President urges Ukrainians to stay vigilant as they mark independence from Soviet rule; curfew to be extended in Kharkiv as tensions mount

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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to be vigilant in the coming week as they prepare to celebrate their Independence Day, as fresh blasts hit Crimea and a missile wounded 12 civilians near a nuclear power plant.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy on Saturday said Ukrainians must not allow Moscow to “spread despondency and fear” among them as they mark the 31st anniversary of independence from Soviet rule.

Putin agrees to allow inspectors at Zaporizhzhia nuclear station as UN chief urges Russia not to take it off grid amid fears over cooling system

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Vladimir Putin has agreed to inspectors visiting the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. According to the office of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the Russian leader had “reconsidered the demand” that the International Atomic Energy Agency travel through Russia to the site, after Putin himself warned fighting there could bring about a “catastrophe”. The office said Putin had dropped his demand that the IAEA team travel to the site via Russia, saying it could arrive via Ukraine.

The UN secretary general has asked Russia not take the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant off grid. António Guterres asked on Friday that the Russian-occupied facility not be cut off from Ukraine’s electrical grid after Ukrainian reports that Moscow was planning to do so, saying the plant used “Ukrainian electricity”.

Western officials say there are growing concerns over concerns over water cooling at the Zaporizhzhia plant. Its existing reactor cooling system is critical to the safety of the site and relies on the maintenance of the electricity supply to ensure operation, but officials are anxious that Russia may disconnect the supply if it tries to cut off the plant from Ukraine’s grid.

More than half of Russia Black Sea naval aviation has been knocked out, according to a western official in Ukraine. The Ukrainian raid on the Saky airbase in occupied Crimea last week knocked out “more than half” of Russia’s combat naval aviation in the Black Sea, western officials have said. However, overall “combat stasis” remains.

The US has announced a new $775m (£655m) package of defence equipment and ammunition for Ukraine, including various types of missiles, drones, artillery and mine-clearing systems. The US has previously sent Ukraine more than $9bn in weapons systems, ammunition and other equipment.

Russia’s media watchdog said it was taking punitive measures against TikTok, Telegram, Zoom, Discord and Pinterest. Russia has repeatedly threatened to fine sites – including Google – that violate harsh new laws criminalising the spreading of “false information” about the Russian army. On Tuesday, Russian courts fined the US-based live streaming service Twitch 2 million roubles ($34,000) and messenger service Telegram 11 million roubles for violating military censorship laws.

A former Russian mayor has been appointed head of Russian-occupied Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. It is the latest in a string of such appointments, which Kyiv says are part of attempts to annexe its territory.

Ukraine’s economy minister has said the country’s economy could contract 35-40% by the end of the year. Hit by Russia’s 24 February invasion, the economy contracted 15.1% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022.

The Kyiv Independent reported that rescuers are searching for people and bodies under the rubble of a dormitory destroyed in attacks on Kharkiv.

The Chinese and Russian leaders, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, will attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, told Bloomberg News. “Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” he said. As hosts of this year’s summit, Indonesia has faced pressure from western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin. The country has also invited the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Kharkiv has been one of the most consistently shelled cities since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to British intelligence. Sitting around 15km from the Russian front line, Kharkiv has suffered because it remains within range of most types of Russian artillery, the latest report from the UK’s ministry of defence reads.

Secretary general makes plea amid concerns from western officials over whether cooling of reactor can be maintained. This blog is now closed

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Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv has been one of the most consistently shelled since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to British intelligence.

Sitting about 15km from the Russian front line, Kharkiv has suffered because it remains within range of most types of Russian artillery, the latest report from the UK’s ministry of defence reads.

Multiple rocket launchers and generally inaccurate area weapons have caused devastation across large parts of the city.

They are probably trying to force Ukraine to maintain significant forces on this front, to prevent them from being employed as a counter-attack force elsewhere.”

Explosions rock an ammunition depot in Crimea, as the Russian defence minister says the country has no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine

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Explosions erupted across Crimea on Tuesday, with reports of smoke and fire in at least three different areas where military bases or munitions depots are located. The first one, at an ammunitions depot near Dzhankoi in the north, severely disrupted railway services and wounded two people. Ukraine hinted at involvement but has not explicitly claimed responsibility. Mykhailo Podolyak, a key adviser to the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told the Guardian in an exclusive interview that there could be similar attacks in the “next two or three months”.

A record number of cars have crossed the Crimea Bridge that links Crimea to Russia – which suggests that a number of Russians who settled in the region after the annexation in 2014 are now fleeing. Russian state media are reporting that 38,297 cars crossed the bridge on 15 August.

The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has said Russia has no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. During a speech at the Moscow international security conference, he alleged that Ukrainian military operations were being planned by the US and Britain, and that Nato had increased its troop deployment in eastern and central Europe “several times over”, Reuters reports. Shoigu added that the Aukus bloc of Australia, the UK and US had the potential to develop into “a political-military alliance”.

Ukraine has received six more M109 howitzers from Latvia, its minister of defence, Oleksii Reznikov, announced.

The UN secretary general, AntónioGuterres, announced on Tuesday that he will meet Zelenskiy and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, in Lviv on Thursday. Guterres will go on to visit the Black Sea port of Odesa on Friday.

A Russian court fined the US-based streaming service Twitch for hosting a short video containing what the court called “fake” information about alleged war crimes in Bucha – a Ukrainian town out of which there have been numerous verified accounts of Russian soldiers torturing, killing and sexually assaulting civilians. Though the content of the video was not specified, Russia has repeatedly threatened to fine sites such as Google, Twitter and Wikipedia, accusing them of hosting “fake” content related to its military campaign in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian security service has identified eight additional Russian soldiers suspected of war crimes in Bucha. These eight servicemen, most of them of unit 6720 of the federal service of the national guard of the Russian federation, are accused of looting property and ransacking abandoned homes. Previously, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, identified at least 10 soldiers allegedly involved in human rights abuses in Bucha,

Exclusive: Mykhailo Podolyak says Russian supply lines will be targeted and predicts similar attacks to last week’s explosion at Crimean airbase

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Ukraine is engaged in a counteroffensive aimed at creating “chaos within Russian forces” by striking at the invaders’ supply lines deep into occupied territories, according to a key adviser to the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Mykhailo Podolyak told the Guardian there could be more attacks in the “next two or three months” similar to Tuesday’s mysterious strikes on a railway junction and an airbase in Crimea, as well as last week’s hit on Russian warplanes at the peninsula’s Saky aerodrome.