An aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk region means Moscow is not ready to hold peace talks for now.

In a video statement broadcast by the SHOT news outlet, Yuri Ushakov maintained that Russia is not withdrawing its earlier peace proposals.

It follows Moscow’s denial on Sunday of a Washington Post report suggesting that proposed talks between the two sides to be held in Qatar had been derailed by Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk region.

Ukraine has struck and damaged a third bridge over the River Seym, near the village of Karyzh in the Kursk region of Russia, according to a member of Russia’s Investigative Committee.

A video statement confirming the hit was posted on Russian state TV anchor Vladimir Solovyov’s Telegram channel.

As yet the extent of the damage to the bridge is unclear, but if it has been completely or even partially destroyed it could severely hinder Russia’s ability to bring heavy armoured vehicles and other crucial equipment across the Seym river to counter the Ukrainian incursion.

Beijing’s foreign ministry has announced that Chinese Premier Li Qiang will visit Russia and Belarus this week.

“From August 20 to 23, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council will travel to Russia to chair the 29th regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government and visit Russia and Belarus,” the ministry said in a statement.

China is a close economic partner of Russia, something Ukraine’s NATO allies have long decried, branding it a “decisive enabler” of the war. Outwardly, however, China maintains that its neutrality is evidenced by a refusal to provide lethal assistance to either side, unlike the US and other western nations.

Li Qiang’s visit to Belarus is interesting. The country, relatively isolated in Europe on account of its steadfast support for the Russian war effort, has long been reliant on Moscow for economic and military support. The country’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, sees bolstering ties with Beijing as an important second means of underwriting Minsk’s security, as well as that of his own regime.

In December of last year, Lukashenko promised China it would be a “reliable partner”. In July it joined the bloc of nations comprising the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a grouping viewed by Beijing as a potential counterweight to NATO and the US-led alliance of western nations.

Hello, welcome to our rolling coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine’s military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border.

It marked the first time the Ukrainian president had clearly stated the aim of the operation, which was launched on 6 August. Previously, he had suggested it aimed to protect communities in Ukraine’s bordering Sumy region from constant shelling.

In his nightly address on Sunday, Zelenskiy said: “It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region.”

More on that shortly. In other developments:

• Ukraine said it had struck a second key bridge in the Kursk region, seeking to disrupt Moscow’s supply routes as Kyiv’s unprecedented incursion on Russian soil stretched through its second week. “Minus one more bridge,” Ukrainian air force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on Telegram, publishing an aerial video of a blast tearing through a bridge near the Russian town of Zvannoye. “The air force aviation continues to deprive the enemy of logistical capabilities with precision airstrikes,” he said. On Friday, Ukraine announced it had destroyed a separate bridge in the neighbouring town of Glushkovo.

• Ukraine has captured more than 150 Russian prisoners of war on some days in the cross-border military operation in Kursk, according to Oleksii Drozdenko, the head of the military administration in the Ukrainian city of Sumy. “Sometimes there are more than 100 or 150 prisoners of war a day,” Drozdenko said. Many of the Russian troops who have been guarding the border are young conscripts. “They do not want to fight us,” he added.

• The Institute for the Study of War has “observed claims” that Ukraine’s operation in Kursk has advanced through 800 square kilometres over six days. The initial incursion “attacked largely unprepared, unequipped, and unmanned Russian defensive positions along the border”, the ISW said in its daily report on the conflict, adding that Ukraine has continued to make rapid advances in Kursk “following the deployment of Russian reinforcements to the area.”

• Russian forces took control of the village of Svyrydonivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the TASS state news agency reported on Sunday, citing the defence ministry. The Guardian could not independently verify the battlefield report.

• Russia on Sunday denied a report that Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk region had derailed indirect talks with Kyiv on halting strikes on energy and power targets, saying there had been no talks ongoing. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Qatar this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both warring sides. The Post said the agreement would have amounted to a partial ceasefire but that the talks were derailed due to Ukraine’s attack on Russian sovereign territory.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Sunday for a two-day state visit, Russian news agencies reported. Russian television broadcast images of the Russian president’s plane as it arrived in Baku in the evening. Azerbaijan is a close partner of Moscow but also a major energy supplier to western countries, comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented Ukrainian military offensive on Russian soil.