BBC News 8 August 2022 - by the Visual Journalism Team
Ukraine is stepping up its operations to recapture occupied territory as Russian forces continue attempts to advance in the east.
Here are the latest developments:
In recent days, Ukraine and Russia have accused each of shelling the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the south of the country.
According to some reports, the plant has been used by Russian forces for storing explosives and ammunition.
The boss of Ukrainian state nuclear power company Enerhoatom says 500 Russian soldiers are at the site, and Russia has positioned rocket launchers there.
Also in the south, Ukraine has been trying to take back territory in Kherson using new long-range artillery to target bridges across the Dnipro River.
According to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), two recent attacks on the Antonivskiy Bridge have left Russian troops "virtually cut off".
Kherson was the first city in Ukraine to be taken by Russian forces after their invasion in February. The MoD said its loss would "severely undermine Russia's attempts to paint the occupation as a success".
To the west of Kherson city, a recent Russian attempt to advance east of Mykolaiv city was repulsed by Ukrainian forces.
In the southern port of Odesa, which has remained under Ukrainian control throughout the conflict, a small number of vessels have been allowed to leave carrying grain, after an agreement was reached with Russia.
Under the deal, Russia agreed not to target ports while grain was in transit, while Ukraine pledged to guide cargo ships through waters that have been mined.
Despite Russian missile strikes on the port in Odesa less than 24 hours after the deal was signed, ships are continuing to transport Ukrainian cargo.
Russia edging forward in east
Russian officials have said their forces are fighting for the "complete liberation" of the Donbas, which broadly refers to Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where Russian-backed separatists held significant territory before the invasion.
Russian forces now control all of the Luhansk region and they are continuing to make small advances in the Donetsk region.
Having captured the strategically important cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in recent weeks, Russian troops are now focussing the efforts in the region on the nearby cities of Siversk and Bakhmut.
However, according to Ukrainian officials Russia's offensive in the east has been hindered in recent weeks by movement of its troops to defend Kherson from an expected Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Western weapons boost Ukraine
President Volodomyr Zelensky has called on Western countries to send Ukraine more weapons, telling a recent meeting of Nato that his forces needed "much more modern systems" to help them "break the Russian artillery advantage".
Several Western shipments of heavy weaponry - such as US multiple rocket launch systems - have made it to the front line in recent weeks, allowing Ukraine to attack from greater range.
Retired British Army officer General Sir Richard Barrons told the BBC that he had no doubt that the arrival of "some Western weapons has made a difference" to the Ukrainian side.
He said Ukraine's new longer-range weapons had forced Russia to "reorganise how they operate" but he warned that there was "still a long way to go" in the conflict.
The MoD believes that Russia's use of pyramidal radar reflectors near the recently damaged bridges in Kherson reflects "the threat Russia feels from the increased range and precision of Western-supplied systems".
