Russia continues to advance incrementally along most fronts. Once again, this includes the Zherebets river front, where Ukraine recently rolled back months of Russian progress in a matter of days. At the northern end of the river, the key village of Makiivka remains contested. It remains to be seen if Russia can rapidly reclaim the ground that they lost, or if it will be another slog lasting for months to battle their way back to their old positions just outside a number of villages along the river. For their part, Ukraine has made a minor advances in northern Kharkiv oblast, namely by pushing into the village of Starytsya. It's located west of the Siverskyi Donets river, west of Vovchansk. Starytsya sits on the western flank of a bridge, one of the key crossing points along the river which Russia could potentially exploit in the future.
The World Central Kitchen today accused Russia of purposefully targeting one of their convoys with a drone. They are a humanitarian organization which provides food and other assistance to those in needs in conflict zones, and their vehicles are clearly marked to distinguish them from military targets (much as organizations such as the Red Cross have their own markings). The location of the strike was not disclosed, with the World Central Kitchen merely stating that it took place in Oleksandrivka. However, this is an extremely common name in Ukraine. Within a few miles of the front, there are already multiple candidates, and as it was a drone strike, it could have been far behind the front.
Zelenskyy today visited the United Kingdom. The first thing he did was visit his sacked chief of staff Zaluzhnyi, who is now Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom. There was a lot of speculation and some reporting on substantial disagreements between Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi before Zaluzhnyi was removed from his position; it seems that this was an attempt to mend the public perception of their relationship, if not actually mend any sore spots in their relationship that might exist. Zelenskyy visited primarily though to attend a summit of various leaders from the EU. Of notez Zelenskyy held a bilateral meeting with Serbian President Vucic. Serbia is Russia's oldest ally, but recently has admitted to indirectly supplying Ukraine with vast quantities of munitions. While together, Vucic called for peace in Europe, and Zelenskyy thanked him for attending the Switzerland peace summit earlier this year.
Zelenskyy is expected to hold a phone call with former President of the United States Trump tomorrow. The two have not spoken since Trump's term ended. Their relationship is a fraught one as under Trump, Ukraine was dragged into American domestic political scandals, in which Ukraine was victimized. Zelenskyy has said he expects the talks to be tough, but workable for Ukraine.