Ukraine’s state energy operator: ‘There are risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances’

A US citizen has recently died in Ukraine, according to a state department spokesperson.

Officials are in touch with the family and are providing consular assistance, they added.

We also once again reiterate US citizens should not travel to Ukraine due to the active armed conflict and the singling out of US citizens in Ukraine by Russian government security officials, and that US citizens in Ukraine should depart immediately if it is safe to do so using any commercial or other privately available ground transportation options.

On August 26, Russians killed two civilians in Donetsk region – in Bakhmut. Twelve people were injured.

The military strategy expert and author of a new book on conflict says the flawed thinking behind Russia’s invasion stems from the inability of those at the top to take responsibility for mistakes

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

Russia’s war against Ukraine has been hampered by failings experienced by autocratic states during conflict, according to a far-reaching new study of command in war by one of the UK’s most prominent academics in the field.

Command, a wide-ranging analysis of post-second world war conflicts by the leading strategic studies expert Lawrence Freedman, examines a series of well-known conflicts, from the Cuban missile crisis to the French defeat at the hands of the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, through to the Falklands war and Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, up to the present war in Ukraine.

UK Ministry of Defence say ‘increasingly frequent’ attacks behind the frontline are also affecting air basing

• Ukraine launches fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters
• Macron calls Putin over fears Russia is weaponising captured nuclear plant
• What we know on day 178 of the invasion

In case you missed it last night, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave a video address to the nation, vowing that every Russian strike on the country would be answered.

Zelenskyy said: All those who experience this constant horror of the destruction of life and the destruction of everything that gives life normality. We will not leave any of these strikes unanswered. We will establish the identity of every occupier who gives orders and executes these strikes at cities. And we will bring them all to justice in one way or another. No murderer will hide.

UK’s Ministry of Defence says troop build-up could be in anticipation of Ukrainian counter-offensive or for a new assault

Here are some of the latest images from photographers on the ground in Ukraine:

Concerns are growing for the safety of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after an attack by Russian anti-aircraft missiles on 5 August.

Official say plant still works and no radioactive discharges detected; Russian and Turkish presidents met to discuss Ukraine and Syria

• At a glance: what we know on day 163 of the invasion

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has responded directly to yesterday’s report from Amnesty International, which suggested Ukrainian forces’ tactics are endangering civilians.

The human rights group’s researchers found that Ukrainian forces were using some schools and hospitals as bases, firing near houses and sometimes living in residential flats. The report concluded that this meant in some instances Russian forces would respond to an attack or target residential areas – putting civilians at risk and damaging civilian infrastructure.

There cannot be – even hypothetically – any condition under which any Russian attack on Ukraine becomes justified.

Aggression against our state is unprovoked, invasive and openly terroristic.

Kyiv hits back after charity says Russia’s attacks ‘unjustifiable’ but Ukraine’s tactics are endangering civilians. This live blog is closed.

• Ukraine ‘endangers civilians’ with army bases in residential areas, says Amnesty

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has again appealed for access to a Ukrainian nuclear power plant now controlled by Russian forces to determine whether it was a source of danger.

Contact with the Europe’s largest nuclear plant, which is at Zaporizhzhia and is being operated by Ukrainian technicians under occupation, was “fragile” and communications did not function every day, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi told Swiss paper Tages-Anzeiger.

During the day, pyrotechnic units of the state emergency service were involved 117 times, 691 explosive objects were detected, removed and neutralised. The territory with an area of 92 hectares was surveyed.