WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Putin accuses Ukraine of a ‘large-scale provocation’ with its raid in southwestern Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday described a Ukrainian incursion into the country’s southwestern Kursk region as a “large-scale provocation” as his officials asserted that they were fighting off cross-border raids for a second day. Ukrainian officials remained silent about the scope of the operation. Putin met with his top defense and security officials to discuss what he called the “indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses, ambulances with different types of weapons.” He instructed the Cabinet to coordinate assistance to the Kursk region. The…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Zelenskiy says Ukraine deployed more drones than Russia in July President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Ukraine was making good progress in manufacturing and employing drones and had used more of them last month in combat than had Russia. Speaking in his nightly video address, Zelenskiy thanked all Ukrainian servicemen for their efforts in combat "in particular, all those soldiers and commanders who make good use of our possibilities with drones. "Our Ukrainian defence forces are already leading the way in this regard, and in July our forces used more drones than did the occupiers," he said.…