Overview
- Russian troops have pushed into Pokrowsk and threaten to encircle the area, while Kyiv calls the situation difficult and says it has reinforced forces to keep supply and evacuation routes open.
- Ukrainian media report a helicopter-borne special-operations insertion to secure corridors toward Pokrowsk and Myrnohrad; Russia’s Defense Ministry claims the landing force was destroyed, which Ukrainian intelligence denies.
- Putin offered temporary corridors for foreign journalists to visit Kupjansk and Pokrowsk, a proposal Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry warned reporters against trusting.
- Cross-border strikes intensified as Ukraine reported hitting a fuel pipeline near Moscow and drones triggered a fire on an oil tanker at Tuapse, while Russia said its air defenses downed more than 160 Ukrainian drones and briefly closed airports.
- Energy infrastructure on both sides suffered new damage, with outages reported in occupied Luhansk and parts of Zaporizhzhia, nearly 60,000 people losing power after Russian strikes, and four civilian deaths in Dnipropetrovsk from a separate drone attack.