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The influential Russian war observers known as “milbloggers” have rounded on the defence ministry and the army chief Gen Valery Gerasimov for exaggerating battlefield progress in Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Gerasimov claimed on 30 August that Russian forces had seized 3,500 sq km of territory and 149 settlements since March 2025. “ISW has observed evidence to assess that Russian forces had gained only roughly 2,346 sq km of Ukrainian territory and seized 130 settlements” in that time, said the US thinktank.
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The ISW said Russia’s “territorial gains remain disproportionately limited and slow relative to the high losses incurred”, and because of this the Kremlin was intensifying a propaganda campaign to influence western decision-making: accusing European states of prolonging the war, making nuclear threats, and claiming that Russian victory in Ukraine is inevitable.
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Russia is believed to have jammed the GPS signal of a plane carrying the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, over Bulgaria, write Jennifer Rankin and Oliver Holmes. The plane landed safely anyway. The commission deputy spokesperson Arianna Podestà said the Bulgarian authorities suspected Russia: “Of course, we are aware and used to … the threats and intimidations that are a regular component of Russia’s hostile behaviour.” Interference with satellite navigation has become increasingly common in airspace near Russia, especially since its full-scale war on Ukraine.
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Heads of state and government of the European-led “coalition of the willing” will meet on Thursday to “discuss work on security guarantees for Ukraine carried out in recent weeks and take stock of the consequences to be drawn from Russia’s attitude, which stubbornly refuses peace”, the French presidency announced on Monday. France will host the virtual meeting of about 30 countries.
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Russian artillery shelling killed a 73-year-old man in his yard on Monday, said Ukrainian authorities in the Kherson region; while a 14-year-old girl and a 50-year-old person were hospitalised with injuries after drones attacked private homes in the Chernihiv regional city of Horodnia, according to the regional administration.
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Ukrainian authorities said Russia was linked to the weekend assassination of Andriy Parubiy, a 54-year-old former speaker of parliament and leading figure in the pro-European protest movements of 2004 and 2014. A 52-year-old suspect has been arrested in Lviv, where the shooting took place. “We know that this crime was not accidental. There is a Russian trace in it,” said Ivan Vygivsky, the national police chief, on Monday. Ukraine’s interior minister, Igor Klymenko, said: “I will only say that the crime was carefully prepared: the schedule of the deceased’s movements was studied, the route was laid and an escape plan was thought out.”
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Ukrainian parents started the school year on Monday by sending their children underground. About 17,000 children in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, a frequent target of Russian attacks, are attending seven such schools, with more set to open. Anastasia Pochergina, whose child was beginning their first year, said: “The school is three floors down, and we were told it is the deepest school in Kharkiv. That’s why I believe it is safe. We did not expect it would be possible this year, but as a parent, I was desperate for my child to be able to attend normal school.”
