RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Ukraine's counteroffensive has 'failed' – Putin Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive has not “stalled” but failed, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on Monday. With Ukrainian losses mounting and Kiev ramping up its conscription efforts, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu affirmed his commander-in-chief's assessment. The Ukrainian operation “is not stalled; it is a failure,”Putin declared, following talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the resort city of Sochi. “At least, this is how it looks today,” he continued. “Let’s see what happens next. I hope this will continue to be the case.” In early June, Kiev launched its long-awaited counteroffensive…

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Russian warplanes sink speedboats with Ukrainian landing force – Moscow Russian warplanes have prevented yet another landing attempt by Ukrainian forces, destroying four US-made military speedboats and their crews in the Black Sea west of the Crimean Peninsula, the Defense Ministry said on Monday morning. Russian Black Sea Fleet naval aviation aircraft “destroyed four US-made Willard Sea Force high-speed military boats with landing groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the military said. The landing force was reportedly heading towards Cape Tarkhankut, the westernmost part of the Crimean Peninsula, in yet another botched landing attempt, according to the …

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Two more ships pass through Black Sea corridor, Zelenskiy says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that two more ships had passed through a "temporary" Black Sea shipping corridor established since Russia withdrew from a U.N.-backed grain export deal in July. "Two ships have successfully passed through our temporary 'grain corridor'," Zelenskiy posted on X, previously known as Twitter. The president did not identify the vessels involved or say when they had completed their passage. Officials on Friday said two vessels had cleared the corridor -- bringing to four the number that have used it. Zelenskiy said…

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Ukrainian naval drones target Crimean Bridge – MOD Multiple attempted attacks by Ukrainian maritime drones on the strategic bridge which links the Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland were foiled on Friday evening and early Saturday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed. “On September 1, at about 11:15pm Moscow time, the Kiev regime attempted to launch a terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge using a semi-submersible unmanned boat,” the ministry said in a brief statement, adding that the hostile craft was “promptly detected and destroyed” in the Black Sea. Three hours later, around 2:10am Saturday, another drone…