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Russia's Defense Ministry claims its "Southern" group of forces has broken through the first line of defense of what it called the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk fortified area on some sections of the front, as Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov inspected the group's command post and reviewed the results of its operations.
The claims, published on the ministry's Telegram channel, came as Russia is separately reported to be weighing a broader escalation of its war against Ukraine after concluding that peace negotiations had reached a dead end.
According to the ministry's statement, Gerasimov heard a report from group commander Col. Gen. Sergei Medvedev on the current situation in the group's area of responsibility, along with reports from unit and formation commanders on the results of their operations.
Gerasimov noted what the ministry described as the "Southern" group's successes in the "liberation" of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic and set tasks for further action, awarding state honors to servicemen the ministry said had distinguished themselves in combat.
In a separate statement, the ministry said the group was advancing along a roughly 160-kilometer front on several axes simultaneously and had broken through the first defensive line of the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk fortified area in some sections.
The ministry said units of Russia's 3rd Army are continuing to advance on the group's right flank toward Sloviansk, claiming that assault units had taken the settlements of Pyskunivka, Pershotravneve and Orikhuvatka during July and August, with street fighting continuing in Mykolaivka and Nykanorivka.
The ministry said Russian forces were 4 kilometers from Sloviansk's eastern outskirts.
The ministry also claimed advances east of Kramatorsk, saying forward assault units were fighting near an airfield about three kilometers from the city's outskirts.
On the group's left flank, the ministry claimed control of roughly half of Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka, which it described as one of the main defensive hubs on the Siverskodonetsk axis, along with street fighting in Kurtivka and Verolyubivka.
The ministry said forward units had advanced to within 1.5 kilometers of Druzhkivka, claiming more than 100 square kilometers of territory had been taken along the Druzhkivka axis over the past two months.
The ministry's claims regarding territorial control and battlefield conditions could not be independently verified.
Russia is preparing to escalate attacks on Ukraine after concluding that negotiations for a peace deal have reached a dead end, according to three people close to the Kremlin cited by Bloomberg.
The people said Russia is weighing an intensification of conventional ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, including the center of the capital, and infrastructure targets in other Ukrainian cities.
Bloomberg reported that Moscow increasingly views Ukrainian strikes as attacks by NATO states, since alliance members supply Kyiv with weapons and intelligence, and that the current phase of hostilities is not the peak of military escalation, according to the people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled his intentions in weekend comments to a state TV reporter, saying Ukraine "opened this Pandora's box" and warning: "Well, be ready to get a blowback on your most sensitive sectors of the economy."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently said that "Ukraine is trying to hit our economic infrastructure, our trading infrastructure, thus causing a response from our side, and this will be a heavy response," but added that Russia does not need military escalation "because we are advancing anyway."
Bloomberg reported that a growing number of Russian officials close to the Kremlin believe Putin could eventually consider tactical nuclear weapons as a last resort in Ukraine, though the outlet noted there is no sign Russia is preparing to do so.
Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center director Alexander Gabuev told Bloomberg the risk remains "extremely low" given limited battlefield utility and high political costs.
Russian online retailer Ozon said two of its logistics facilities, in Orenburg and Ufa, were struck by drones overnight, according to a company statement.
All employees at the facilities were evacuated, and no injuries were reported.
The Orenburg facility resumed operations after the attack, while the Ufa facility sustained minor damage and was temporarily closed for inspection.
Ukraine has in recent weeks targeted warehouse and logistics facilities belonging to Russian e-commerce platforms Wildberries and Ozon as part of a broader campaign against economic infrastructure supporting the Russian war effort, causing billions of dollars in damage to logistics networks.
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