Overview
- Russia’s Defense Ministry said troops in its Center grouping captured soldiers from Ukraine’s 68th Jaeger Brigade in encircled Krasnoarmeysk and reported repelling 13 deblockading attacks and three breakout attempts, with 64 buildings taken in the city and additional gains in nearby Dimitrov.
- Commanders in the West grouping reported clearing 25 buildings inside Kupyansk and the ministry claimed up to 50 Ukrainian personnel killed in that sector as Ukrainian units continued attempts to relieve the city.
- Regional officials reported overnight UAV attacks on Russian territory, including strikes on Kострома’s GRES power station and a Volgograd refinery where one man was killed, with interceptions reported and a one‑day closure of schools in Volgorechensk; drones were also downed near Novoshakhtinsk and a drone alert was issued in Yaroslavl region.
- Russian sources also reported advances near Krasny Liman, strikes on Ukrainian logistics in Dnipropetrovsk region, and the disruption of Ukrainian group movements in Sumy region, while the Dnepr grouping cited daily Ukrainian losses in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson areas.
- Political messaging intensified as Crimea’s parliament speaker forecast a future partition of Ukraine, a senior Duma member labeled the conflict a patriotic war against the West, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Western media of twisting Putin’s nuclear remarks, a US envoy denied a NYT piece on Venezuela, and Russia’s Interior Ministry flagged security risks that prompted a court to close sessions in the Kirillov case.