Kremlin representatives, most notably Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) CEO Kirill Dmitriev, have hinted that European countries are seeking to prolong the war in Ukraine in an attempt to undermine US trust in European governments, News.bg reports.
Russian Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev criticized French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in his English-language X (formerly Twitter) account on August 31 regarding France and Germany's participation in US efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Medvedev claims that Merz and Macron have "forgotten the lessons" of World War II and that "things could end up like in 1945 - (Macron and Merz) can also be recognized by their teeth". Medvedev also claimed that the Russian advance was "bad news" for Macron and Merz.
The MO attempted to use data with claims about Russian advance that ISW assesses as exaggerated.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces suffered a total of 290,000 casualties at the front from January to August 2025, an average of 36,250 casualties per month.
Russian opposition publications "Meduza" and "Mediazona" reported on August 29 that data from the Russian Registry of Inheritance Cases (RND) show that at least 93,000 Russian servicemen died in 2024. This is almost twice as many as in 2023 (about 50,000).
Using a forecasting model, at least 56,000 Russian soldiers have died since the beginning of 2025.