Russian troops are advancing towards the city of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, attempting to gain a foothold near a heavily fortified area, Ukraine's top army official said on Saturday. Kostiantynivka is part of a so-called fortress belt, a series of well-defended cities in the east. Ukraine's army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, reported on Telegram that counter-sabotage measures are underway in the city. The DeepState battlefield mapping project indicates Russian forces are about one kilometre from the city's southern outskirts. Russia's Defence Ministry claimed on Wednesday it had taken control of Novodmytrivka, just north of Kostiantynivka.
On Saturday, Russia's Defence Ministry also said it had seized the village of Myropillia in the northern Sumy region, where Moscow aims to establish a buffer zone. However, the Kursk group of the Ukrainian military dismissed this as a 'complete lie' on Facebook, asserting that its units still control the area. In Sumy, the regional governor reported that a Russian airstrike near the town of Krovelets injured six people, two of them seriously.
Two people were killed and seven wounded after a Russian drone struck a minibus in the southern city of Kherson, local officials said Saturday. Hours later, another minibus was attacked in Kherson, wounding the driver, according to regional head Oleksandr Prokudin. On Ukraine's Black Sea coast, a Russian strike damaged port infrastructure in Odesa, but no casualties were reported.
In a development affecting European defence, a planned drawdown of 5,000 US troops from Germany includes a Biden-era plan to deploy a US battalion with long-range Tomahawk missiles to Germany. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Saturday that this should spur Europe to strengthen its own defences, while two top US Republican lawmakers expressed concern about the troop reduction.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met delegates to the ruling party's youth league congress in Pyongyang, state media reported on Sunday. The congress, held every five years, aims to mobilise citizens aged 14 to 30. A letter from the ruling Workers' Party linked youth loyalty to North Korea's involvement in the Ukraine war, stating that young soldiers sent overseas had 'become bombs and flames' in defending the country's honour. North Korea has sent an estimated 14,000 troops to fight alongside Russian forces in the Kursk region, according to South Korean, Ukrainian and Western officials.
