One thing I've found interesting about Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad is how intact the city infrastructure is. You'd think that for such an intense and long battle, both cities would be destroyed at a Bakhmut level, or even Vovchansk or Marinka levels.

Interestingly, most buildings in both cities remain intact for civilians. Damage is obviously extensive, but if you look at some of the videos from the ground, there are still curtains and roofs on houses, with damage being limited to broken windows and damaged roofs.

However, this is for the low-rise buildings. Obviously, the high-rise blocks have largely been burnt out or partially collapsed. Myrnohrad has more high-rises, so naturally it received more damage than Pokrovsk.

But nevertheless, if you compare it to cities that also experienced large, prolonged battles, it is less than usual. It reminds me somewhat of Selydove.

🇲🇱 - Current situation in Bamako, the capital of Mali:

JNIM have begun an active blockade of the city, while their attacks on fuel supplies have become popular, the group have also struck convoys of almost all goods and supplies going heading to the capital.

Several countries have advised their citizens to leave the country immediately, including the United States.

Rerum Novarum's map shows the 8 different routes into Bamako:
- Four routes are (partially) under JNIM control, RN5, RN7, RN27 and RN3.
- Three routes are contested, RN24, RR6 and RN6.
- Mali has a single reliable supply route, the RN26 highway.

Also another thing to consider with this is that there are less Ukrainian soldiers to target nowadays, so that would contribute to less damaged buildings.

The Ukrainian SSO claims that it struck a transport-loading vehicle for Iskander-M ballistic missiles near the village of Ovsyannikovo, Kursk Oblast, likely with UAVs, on October 4.

I can confirm that transportation and loading of Iskander-M and Iskander-K missiles were taking place in this area of Kursk Oblast at around this date. The claims remain unconfirmed, but they line up with what was happening.

Additionally, they reported that they hit and destroyed a 1L122 "Garmon" radar station on duty near the village of Nizhniy Reutets, Kursk Oblast.

Yesterday, at least 1 Tu-95MS strategic bomber redeployed from Ukrainka Airbase, Amur Oblast, back to Engels-2 Airbase, Saratov Oblast, after it was equipped with Kh-101 cruise missiles. The true number of Tu-95MS that redeployed is unknown, but we should find out in the next 1-3 days.

Additionally, 1 Tu-95MS carried out a training mission from Engels-2 Airbase yesterday afternoon, where it carried out simulated launches of missiles with electronic warfare from the old launch lines, which are no longer used, over Guryanovo Training Ground, Saratov Oblast (the new launch lines are slightly further southwest near the village of Uzmore).

Interestingly, this Tu-95MS from Engels-2 has not been known to conduct simulated launches of missiles over the past few months, and has only carried out ordinary, scheduled training missions, often for younger pilots. This could signal an imminent return to combat duty, alongside the other strategic bombers currently at Ukrainka Airbase.

Vovchansk looks like it's finally being cleaned up.

Russia controls nearly two thirds of the city and has advanced past most of the flattened areas which are much harder to hold. Also, Ukraine has lost most of their strongholds in the city and is currently in constant retreat.

Some more about Stepnohirsk.
Russian forces report that Ukrainian UAV numbers have increased, which severely complicates their advancements in the area.
According to some of their estimates, we're talking of about 120 crews, with some belonging to the National Guard and GUR. They provide recon, strikes on Russian forward groups and logistics control.
GUR operators specifically have "RAM-2X" drones, and other UAV battalions have "Rubak" and "Shark" recon drones.
As reported some time ago, these drones are being used en masse at distances of over 60km, easily reaching Vasylivka, primary Russian supply hub in the area.

Update on the Pokrovsk direction:

Active fighting continues within Pokrovsk's city limits. The northern part of the city remains a grey zone, with some more consolidation from the southeast. Small Russian and Ukrainian assault groups continue to clear each other out of positions in what has become a very fluid and dynamic area, with no defined line of contact.

In northeastern Pokrovsk, Ukrainian units in the high-rise part of the Dinas District have begun attempts at withdrawing to Rivne and appear to have been somewhat successful. However, they are withdrawing into a larger, cut-off pocket, so most/all of them won't escape the area. Russian building-by-building clearing operations continue in the Dinas District, where the Ukrainians are still putting up resistance. It's likely that the soldiers there are not fully aware of the situation in the bottleneck of the larger Myrnohrad pocket. Active clearing operations also continue in the shrinking grey zone in the low-rise residential areas of eastern Pokrovsk.

As for the bottleneck, Russian DRGs were able to infiltrate into the small, two-street residential area. If assault groups consolidate here, a physical encirclement of Myrnohrad will be made. But that would not make much difference, as any movement in and out of the city is practically impossible right now. Additionally, Russian DRGs infiltrated further to the next pig farm along the road to the rear of Pokrovsk and reached positions beyond it. No consolidation has occurred here yet.