The situation on the Dobropillya & Druzhkivka directions continues to deteriorate for Ukraine:

Over the last week, Russian forces have significantly expanded their zone of infiltration, with several groups of their DRGs reaching the outskirts of Druzhkivka, and even into Bilozerske. Small assault groups have also began operating north of the "New Donbas" Line - the multi-layered defensive line aimed at forming a massive FPV drone kill-zone for Russian infantry.

In the east, Russian forces improved their positions in the area of Petrivka, while DRGs infiltrated up to the northern edge of Raiske on the outskirts of Druzhkivka. Some small assault groups crossed the Hruzka River and continued infiltrating Novomykolaivka, while DRGs expanded their zone of infiltration up to Novoandriivka and the nearby chalk quarries and entered the village of Novohryhorivka.

To the west, the Russians captured a number of positions on the tactical heights north of Stepy, continued entering Rubizhne, and began infiltrating DRGs across the New Donbas Line into Zolotyi Kolodyaz. Additionally, as a result of recent advances in the Kucheriv Yar area, some Russian DRGs managed to infiltrate up to 10 km, moving along a forested gulley north of Hruzke and are operating along the Dobropillya-Kramatorsk Highway, in the same area where the maximum extent of infiltration was achieved during the August 2025 breakthrough.

In the area of Dobropillya, Russian DRGs were detected operating in the southeastern high-rise buildings of Bilozerske City on September 2nd, while additional DRG infiltrations occurred in the direction of Vesele Pole. Meanwhile, Russian forces continued infiltrating Dobropillya City from the east, southeast, and south, while Ukrainian forces managed to clear the territory of the Dobropillya mine. Out of the 4 previously usable sealed roads into Dobropillya, one is physically cut, while the other 3 have Russian DRGs operating along them.

There is precisely zero evidence that Putin has set any deadlines for the capture of Donetsk Oblast. All of these claims have been made by the Ukrainian government.

It's a propaganda tactic. When you invent a fake goal for your enemy that you know they wont achieve, you can then turn and say their offensive "completely failed". Basing your analysis on this complete and utter lie will naturally create results skewed in favour of Ukraine.

In reality, there is no evidence that Russia has set any of these goals, beyond just unfounded PR claims made by the Ukrainian government.

Why does anyone take ISW seriously...

These are the locations where Russian DRGs were detected in the last few days, according to my information. The other locations not mentioned here were gathered from open sources.

Notably, Russian DRGs entered the southeastern high-rise buildings of Bilozerske on September 2nd (48.53075, 37.07131) and it's currently unknown if they were cleared out or retreated. Additionally, DRGs were detected in the northern-most houses of Raiske (48.5885, 37.47347) about 600 metres from the first houses of Druzhkivka.

The other locations where they were detected was along the highway just south of Novotroitske (48.5697, 37.2171) and at multiple locations along the forested gully to the southeast.

In the Kramatorsk direction, a few days ago a Russian DRG group was detected approximately 1.7 km of Kramatorsk's first houses, along the hill west of Vasylivska Pustosh overlooking the city.

Therefore, there is a risk of Russian DRGs operating within Kramatorsk city in the near future if Russian assault groups operating further east are not pushed back.

Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to advance east of Kramatorsk, expanding the grey-zone in the areas of Zapovidne and Orikhuvatka, and the infiltration zone near Pershomarivka.

The situation continues to deteriorate, and the recent loss of the majority of the dominant heights between Kramatorsk and Bakhmut will allow Russian forces to advance much further in the coming weeks and months.

On the four-year anniversary of the Ukrainian 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive that saw them recapture Lyman, Russia has once again retreated from Lyman.

And some say history never repeats itself lol

The Russian Ministry of Defence issued a statement regarding their overnight Geran-2/4 drone attacks on port infrastructure in Odesa Oblast.

They claimed to have hit the "Mavka" dry cargo vessel in Chornomorsk Port; a production and loading complex at Izmail Port used for unloading military cargo supplied from western countries; and a patrol boat of the Ukrainian Navy used to escort cargo ships.

Russian Geran-4 jet-drone strike on a Ukrainian FP-2 mid-range drone launch position near Oleksiivka, Kharkiv Oblast.

A Russian Su-35 is trying to shoot down a Ukrainian aircraft west of Slovyansk using an R-37/77 air-to-air missile. The Ukrainian aircraft was launching glide-bombs at the Chasiv Yar area.

The air-to-air missile was detected flying west over Bakhmut at 3,900 km/h.

The interception attempt was likely unsuccessful.

The Russian R-37/77 air-to-air missile (which was launched by a Su-35 near Debaltseve, Luhansk Oblast) disappeared from radars between Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar, presumably after self-destructing.

The Ukrainian aircraft was launching glide-bombs from the green circle on the map, west of Slovyansk.