Robotyne is reportedly contested, with Ukrainian tropps reportedly fighting over the northern edge of the town. Ukraine continues to heavily target Russian positions in the town, as well as to the south at Novoprokopivka. Ukraine's initial push will likely be repelled, but they are certainly wearing down Russian defenses. Ukraine launched yet another push to the west, against Zherebyanky again. Fierce fighting continues in the area, but Russian defensive linrs are still holding. Ukraine's effort here seems doomed to failure yet again, but they are succeeding in tying down Russia's resources which could be uaed to defend Ukraine's first breach of Russia's furst defensive line near Robotyne.
There were no notable changes along the Dnipro. Ukraine is solidifying their positions on the Dnipro river delta islands, while the two sides have stablished a bit of a neutral zone arouns the Antonovskiy bridge; the Ukrainian bridgehead remains intact and they are still ferrying over supplies, while the Russian troops in the area have completed their withdrawal from the area immediately around the Antonovskiy bridgehead while they resort to long range bombardment.
Ukrainian sources claim to have secured virtually the entire eastern side of the Siverskyi Donets-Donbas canal, all the way down to just north of Kurdyumivka. The only stretch of it still reported to be under Russian control is from the Kurdyumivka area doen to the Mayorsk train station, northwest of Horlivka. If Ukraine's claims are accurate, they have established a straight line of control between Kurdyumivka and Klishchiivka, and are advancing rapidly towards Andriivka. A Russian defeat at Andriivka would place part of the railroad to Bakhmut under Ukrainian control, and would open up the possibility for a Ukrainian advance to the main highway to southern Bakhmut. Klishchiivka itself has reportedly come under assault from the northwest, which all but confirms that Russia has fully been evicted from the large defensive structures to the northwest of Klishchiivka.
Russian sources claim to have pushed Ukrainian troops out of Berkhivka, past the northeast corner of the Berkhivka reservoir, and down to its south side. It's a lofty claim, and one that is yet to be backed up by any publicly available evidence. Ukraine's military stated that they repelled all assaults by Russian troops in the area, but this is pretty typical phrasing from them whenever there are any inconclusive skirmishes, regardless of whether or not they were on the offensive or the defensive.
Russia continues to be on the offensive in Luhansk and Kharkiv oblasts, but there are some signs that the latest iteration of their offensive might be running out of steam. Russian troops have gotten stuck at the railroad dividing Novoselivske and Kuzemivka from each other, but have crossed on the flanks of Novoselivske, but have encountered issues with advancing further due to Ukrainian reinforcements. Ukraine still seems to hold the majority of Novoselivske despite Russia's major effoets to capture the village. Ukrainian positions within the village are at risk of being overrun, due to Russia controlling the flanks, but only if the Ukrainian reinforcements are repelled. As it stands now, the Russian front line is under a significant amount of strain as they are trying to simultaneously hold back Ukraine's reinforcements and capture Novoselivske.
Prigozhin is now confirmed to be in a field camp in Belarus, along with a number of PMC Wagner personnel. Relatedly, Russia has pulled almost all of their official troops out of Belarus. This comes as Ukrainian officials have lobbed charges that Russianis now leaning on immigrants to swell the ranks of their troops, since PMC Wagner and the Kremlin together have hollowed out Russian prisons for recruits. Putin is effectively solving two issues by deploying Prigozhin and PMC Wagner to Belarus; they are outside of Russia and not gaining star power from fighting in Ukraine, but Russia is able to maintain a credible threat against Ukraine's north while bringing additional Russian troops towards the current front in south and east Ukraine.
Twin bizarre international events took place today. First, Erdogsn declared that Russia had agreed to extend the Black Sea grain deal, despite consistent Russian statements in recent weeks that they would not agree to renew the deal. After a lot of initial fanfare, Russia declared that they had, in fact, not agreed to renew the deal. Putin is also allegedly set to visit Turkey next month, in violation of the international arrest warrant out against him. While Erdogan has aligned more closely with the west over the past couple of weeks, its clear that relstions between the Turkish and Russian governments are still quite complex. The other major story involves Soith Africa, which initially said that Russia's foreign minister would be visiting during the upcoming BRICS summit. Russia then denied that Lavrov would be visiting, stating that Putin would be making the visit himself, placing South Africa in an extremely difficult situation. As a signatory to the ICC, South Africa is under legal obligation to arrest Putin shoukd he arrive. However, they have suggested that they expect the heads of state of all BRICS members to arrive without incident.