World Affairs International

Russian forces have made no significant advances, achieving limited success despite a numerical and materiel advantage in several areas. Ukrainian officials have recently escalated calls for artillery, expressing their concerns with Ukraine being ‘outgunned’ in regards to artillery. Despite fierce Ukrainian resistance, there is a serious risk of defeat in the battle of the Donbas, and though territories nearly encircled in Sievierodonetsk have fought long and hard, their surprising performance is still unlikely to win the short-term battle for the Luhansk pocket. Instead, Ukrainian forces acting outside of the encirclement could break through the Russian advances from Izyum and Popasna in order to clear a route with Western heavy weapons to relieve Ukrainian defenders within.

Outside the Donbas, Ukrainian forces have claimed advances in Zaporizhzhia, but credible evidence is not immediately available. Likely, confirmed advances would be marginal gains, slowly encroaching upon Russian-occupied territories but still relying on Russian withdrawals to advance.

In Mariupol, a cholera outbreak has threatened the city’s near-nonexistent medical services, per British intelligence. French journalists in the city obtained footage of a mass grave with unmarked, exposed mounds in hundreds of rows.