Overview
- Chief of the General Staff Valeriy Gerasimov said Russian forces are advancing in all directions and have taken 17 settlements and more than 500 square kilometers since early January, adding that a 4-by-6 kilometer area holding up to 800 Ukrainian troops is blockaded.
- The Defense Ministry said the West grouping captured Kupyansk-Uzlovoy in Kharkiv region and that the Dnepr grouping took Novoyakovlevka in Zaporizhzhia, with Gerasimov noting forward units are 12–14 kilometers from Zaporizhzhia’s southern outskirts.
- Russian officials reported Ukrainian losses across sectors, citing more than 415 personnel in the Center grouping’s area, over 390 in the Vostok area, more than 170 in the North, up to 120 in the South, and up to 40 in the Dnepr zone, along with destroyed vehicles and artillery.
- Ukrainian authorities reported a mass strike on Odessa that wounded 22 people and damaged homes and infrastructure, while Russian regional officials said Ukraine shelled Belgorod region more than 50 times in a day, killing one person, and carried out 47 attacks in Kursk region.
- Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said serious talks with Ukraine on prisoner exchanges and returning residents of Kursk region are underway, and the Financial Times reported strong international pressure on Kyiv to withdraw forces from parts of Donbas.