Russia's offensive in Donetsk oblast continues, with them capturing the village of Vovche, on the Vovcha river. A pocket of Ukrainians troops successfully broke encirclement and fled from the space between Prohres and Lozuvatske, but this has enabled Russian troops to pour into the gap between the rivers. In addition to pushing against Ivanivka to the west, they are also pushing up along the Kazenyi Torets towards Tymofiivka.
While Russia continues their advance, Ukrainian officials have stated that they expect Russian offensives to halt in around a month and a half, with Russia then expected to flip to a defensive and rebuilding posture. This would be at the very start of September, and would hypothetically allow for a Ukrainians offensive, if Ukraine has somehow and inexplicably squirreled away the manpower and equipment needed to pull off such an offensive even as their defensive lines are being consistently rolled back. I am also sceptical of the Ukrainians claim that Russia plans to halt their offensive actions in the next month or two, not when Pokrovsk is in striking distance and Ukraine has yet to put together an adequate defensive line. While Russia is sustaining heavy casualties, they have the resources to be able to do so (at least when compared to Ukraine) and Pokrovsk is a vital logistics hub. Being able to at least disable its function as one before the autumn mud season hits would allow for an extended period of time in which Russia could consistently degrade Ukraine's lines both north and south of Pokrovsk. For that reason, I suspect Russia will continue pushing for Pokrovsk until if and when Ukraine musters a strong enough defense or weather conditions make continuing such an offensive impractical. The ramifications that a contested Pokrovsk would have for Ukrainian strongholds such as Vuhledar and Chasiv Yar is simply too high for Russia to ignore when they are so close.
Early in the morning, Russia sent a large drone swarm after the Ukrainian port city of Izmail, which sits on the Danube river across from Romania. This provoked a strong response from Romania, which scrambled jets and reportedly intercepted some drones which allegedly crossed into Romanian (and thus, EU and NATO) airspace. Romanian authorities confirmed that drone wreckage was found on their soil, though that has happened before as Ukrainian air defenses have pushed falling Russian drone wreckage across the border. The attack threatens to raise tensions with both (largely overlapping) western blocs, though so far the western response has been fairly muted.
Russia has publicly declared that they are increasing their defenses around Kerch, in order to guarantee the safety of the bridge. This comes right after a Ukrainian drone hit a ferry in the area, with it still not being known how it evaded Russian defenses in the region. Ukraine also announced that the Russian Black Sea Fleet is withdrawing entirely from the Sea of Azov, which is directly adjacent to Crimea; Ukraine has already claimed that the fleet has fled from Crimea. As always, there are caveats with these claims, with it being quite possible that these are just momentary or incidental withdrawals, and it's not as if Russia needs to recapture terrain in order to send their ships back. But it is starting to painta consistent picture showing more caution by the Russian Navy, and more capabilities by Ukraine to force it away from their shores.