Daily Briefing

Key Takeaways

• Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps (Brig. Gen. Biletsky) launched Operation 'Vivaldi' northwest of Lyman, liberating ~75 km² including Serednie, Novoselyvka, Oleksandrivka, and Yarove — the first confirmed Ukrainian counteroffensive in northern Donetsk Oblast (25 sources corroborated).
• The Trump-brokered 'energy truce' remains unresolved: FT reports Putin is unwilling to sign before winter, Ukraine struck the Syzran refinery hours after Trump's announcement, and Zelensky says Ukraine will halt energy strikes only if partners guarantee Russian compliance.
• The US DOJ unsealed charges against 5 members of a Russian assassination and sabotage network operating in the US and Europe, including a plot to kill a Russian dissident in Washington DC — described by Bellingcat's Christo Grozev as the first fully documented Russian assassination attempt on US soil.
• Russia launched a new overnight drone wave targeting Kyiv (warehouse fire in Sviatoshyn district), Zaporizhzhia (glide bombs), Kharkiv, and Odesa, while Ukrainian forces struck the Atlant Aero UAV plant in Taganrog and ATESH sabotaged a power substation at a missile component factory in Voronezh.
• The US House advanced the Graham Russia-Iran sanctions bill by a razor-thin 214–211 procedural vote; a final floor vote is expected September 16 at 22:45 Kyiv time.