Here is how things stand on Tuesday, September 2:

Fighting

• Russian forces shelled Bilozerka in Ukraine’s Kherson region, killing a 73-year-old man, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote in a post on Telegram on Monday.
• A Russian drone attack on the city of Horodnia injured two people, including a 14-year-old girl, the governor of the Chernihiv region, Viacheslav Chaus, said.
• Russian forces “intensively attacked” Ukraine’s Sumy region, injuring seven people and damaging dozens of homes, Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov said.
• The attacks on Sumy also disrupted water and energy supplies in parts of the region, the local utility agency reported, according to the online news site Ukrinform.
• The Crimean Tatar Resource Centre, a human rights organisation, reported that Russia’s occupation of Crimea has led to the deaths of 15 children who “tragically died”, while dozens more children suffered due to the murder and enforced disappearance of their parents.
• Ukrainian students have returned to school for the new academic year, with some 17,000 students attending underground schools in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, a frequent target of Russian attacks.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that its forces shot down 260 Ukrainian drones and three rockets launched in a 24-hour period, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.

Regional Security

• A plane carrying European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen was hit by GPS jamming as it prepared to land in Bulgaria, a European Union spokesperson said on Monday, adding that deliberate Russian interference was suspected.

• “We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming, but the plane landed safely in Bulgaria. We have received information from the Bulgarian authorities that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia,” the EU spokesperson said.

• The EU will deploy additional satellites in low Earth orbit to help strengthen its ability to respond to future GPS interference, European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius said after the incident.
• Germany does not expect Russian attacks on NATO territory under the cover of Moscow’s Zapad military exercises, which are set to begin in two weeks, Germany’s top military commander, Carsten Breuer, said, adding that German and NATO forces will still “be on our guard”.

Politics and diplomacy

• Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Western countries for causing the war in Ukraine by provoking Russia, in a speech at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, in Tianjin, China.

• Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement noting surprise that an SCO statement did not include a reference to the “largest war of aggression in Europe since World War II”, in reference to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

• German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius criticised recent remarks by the EU’s von der Leyen on plans to send European troops to Ukraine, saying: “Those are things that you don’t discuss before you sit down at the negotiating table with many parties that have a say in the matter.”
• The EU chose “diplomacy over escalation” in relation to tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump in part due to security considerations, European Council President Antonio Costa said in a speech on Monday.
• “We certainly do not celebrate the return of tariffs. But escalating tensions with a key ally over tariffs, while our Eastern border is under threat, would have been an imprudent risk,” Costa said.
• France will host a meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing”, a group of countries supporting Ukraine, on Thursday, the French presidency said.