Putin Moves Troops, Sends Them to Kursk –

The war is shifting toward Russia. Moscow is withdrawing some of its military forces from Ukraine in response to Kiev’s offensive into Russian territory, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials who said the United States is still trying to determine the full significance of Vladimir Putin’s move. It did not say how many troops the US believes Russia is moving. One of the US officials said on Tuesday that Kiev told the US it had been looking for opportunities to exploit “gaps” in Russia’s defense lines and had found one in Kursk, which is weakly defended. Ukraine, he added, had hoped the incursion would force Russia to withdraw troops from Ukrainian territory, a development that occurred in the past day or so.

Meanwhile, Russia claims to have shot down four missiles and 117 drones last night, with new accusations against Ukraine. “Kiev was attempting to conduct a terrorist attack on facilities on Russian territory,” the Defense Ministry said. According to the Tass agency, 37 drones and four missiles were shot down in the Kursk region, from where Kiev forces entered Russian territory on August 6, and another 17 drones were destroyed in the Belgorod region. The latter borders Ukraine and Kursk, and today the governor declared a state of “regional emergency.” The Kremlin also appointed Aleksei Dyumin, the Kremlin’s adviser on defense industry, as head of the military response to the Ukrainian forces’ cross-border offensive.