President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko will continue to provide Russian troops with access to Belarusian airspace in order to demonstrate at least nominal support for Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, he will continue to avoid direct involvement of the Belarusian army in the war against Ukraine.. Such conclusions in their regular review for July 11 were made by analysts of the American Institute for the Study of War ISW..

They made these conclusions based on a number of facts.. In particular, the government of Belarus transferred to Russia the use of the Pribytky airfield in the Gomel region. The independent Belarusian monitoring organization The Hajun Project similarly reported on July 11 that a Russian Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft flew into Belarusian airspace for the first time since April 4. Project Hajun noted that the Belarusian government has introduced new airspace restrictions along the border with Ukraine, where an AWACS aircraft patrolled between July 10 and 11.

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“Taken together, these data likely indicate that Lukashenko is trying to support Putin’s war in Ukraine without direct Belarusian military intervention in an attempt to respond to pressure that Putin is likely to put on him.. As ISW has previously assessed, the likelihood of Belarus' direct involvement in the war in Ukraine remains low due to the impact it could have on the stability and even survival of the Lukashenka regime..

The actions of the Russian occupation army in the south of Kharkiv, as well as in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, are aimed at encircling the Ukrainian forces in the east and capturing the entire Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which are claimed by Russian proteges in the Donbass.

In the north of the Kharkiv region, the Russians are trying to protect their land lines with Izyum and prevent Ukrainian forces from reaching the Russian border..

In the south, Russian troops are trying to hold the occupied territories of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions and repel Ukrainian counteroffensives..

Also in the occupied territories, the Russians are trying to consolidate administrative control and create conditions for potential annexation to the Russian Federation.. They are actively opposed by Ukrainian partisans, who continued shelling Russian collaborators and the Russian occupation authorities on July 10 and 11. Unidentified persons killed the Russian-appointed head of Bolshoy Burluk (north-eastern Kharkiv region) Yevgeny Yunakov by planting an explosive device under his car. The attack took place only four days after the Russian occupation authorities announced the creation of a Russian occupation administration in the occupied settlements of the Kharkiv region.

Unidentified persons (probably Ukrainian partisans) tried to kill the Russian-appointed head of the Kherson regional military-civilian administration Volodymyr Saldo by planting an improvised explosive device at his entrance. An assassination attempt was also made on the head of the Melitopol region, Andrei Siguta..

The Kremlin continues to put forward conditions for the annexation of Ukrainian territories outside the Donbass. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree simplifying the procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship for all Ukrainians..