Ukraine is slowly pushing Russia away from Pyatykhatky towards Zherebyanky. Russian troops have seemingly been forced out of the extreme eastern tip of Zherebyanky based on the combat footage I have seen, giving Ukraine the opportunity to possibly get some troops there. If they can, the rest of Ukraine's operations towards Vasylivka will become dramatically easier. Russia is already preparing for such an eventuality, with Vasylivka being placed under curfew. Vasylivka is one of the three first pivotal towns on Ukraine's drive towards Melitopol; the other two large lynchpins in Russia's defensive strategy are Tokmak and Polohy.
It's worth noting that many islands are starting to resurface in the former Kakhovka reservoir, and may contain roads and bridges. While they have spent decades under water, paved routes resurfacing would at least mean that a force trying to cross the Dnipro would have less issues with mud and soft soil. I doubt any of the bridges are still intact, as they would have posed a possible threat to shipping, and have similarly spent decades submerged. Even if they were intact, I certainly wouldn't trust them to hold the weight of military convoys. Where many of these new routes are starting to open up, Ukraine has an interesting advantage. By and large, the northern portions of the former Kakhovka reservoir were dredged to make way for shipping, leaving the southern portions much more shallow. Some points (such as closer to Nova Kakhovka), there are two dredged channels, one on each side. There are a few points where the major shipping lanes were closer to the Russian occupied south/east bank of the Dnipro river, but not many. If Ukraine is going to try to take advantage of the resurfaced islands to launch an assault across the river, it will be to their advantage to need to conduct the bridging operation closer to their side of the river. Some of these hypothetical routes are also quite relevant at the moment; one of them over twenty kilometers long, is a route that goes straight to Vasylivka. If Ukraine can conduct a crossing to the island on their side of the river, Ukraine would then "only" need to contend with mud, no cover, and thinner and shallower parts of the Dnipro after the main part was crossed. It would still be a major gamble, but one that hypothetically at least could work. Another route leads directly to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, which is yet again back in the news as Ukraine has accused Russia of mining the cooling reservoir for the plant. There are other substantially shorter routes further south along the former reservoir which might be easier for Ukraine to cross at; however, Russian fortifications are also generally better at those points. Even so, a crossing from Beryslav is more realistic now as there is now a road covering part of the river.
Russia has (quite foolishly, in my opinion) pulled a large number of troops away from the Dnipro river. Almost immediately after the dam was destroyed, I was of the opinion that the destruction of the dam opened up new military possibilities for Ukraine, and the partial resurfacing of these islands and roads is evidence of that. Regardless of whether Ukraine takes the gamble, the possibility is there. Russia has wagered that Ukraine, at least in the near term, won't cross and has deployed their additional troops to help defend against Ukraine's offensive and to launch their own in an arc from Kreminna to Kupyansk. Russia had limited success today, capturing some rural areas west of Kreminna. Claims about other places along this front, such as nese Kupyansk, are still poorly sourced and contradictory, highly reminiscent of the Bakhmut area.
The EU is floating a massive aid plan for Ukraine, totalling around €50 million for the next four years. This is part of a long term strategy from the EU to lay out a clear security and economic vision for the future, which would tackle the many crises impacting the EU. The top of the list was Ukraine, followed by immigration and refugees (presumably from places other than Ukraine). The EU did admit that their current budget is close to exhausted, and that they cannot continue to be flexible without establishing such a plan for the future. In sharp contrast, the Pentagon confirmed earlier reporting of a massive accounting error, based upon how the United States was calculating the value of the aid for Ukraine. Once taking into account that the value of military hardware depreciates over time, the Pentagon has come to the conclusion that President Biden, using his draw down authority, has an extra $6.2 billion to work with for supplying Ukraine with military aid. Shortly after this was announced, rumors began to swirl that the United States would announce a new and large military aid package for Ukraine soon.
Russia has said that they believe the Black Sea grain deal will terminate July 18th, the latest sign that Russia cannot be persuaded to continue the deal. However, some of the economic fallout from this will be mitigated as Ukraine has joined the Council of Europe Development Bank, a bank which provides loans to member states to help with disaster mitigation and infrastructure improvements.
In other news, Ukraine has made some progress with the repatriation of the eleven POWs transferred to Hungary. The Hungarian government continues to deny any knowledge of how or why the eleven were brought to Hungary, placing the blame squarely on the religious institutions of Hungary and Russia. Ukraine, after confirming that they had finally located the eleven a few days ago, today announced that they were able to bring three back. The reasons why the other eight were not yet brought back to Ukraine were not made public.