Russia Ukraine war live: Kyiv targets Moscow with largest ever drone attack as it uses US rockets in Kursk

A high resolution satellite image of the third bridge to be targeted by Ukraine in Russia’s Kursk region shows it has been significantly damaged.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has confirmed he is ready to visit the Kursk nuclear power plant in Russia at the end of August, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

Russia’s Defence Ministry last week accused Ukraine of planning to attack the Kursk plant as part of its ongoing incursion into the Russian region, an assertion Kyiv denied.

“We expect that an understanding of the danger that Ukrainian provocations against Russian nuclear power plants represent will prompt the IAEA’s management to take concrete action to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants in Zaporizhzhia and Kursk,” Zakharova said at a weekly news briefing.

Ukraine has damaged or destroyed three bridges in the Russian region of Kursk as they attempt to consolidate positions gained during their ambitious cross-border assult and cut off supplies to Moscow’s troops.

The first bridge was destroyed in the village of Glushkovo, around eight miles west of Ukrainian troops inside of Russia, on Friday.

The second was destroyed on Saturday in the village of Zvannoye, a further five miles westward.

A close ally of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin warned the US risked triggering a global war if it continued to “provoke” the conflict in Ukraine.

Sergei Chemezov, CEO of the Rostec corporation which supplies many of Russia’s arms for the war, said the world could be drawn into a mass conflict and Moscow was ready for confrontation.

“In a situation where the West, led by the United States, provokes war, we must be ready. The third year of the special operation is under way. Russia feels confident,” Mr Chemezov said.

“The further it goes, the greater the risk that the world will be drawn into a global conflict. It looks strange, but Western countries do not seem to understand just how fraught this is for them.”

Ukrainian forces have damaged or destroyed three bridges in Russia’s Kursk region – aiming to cut crucial Russian supply lines in the latest chapter in Kyiv’s daring assault across the border, which the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky says is achieving its military aims.

Ukraine’s troops know Russia will respond but want to take as much revenge against Vladimir Putin’s forces as they can. Soldiers from one of the brigades that spearheaded the offensive into Kursk have told The Independent how they laughed in disbelief and joy as they dug trenches inside Russia.

“It was an incredible feeling to realise that this time we were invading them and we laughed like madmen as we dug trenches on enemy land, Russian soil,” said a soldier with the codename Lyasha.