Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 2 claimed his army was rapidly advancing in eastern Ukraine. Putin cited Russia’s claimed battlefield gains as proof that Kyiv’s cross-border incursion into the Kursk region was failing. Ukraine’s “provocation” in the Kursk region has failed to stop the Russian military from advancing in Ukraine’s Donetsk region,” Putin said. Putin’s language marks a change from his previous statements on the Kursk incursion, which he had described as an evolving “situation”. Meanwhile, a Polish minister told the Financial Times that Warsaw has a “constitutional duty” to down Russian missiles over Ukraine that are on course to hit Poland.
