match started with a minute's silence for the war dead
A football match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Metalist Kharkiv has finished goalless in the curtain-raising fixture of the 2022-23 Ukrainian Premier League season.
The completion of the game - in an empty Kyiv stadium - means top-level football has returned to Ukraine for the first time since the war began.
Shakhtar were leading the table when Ukraine's 2021-22 season was abandoned due to the Russian invasion.
The team were forced to move away from Donetsk after Russian-backed separatists seized swathes of eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The club's director of football, former Croatian international Darijo Srna, told the BBC's Global Football podcast that the sport could help bring back some joy for Ukrainians.
"These people deserve to be happy. They are not bad, they are not jealous, they don’t want nothing that is not theirs. They’re just fighting for themselves, for their children and for their land,” he said.
Srna added: “About Russia, I cannot comment a lot. For me, they are done. Finished.”
Image source, Ukrainian Presidential Press ServiceBoris Johnson meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv in April
Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK will “never recognise” Russia’s annexation of Crimea, or “any other Ukrainian territory”.
In an address to the Crimea Platform, Johnson said the UK will provide Kyiv with military, humanitarian, economic and diplomatic support until “Russia ends this hideous war and withdraws its forces from the entirety of Ukraine”.
Johnson, who will leave office at the start of September, described Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in 2014 as the “direct precursor” for today’s war.
He accused President Putin of ignoring the fact Russia had repeatedly recognised Crimea as being part of Ukraine, and of breaking numerous international agreements.
“Putin is planning to do to all of Ukraine what he has done to Crimea, and he is preparing more annexations and more sham referendums” saying it was important for countries to stand together to ensure no country can “acquire territory, or change borders, by force of arms”.
Image source, ReutersPoland's President Duda (left) joined Zelensky for a meeting of the Crimea Platform
A little more from President Zelensky - who's again vowed to restore Ukrainian control over Crimea.
"It all began with Crimea, and it will end with Crimea," Reuters quotes Zelensky as saying.
His comments refer to Russia's occupation of the peninsula in 2014 - almost a decade before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine this year.
Retaking the southern territory would mean "the resuscitation of world law and order," Zelensky says.
Poland's President, Andrzej Duda, is with Zelensky for a forum run by Ukraine's president named the Crimea Platform.
Last week, Western officials said Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets on Crimea were having major psychological and operational effects on Moscow's forces.
Image source, .
Image source, ReutersThe Ukrainian leader addressed a news conference in Kyiv
The Ukrainian leader has warned Russia of a "powerful response" to any attacks timed to coincide with Ukraine's Independence Day tomorrow.
"This response will grow, it will get stronger and stronger," Volodymyr Zelensky told a news conference during a visit by Poland's President Andrzej Duda, Reuters news agency reports.
Duda added that Zelensky and his compatriots were fighting "in defence of the integrity of the Ukrainian state".
Zelensky has speculated that Moscow could "try something particularly ugly" to coincide with Wednesday's celebrations marking Ukraine's breakaway from Soviet rule in 1991.
A memorial service for journalist Darya Dugina, killed in a car bomb blast on Saturday, has been held in Moscow.
Her father Alexander Dugin, a prominent Russian ultra-nationalist, paid tribute to her.
Darya Dugina's father speaks at her Moscow memorial service