Ukraine and Russia have both been firing drones at each other today, with Russia targeting Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Kremenchuk + more, and Ukraine targeting Kursk, Mariupol and Lipetsk.

A strong explosion near the Lipetsk airfield. Russia reportedly lifted the aircraft at the airfield into the air afterwards. Residents of 4 settlements located near the airfield were evacuated.

Meanwhile, smoke is rising from the sea near Crimea.

Update from Kursk Oblast - Koronevo direction:

Ukrainian forces are reportedly continuing to push westwards in the direction of their primary target for the western flank of this operation: Koronevo.

In Koronevo itself, while no fighting is being reported inside the town, heavy battles are apparently taking place just outside it as the Russians attempt to prevent the AFU from entering it. As Ukraine controls a section of the tactical heights, operations here will likely be easier than in other places, which is possibly why the Russians are choosing to put up most resistance here.

The fall of Koronevo would allow Ukraine to gain a stronghold to fall back to and entrench in when the Russians ultimately counterattack, and plus Sudzha would strengthen this bridgehead from being just fields and small hamlets.

Meanwhile, slightly further south in the village of Snagost, Ukrainian forces are reportedly opening up a new axis of attack in the form of a spearhead to the settlement likely to support the assaults on Koronevo. Some sources have already reported that Snagost has fallen to the AFU, but this remains unconfirmed.

Colours for the map:
Dark Blue: Confirmed Ukrainian control
Light Blue: Confirmed Ukrainian advances
Green: Likely Ukrainian control

Update from Kursk Oblast - Lgov direction:

Following the claims made by sources of a Ukrainian presence halfway to the town of Lgov, no footage has surfaced indicating that they are true. However we did see geolocated footage indicating that Ukrainian forces advanced by over 6.1km onto the tactical heights and captured the village of Yuzhnyi along the way.

A Ukrainian column attempted to advance further but was likely repelled.

Most sources are now reporting that Russian reinforcements have halted the Ukrainian advance in Kursk Oblast. I expect we will continue to see Ukraine attempt to push, primarily in Sudzha and Korenevo, while Russia launches its counterattacks.

Some of the heaviest fighting in Kursk Oblast is being reported near the village of Martynovka as Ukraine continues to try to bypass the eastern part of Sudzha from the north.

I've got a folder of telegram channels which provide frontline updates, and not one of them has said anything new about anything other than Kursk over the past 24 hours.

So, if you're wondering why I'm only reporting on Kursk today, well it's simply because there is literally no information that I can find on anything else.

— 🇺🇸/🇸🇾 CONFIRMED: Strong explosions due to a drone strike on the American occupation base in 'Kharab al-Jir' in Syria's North Eastern province of al-Hasakah, by the Islamic Resistance of Iraq

@Middle_East_Spectator

This is what the Ukrainian Kursk offensive looks like on a map of Ukraine. The blue represents confirmed Ukrainian control, and the green represents likely Ukrainian control.

You can see how they were panning out in as many directions as possible to take as much ground as possible. This makes it seem as if they are doing a land grab to get more favorable conditions for any future negotiations.

There are reports coming in that Ukrainian forces seized the village of Olgovka in Kursk Oblast. If true, it would seem that they are trying to widen their spearhead before resuming assaults on Korenevo.

However, I doubt these reports are true as sources such as Suriyak indicate that Ukrainian forces have been pushed away from Korenevo and back to the village of Liubimovka. Most sources are reporting that Ukrainian forces are no longer advancing.

Deepstate is reporting a relatively large Russian advance near Niu-york in the direction of Panteleimonivka.

Explosions in Slovyansk.

The Russians have likely been attacking in the direction of Panteleimonivka for weeks now. I originally thought that their goal was to protect the western flank of the assault in Niu-York, but considering the fact that they are still attacking there after the eastern flank had been completely secured, it makes me wonder why.

In my opinion Russia will start attacks from Keramik in the near future in order to envelope the Ukrainian garrison in Oleksandropil and the groupings in other defensive fortifications. That would line up with the reasoning for attacks on Panteleimonivka.

Ukraine has had quite a bit of time to dig in near Oleksandropil, so it wouldn't make sense for Russia to attack it head on.

Ukrainian forces were geolocated at a position deep inside Kursk Oblast (nearly 26km from the border).

This was likely a single spearhead attack that broke through Russian defences in one direction. Ukrainian forces are likely attempting to expand the flanks of this spearhead with heavy fighting likely ongoing in the villages of Orlovka, Pogrebki and Otradnoye among others.

This is a very flimsy spearhead as the Russians can easily counterattack from the flanks, so unless Ukraine is able to expand it quickly, they will be surrounded.

Nevertheless, it does show that the frontlines remain very fluid in some places even 5 days into the offensive.

Geolocated footage indicates that Ukrainian forces have established a bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Reka Sudzha river in a new area, this time south of Sudzha.

