Kremlin intensifying propaganda effort, says ISW, because actual advances are ‘limited and slow relative to high losses incurred’. What we know on day 1,287
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.
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.
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.
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.
A civilian was killed in a Russian airstrike on the city of Bila Tserkva, said Mykola Kalashnyk, the Kyiv region’s governor, on Tuesday morning. “A body of a man was discovered while firefighters were putting out a fire at a garage complex that got on fire as a result of the attack. Damage has been reported across multiple parts of the city. Windows in several multi-storey residential buildings were shattered and fires broke out in [several] areas.” Separately, a Russian drone attack started a large fire in the Zarechny area of Sumy city, local officials said; and port facilities came under attack in the Izmail area of Odesa.
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.
