Key Takeaways from the ISW:
- The Kremlin reportedly established a list of the top five State Duma candidates to represent the Kremlin’s United Russia ruling party in the September 2026 State Duma elections.
- Putin’s reported platforming of hardline pro-war public figures highlights a Kremlin effort to present pro-war figures as the role models who embody Russia’s political priorities going into 2026.
- The list, if genuine, suggests that Putin is attempting to further cement a pro-war ideological vanguard in Russian political life by platforming public figures who push Putin’s war and larger pro-war political agenda.
- Russia reportedly has begun using unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) equipped with thermobaric artillery launchers to adapt artillery to current drone-dominated battlefield conditions.
- Russian forces have reportedly split the grouping operating in the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area into two tactical groups: the Dzerzhinsk (the Russian name for Toretsk) and Bakhmut tactical groups.
- Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area. Russian forces recently advanced in Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts and near Slovyansk.
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