This advance is likely a few days old with the first reports of a semi encirclement of eastern Sudzha coming in around 3 days ago.

Regarding the situation in Martynovka, Kursk Oblast:

The village of Martynovka has seen some of the heaviest fighting in the whole of Kursk Oblast. Tanks have been involved along with dozens of soldiers on each side. The Ukrainians have been desperate to take this settlement under their control in order to expand their bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Reka Loknya river (which runs through Sudzha) and to get behind Sudzha itself.

To understand the situation on the ground and the tactical value of Martynovka, you need to look at the local geography of the region. Sudzha - the main town and primary target of this Ukrainian offensive - is bisected by the Reka Loknya river. Swamps in the centre of the town, plus this river, make it difficult to cross in the town itself. This means that to reach the Russian garrison in the eastern part of Sudzha, the Ukrainians will need to advance from the flanks. This also works well with getting behind the Russians in Sudzha.

The Ukrainians ultimately chose to attack on both flanks but started off with the northern one as it branched off from the main assault to the town of Lgov. The flanking assault initially went well for the Ukrainians. They quickly caught the Russians off guard and managed to cross the river and seizing control over the villages of Ivashprovskii and Pravda, before advancing on their primary target of Martynovka. Martynovka would serve as a staging ground for attacks behind the Russian groupings in eastern Sudzha.

The Russians - after regrouping - likely realised the dire situation in Sudzha, and wanted to repel the Ukrainian assaults at all costs as they waited for reinforcements to arrive. Following a tank battle, Ukrainian forces managed to capture Martynovka within a few hours and established positions in the village. From here until recently, it is unknown what occurred in the area. In my opinion, Ukrainian forces likely attempted to attack Mikhailovka, but were repulsed by the newly regrouped Russians, so instead decided on consolidation of their new positions

Then yesterday, the Russians launched a series of counterattacks on Ukrainian positions in the settlement. Originally, Ukrainian sources reported that the first attack was repelled by Ukrainian forces, but shortly afterwards reports emerged that Russian marines had entered the settlement and were clearing it, from south to north. If I had to guess, the Russians attacked from the east, thinking that it would be easier to cut the village in half, but were repelled by stronger Ukrainian defences. They then decided on attacks from the south and managed to advance into the southern part of the settlement. This is all guesswork with very little information to go off, so it could be entirely wrong.

As for the situation now, considering the fact that the village lies on the face of a hill, it is likely contested, with the Ukrainians holding the northern part, the central part being in the grey zone and the Russians holding the southern part, slowly working their way north. Some sources are already reporting that Russian forces recaptured Martynovka from the Ukrainians, however I will wait a couple more days for more reliable sources to comment on the situation before changing the map.

I know this was a long report for one village, but I thought I owed it to you guys to do an analysis on a small section of the frontline in Kursk considering the scale of this operation.

Yesterday Ukrainian forces conducted a cross-border raid into Poroz, Belgorod Oblast. They posed in front of a clubhouse with a flag.

I'm under the impression that this was just a raid where they ran across the border, took a photo and went back. Almost every source I've seen report on the matter stated that the Ukrainians ran back across the border right after the photo and local residents report no gunfire in the village.

Some sources claimed that Ukrainian forces took two prisoners, however this remains unconfirmed. If there are no more geolocations by tomorrow, I will remove it from the map.

Update from the Pokrovsk direction:

Geolocated footage indicates that Russian forces continue to advance westwards in the direction of Pokrovsk.

Russian forces managed to advance west of Vesele, capturing positions in new treelines on the high-ground next to the gulley. It will be a downhill advance from there to Hrodivka.

Additionally, Russian infantry was able to advance into Ivanivka from multiple directions and have captured the majority of the settlement. This will open up the opportunity for attacks on Hrodivka from the east. The treelines surrounding the village were also captured, allowing for quicker attacks inside it.

Russian forces also made a small advance near Lozuvatske, dislodging the Ukrainians from their positions in the treelines near the Kazenyi reservoir.

Geolocated footage indicates that Russian forces continue to slowly advance in Kostyantynivka.

Here they managed to capture just over 6 blocks of low-rise residential areas. Advancing along the streets, Russian infantry supported by at least three BMPs and one BTR-82 advanced in the southeastern part of the settlement by ~640m.

There was also an advance of ~360m from the storage facility into eastern Kostyantynivka. This likely allowed the Russians to get behind Ukrainian positions on the westernmost banks of the reservoir, and forced a withdrawal to the northeastern part of the settlement.

Overall, now that Russian forces have a solid foothold in Kostyantynivka, the advances will continue to speed up as they approach the centre of the town which is bisected by the O0532 highway.

Earlier today, Russian MLRS were fired at Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast. Locals reported 5 explosions and three arrivals in the city (Presumably two shot down). Heavy damage was viewed near the old town.

Russian sources claimed that a temporary deployment centre for the AFU was hit.