Vladimir Putin's forces have bombed a Russian dam on a reservoir close to the border with Ukraine. A dramatic video shows the dam exploding after a FAB-3000 aerial strike.

The Popovka reservoir on the Udava River is just 800 feet inside Russia from the frontier between Ukraine and Russia. The bombing may have been a desperate attempt to halt exit routes for Ukrainian troops, who have been carrying out another humiliating incursion into Putin's nation. The incursion into the Belgorod region, which started late last month, piled on the humiliation suffered by the Kremlin last August when Ukrainian soldiers launched an attack into the Kursk region.

While Moscow has been able to retake some territory, Ukrainian troops are still present in Kursk.

The dam bombing came as Putin bared his teeth with new strikes on Ukraine after a lull in overnight bombing 24 hours earlier.

A massive kamikaze drone strike on Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, left eight people injured, including three children, as Russia yet again sought to terrorise civilians with 15 explosions rocking the city.

The Ukrainian State Emergency Service said: “Hits were recorded at two civilian enterprises in the Kholodnogorsk district."

The wounded children, aged nine months, seven and 16, and adults “suffered an acute reaction to stress”.

Private residential buildings were damaged.

Other Russian strikes hit Odesa and Zaporizhzhia region, and across the country, a total of three people were killed and 18 wounded in the past day. In Odesa, Russia flouted its pledge not to strike Black Sea facilities, targeting the ports of Pivdenne and Chornomorsk. Khlibodarske - where a military unit is located - was also in the firing line.

Meanwhile, a state of emergency was declared in the Azov Sea port Taganrog, hit by Ukrainian drones. Ukrainian drones may have been targeting the Beriev Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex. Some 85 residents were evacuated from a residential building in the city.

Kursk city centre also came under attack as Ukraine stepped up its strikes on Putin amid clear signs the Russian leader is not interested in peace.

Russia said 93 Ukrainian drones were downed at night, 87 over the Kursk region, four over the Rostov region and two over the Belgorod region.