Overnight, Ukraine launched an attack against the Kerch region, prompting a panicked response by Russia. Russia claimed to have intercepted s total of twelve ATACMS aimed for the bridge, and footage shows numerous launches from Russia's air defense batteries used to protect the Kerch region. Sources from the Ukrainian side of things claimed that drones targeted one of the ferries Russia has running along the Kerch Strait, something which Ukraine has gone after in the past. Russia has nt provided any evidence for their claim of having intercepted a dozen ATACMS yet.
In Kursk oblast, Ukraine has heavily targeted the bridges in Glushkovsky raion, outright destroying one of the bridges crossing the Reka Seym. This was allegedly carried out by a Ukrainian bombing run, something which was strongly hinted at by Ukraine itself too. The implications of this are fairly extensive, from meaning that Ukraine's lengthy campaign on whittle down Russian air defenses before the arrival of F-16s to the battlefield met with some success, to that Ukraine has acquired a combination of glide bombs (the reported munition) and warplanes where the restrictions placed on them still enable them to hit Russian soil. The United States today expressed some frustration with the Ukrainian perspective on these sorts of restrictions which is too go right up to the line without quite breaking them; perhaps violating the restrictions in spirit, but never in letter. The destruction of one bridge, the targeting of another, and it being made public knowledge that Russia has pontoons operating (not a great sign for how long they'll be useful for) points to a possible future very soon in which much of Glushkovsky raion is under a soft de facto siege. The stretch of land includes hundreds of square kilometers of territory. Notably, Russia ordered mandatory evacuations a couple of days ago, so the burden of occupying the territory will be lessened for Ukraine as they would have fewer civilians to care for and concern about becoming informants or insurgents.
Russian channels spent the day screaming about a Ukrainian plan to use a dirty bomb at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, the Kursk nuclear power plant in Kurchatov, or both. Towards the end of the day, some channels warned (without providing evidence) that a large Ukrainians buildup was underway and was about to try to blitz their way to Kurchatov. Ukraine rejected the claims that they would plan to use a dirty bomb. Given their own history with nuclear meltdowns, Ukraine knows better than just about any country of the lasting ecological impacts and the large geographical scope that a nuclear meltdown can have, and thus are acutely aware that they themselves would be negatively impacted too.
Russia's offensive efforts today yielded few territorial results, but they launched a large wave of strikes against Ukraine. One of these brought a very important result for Russia, a partial hit on a Patriot battery. The battery had been spread out more than usual, in order to provide larger cover over central Ukraine. However, this meant that it was almost more susceptible to a direct strike. Because it was spread out, the battery isn't a total loss and many of the key components such as the radars are still intact. But it is still a very significant blow to Ukraine in air defenses.
A video emerged and was promptly geolocated to the border of Belgorod oblast, showing the head of a Ukrainian soldier being paraded around on a pole. It goes without saying that this is a rather sickening violation of international law. Unfortunately, this is not the first time beheadings have taken place during the war either, though it is the first one in months that I am aware of.
A fire broke out heavily damaging the Minsk while it was undergoing repairs, in an incident highly reminiscent of Russian woes with repairing their sole aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. The Minsk is one of four Kiev (yes, it's old enough to use that spelling) class aircraft carriers ever built, and one of three left. Built in the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv during the Soviet era, it was eventually sold to China. Along with its sister ship the Kiev, it was turned into a museum. There had been discussions in the past about selling the Kiev or Minsk back to Russia, but they never went anywhere due to the age of the ships and the associated costs with upgrading them, and refitting them for combat purposes. Still, the Minsk was one of Russia's best hypothetical sources for acquiring a second carrier, and that hypothetical is now dead in the water. Should they choose to spend a prohibitive amount of effort, only the Kiev would be a viable purchase for Russia, which is rather ironic. India has the final Kiev class carrier, but India has positioned themselves as neutral and would not risk the blowback from the sale of such a prominent vessel to Russia. Furthermore, they have their own security concerns in their neighborhood and would not be willing to part with their carrier anyway.
Russia scored an important diplomatic victory today, as Kazakhstan has flipped once again. Allies with Russia, the Kazakh government owes its verye existence to the timely intervention of Russian forces to put down an uprising. But relations have been strained since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Kazakhstan declared that they would adhere to international sanctions on Russia. This led to the EU awarding them a liberalized visa regime. However now, Kazakhstan has stated that they will review sanctions on a case by case basis and only implement those which don't harm their businesses. By the very nature of sanctions, that will mean almost none of them will be implemented by Kazakhstan.