Overview
- At the Defense Ministry board, Vladimir Putin said Russian forces are increasing their offensive tempo and have taken more than 300 settlements.
- Defense Minister Andrey Belousov reported the Vostok grouping has seized 24 localities and about 400 square kilometers since November and said fighting is underway near Orikhiv with an eye toward the Sloviansk–Kramatorsk axis.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry said units of the Center grouping killed more than 505 Ukrainian servicemembers in a day and destroyed armor and artillery in strikes across Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
- Moscow said artillery guided by drones repelled attempts by Ukrainian units to approach the recently captured city of Kupyansk in Kharkiv region.
- Domestic security updates included FSB detentions of a father and daughter in Sochi on terrorism-related charges tied to Ukraine and long prison terms for five defendants in the Ufa “Marxist circle” case.