Russia Ukraine war live: Kyiv destroys key bridge as troops leave ‘trail of destruction’ in Kursk incursion

Russia‘s defence ministry accused Ukraine on Saturday of planning to attack the Kursk nuclear power plant and blame such a “provocation” on Moscow, Interfax news agency cited the ministry as saying.

The ministry said Russia would respond harshly in the event of such an attack, which it said would contaminate a large surrounding area.

The shock Ukrainian advance in Kursk has raised questions about the effectiveness of Russia’s surveillance capabilities, as well as the calibre of its border fortifications and the forces guarding them.

“The Russians had a complete intelligence failure here,” French military expert Yohann Michel, research fellow at the IESD institute in Lyon, told Reuters.

With Ukraine’s forces retreating in eastern Ukraine, Moscow may well have assumed Kyiv would not make such a high-stakes gamble, Michel said.

“I would understand if it was difficult for the Russians to think something that big could happen,” he added.

A Russian member of parliament and former military officer Andrei Gurulyov said in a television interview two days after the incursion that Russian military leaders had been warned in a report about a month beforehand that there were signs of preparations for a Ukrainian attack, but it was not heeded.

Responsibility for defending the Russian border is shared between regular troops, FSB border forces and the national guard.

Ukraine is “not interested in occupying Russian territories”, according to president Zelenskyy’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.

In a post to the social media platform X, he wrote that Ukraine’s advance into Russia would strengthen their hand at any potential negotiations between the two countries.

He explained: “We have absolutely no plans to beg: ‘Please, sit down to negotiate’. Instead, we have proven, effective means of coercion.. We need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia.”

He also said that the incursion was an “important tool” that would “influence on public opinion within Russia”.

“Negative changes in the psychological state of the Russian population will be another argument for the start of negotiations”, he concluded.

The Russian management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said on Saturday a Ukrainian drone dropped an explosive charge on a road outside the plant, endangering its staff who use the road, the TASS news agency reported.

Russia has been in control of the Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, since soon after it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of trying to sabotage its operations.

A partially destroyed statue of Lenin and bullet-marked civilian cars lining the road – these are the scenes emerging from the Russian border town of Sudzha, which was assaulted by Ukraine.

Western journalists have been allowed to accompany Ukrainian military into occupied Russia. CNN journalist Nick Paton Walsh described the scene saying: “Not even the statue of Lenin is unscathed here. This Ukrainian assault, so persistent,.. and Russia completely unable to push the Ukrainians out here.”

Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia has derailed planned talks between the two sides scheduled for this month, diplomats and officials have told The Washington Post.

According to the report, Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Doha this month to negotiate an agreement over energy and power infrastructure.

The planned talks have now apparently been derailed by Ukraine’s advance into Russia’s western Kursk region.

Diplomats had hoped that the talks between the two sides on energy supplies could have developed into more extensive peace talks.

Russian officials have now postponed their meeting with Qatari officials, despite Kyiv still being keen to send a delegation, The Washington Post reported.

The Ukrainian presidential office told the US paper that the talks had been postponed “due to the situation in the Middle East” but would take place by video call later this month.

Ukraine’s defence ministry have claimed that 598,180 members of the Russian armed forces have died in the war so far.

In a tally titled ‘losses of the Russian occupiers in Ukraine’, the ministry said that Russia had lost 367 aircraft, 8501 tanks, 16,473 armoured fighting vehicles and one submarine.

16,985 artillery systems, 2,432 cruise missiles and 28 warships and boats have also been taken out between 24 February 2022 and 17 August 2024, the ministry said.

The US government is reportedly behind the halt on Storm Shadow missiles being used by Kyiv inside Russia.

According to a report in The Times, the UK government is in favour of relaxing the use of long range weapons and has asked Washington for the green light.

A UK government source told the paper that a request was made more than a month ago to the US government but that it was “stuck in the system” – with no decision forthcoming.

Another UK government source said that “discussions were still ongoing around Storm Shadow with allies”. The UK would require consensus from allies in order to give Ukraine the freedom to use the long-range weapons inside Russia.

Ukraine’s air defences shot down all 14 Russian drones fired in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said on Saturday.

The air force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that the Shahed drones were downed over six Ukrainian regions in the south and centre of the country

Ukraine’s foreign ministry rubbished Moscow’s claims about Kyiv planning an attack on Russian nuclear power plants with “dirty bombs.”

Several state-controlled Russian media claimed Ukrainian troops were planning to attack the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in Russia.

Kyiv’s foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi called the claims “a surge of insane Russian propaganda.”

“Ukraine has neither the intention nor the ability to carry out any such actions. Russia must stop spreading dangerous lies,” Mr Tykhyi said.

He said Ukraine is a committed member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and does not have any “dirty bombs.”

“Their scenario of accusing us of terrorism and the attack on the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant did not work. Now they are lying,” Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation department at Ukraine’s national security and defence council wrote on Telegram.