The US has approved a possible weapons sale to Saudi Arabia worth ~3.5 billion USD, including 1,000 AIM-120C-8 Advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, as well as 50 guidance sections and logistics and program support.

Congress has been notified by the State Department on the possible sale. Despite this announcement, it does not necessarily mean that a contract has been signed.

According to the Pentagon, the principal contractor will be Virginia's RTX Corp (RTX.N).

Ballistic missile launch from Yemen

Flying to the Negev desert, southern israel

It may fly to Jerusalem

An Israeli interceptor missile was launched

1-2 minutes until sirens

Sirens in Jerusalem and southern West Bank

The ballistic missile is set to fly over the Dead Sea towards Ashdod.

No explosions have been heard. The missile was likely intercepted.

This is the third ballistic missile to be launched by the Houthis towards Israel in the past 24 hours.

The Pentagon announced that the U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of various equipment for F-16s to Ukraine, worth an estimated $310 million USD.

The sale would include training and sustainment, as well as related equipment, although the details of what exactly this involves have not been disclosed.

A Russian Special Forces FPV drone strike on a Ukrainian Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) west of Crimea. A Russian reconnaissance drone provided intelligence, including coordinates for the USVs, before the FPV drones flew in and destroyed them.

Footage like this is quite rare for this war.

Lmfao who did this

Regarding the situation in Stupochky, south of Chasiv Yar - Kostyantynivka direction.

Following the sudden Russian advance which broke through Ukrainian positions in the eastern part of Stupochky, resulting in them occupying around 60% of the village, Ukrainian forces have begun counterattacking.

The AFU is attacking from multiple directions, including from the southern outskirts of the Zemlyanky district of Chasiv Yar, and the southern street of Stupochky. Russian forces from the 1442nd Motorised Rifle Regiment of the 6th Motorised Rifle Division are holding their positions, having repelled at least five Ukrainian counterattacks over the past 5 days. The fighting is extremely fierce with Ukrainian forces doing anything they can to recapture this small, but heavily fortified and tactically important village.

Nevertheless, the Ukrainian command realises that they are only prolonging the inevitable push to Kostyantynivka (although this will only occur once the Toretsk front is at least partially levelled and/or Chasiv Yar finally falls). New fortifications are being constructed outside Kostyantynivka, especially in the Stupochky direction. Ukrainian soldiers are fortifying the outskirts of the city with soldiers, and tanks have been deployed to the area. Requests have been made for Russian artillery and tactical aviation to monitor strike these newly established strongpoints, although it appears that this has not been done on a large or effective scale yet, if at all.

The Ukrainian command appears to be taking advantage of the incredibly slow Russian progress in this area by using their time that their units putting up fierce resistance in this area have bought, to build new strongpoints, further increasing the density of the fortified territory and make it even more difficult for Russia to reach the city. The topography of the stretch between Stupochky and Kostyantynivka will play a role, and it is certainly not in Ukraine's favour, however this does not necessarily mean that advance won't be slow, grinding, costly and difficult for Russia.

Well, we got our answer. Russia has opted to storm the Ukrainian buffer-zone around Troitske rather than go through the already established weak spot through the open fields.

The remnants of the Ukrainian buffer zone were completely dismantled, with the 80th Tank Regiment seizing the rest of the treeline northeast of Troitske, and the fortified positions to the east. Ukrainian forces have retreated into the village itself.

It seems Russia realised the losses that they could sustain if they moved through that weak spot and decided to take the longer route of seizing the flanks. It remains to be seen what the effect Ukraine's control over Bohdanivka will have on the assault on Troitske and if Russia will choose to recapture it before they move on to Troitske.

Either way, the battles for Troitske would make a good case study in the future for how Russia attacks small villages like this, and methods used to minimise casualties and maximise results while ensuring that the advances aren't suicidal.

A map update on this will come later.

Geran-3 jet drone in the direction of Chornomorsk, Odesa Oblast. 25km away from the coast.

Changes course to Kobleve.

Now flying north to Yuzhne.