By Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Substack, 9/1/26
At the conclusion of the 26th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek on September 1, 2026, leaders adopted the Bishkek Declaration alongside 28 major outcome documents focusing on regional security, multipolar governance, and economic cooperation. The complete official text of the Bishkek Declaration at the time of my writing, had not yet been fully transcribed or translated in its entirety by official English-language outlets following its signing. However, key excerpts and provisions addressing global governance, unilateral sanctions, and economic cooperation are documented across member state portals and regional reports.
Leaders signed a joint statement criticizing Western economic sanctions against member states and (without mentioning the US or Israel) condemning military actions against Iran, labeling them violations of international law. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized building a more equitable global governance system to reduce Western, unilateral economic and political influence. The summit approved programs to create an SCO Green Technology Corridor (2026–2030), adopted memorandums on artificial intelligence cooperation, and established new anti-drug and counter-terrorism centers.
The joint declaration was signed by the heads of all member countries, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and the leaders of Pakistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan at the close of the 26th meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State.
The SCO meeting will be followed in two weeks’ time (September 11-13) by the 18th summit meeting of the BRICS.
India stood with the SCO bloc on paper against US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s sweeping “Operation Economic Outcast” secondary sanctions campaign in a collective display of unity against Washington’s economic coercion and the extensive economic penalties and upcoming banking secondary sanctions threatened by Bessent.
By participating alongside Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, India supported the SCO’s goal to limit US dominance over global trade and the dollar-based financial system.
However, India’s underlying diplomatic and economic motivations diverge from those of Beijing and Moscow. India engages in perpetual attempts to hedge against the inevitability of multipolarity and the sinking of US hegemony, seeking to balance SCO ties while maintaining vital, strategic partnerships with the US and Europe.
Broadly aligned against Western pressure on the Ukraine and Middle East fronts, Indian Prime Minister Modi has also advised President Putin that “the war in Ukraine must end” and reiterated support for peace efforts (although peace proposals from the US, or Europe, or Ukraine itself, invariably turn out to be totally unrealistic demands for a ceasefire along current front lines to be followed by NATO “peace-keeper” (i.e. warmongering) feet on the ground in Ukraine).
China actively circumvents US measures via “dark fleets” and private “teapot” refineries. India opposes unilateral sanctions on principle but aggressively protects its own banking and tech sectors from triggering catastrophic US secondary tariffs or dollar exclusions – which is all very well, except that India absolutely must continue to consumer Russian oil in the absence of a flow of Iranian oil through the closed Strait of Hormuz. Ultimately, India’s presence at Bishkek allows it to prevent Russia and China from completely dominating Central Asian geopolitics. India will sign collective SCO statements denouncing Scott Bessent’s economic offensive to maintain regional ties, but New Delhi will continuously make a show of adapting (in a sometimes misleading way) its trade to avoid crossing Washington’s red lines while continuing to be a major consumer of Russian oil.
Perhaps even more significant than all that is Xi’s statement today that China is going to increase its coordination with Russia over Ukraine. This, more than anything, tells the world that it must prepare for Russian victory against NATO…
…Zelenskiy is complaining that Europe is on vacation and not helping Ukraine and finds this very “unpleasant.”
Massive Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine continue on an almost continuous basis, far outweighing the impact of Ukrainian attacks on Russia. In addition to strikes on Kiev and Odessa, and to strikes on numerous other Ukrainian cities, Putin has ordered massive strikes on Ukrainian energy systems whose consequences will include the complete shutdown of port facilities and the unlivability of parts of Ukraine in advance of winter. Western embassies are advising their citizens in Kiev to leave. Russia had advised the embassies as long ago as May to remove their embassy staffs from the city.
Ukraine has used many flamingo missiles supposedly of its own construction, but Russia claims to have shot down 90 of these over August, of which as many as 17 were shot down on August 15. Russian strikes on Kiev last night included the targeting of Fire Point production facilities where the flamingoes are constructed. Russia appears to have shot down the majority of the 500 ATACMS missiles estimated to have been supplied to it by the US since late 2023. Additional procurement and transfer approvals – such as a mid-2026 arrangement involving 70 M39 ATACMS missiles backed via international defense channels are believe to have continued to supplement the inventory.
Russia’s principal weapon in the air war, as indicated in a recent post, is the Geran 4 and its successor the Geran 5, in addition to Iskander, Zircon and Kalibr ballistic and hypersonic missiles. These will soon be supplemented by the comparatively cheap ballistic Dan T missile. The Dan-T is a new Russian hybrid weapon that combines a jet-powered kamikaze drone with a simplified cruise missile. It has a range of up to 500 kilometers (about 310 miles) and can carry 135 kilograms (about 300 pounds) of explosives. It can be fired from ground launchers, fighter jets, or helicopters. It is built to hit light infrastructure, armored vehicles, and fortified positions. Russia plans to build about 10,000 Dan-T missiles in 2027. The design is built to be cheaper and easier to mass-produce than traditional cruise missiles. The large volume is meant to drain and overwhelm air defense systems.
In August, Russia launched over 2,800 “loitering” or “Green” drones over Ukraine. A loitering drone – more formally called a loitering munition – is an armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed to hover or circle over a target area until an enemy or objective is spotted, and then crash into it to detonate. The European Commission’s foreign minister Kaja Kallas has helpfully ruminated over the possibility of gifting Ukraine with Europe’s remaining interceptor missiles, those approaching their expiry dates.
In Zapporizhzhia oblast Russian forces have reportedly penetrated deep into Russian territory to take the villages of Cervonaya Krenitsa (located well to the west of what had previously been reported as Russia’s further advance, and fairly close to Orikhiv, and, near Dnipro, Novopavlivka, which is located close to the western boundary of Orikhiv. Orikhiv is being described by some sources as having been surrounded by Russian troops and its supply roads having been cut off. Its fall will very likely to be quickly followed by an escalation of Russia’s offensive on the city of Zapporizhzhia itself.
Russian forces continue to advance on the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk conurbation and, in the northeast of Kharkiv are executing maneuvers whose end result will be the integration of a large swathe of Kharkiv into Russian-controlled territory.
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Putin says Russia is winning on battlefield, will not negotiate with ‘terrorists’
Reuters, 9/1/26
By Dmitry Antonov and Maxim Rodionov
MOSCOW, Sept 1 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was winning the war in Ukraine and portrayed the Ukrainian leadership as “terrorists” with whom Moscow could not negotiate.
Putin, in his most detailed comments on the war for many weeks, acknowledged that Ukrainian attacks inside Russia had inflicted real damage and said that drones posed a particular challenge.
But he said that Russia was advancing on the battlefield and told reporters: “I have no doubt the enemy will crumble.”
He declined to say when that would happen.
Rumours that Russia would be forced to order a new military mobilisation were “utter nonsense,” he said.
PUTIN SAYS RUSSIAN ADVANCES ARE ACCELERATING
Four and a half years into the war, Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine. U.S.-mediated peace talks broke off in February after the United States and Israel went to war with Iran.
Opinion polls suggest growing war fatigue in Russia and influential voices are warning about the strain on its economy.
But Putin struck a confident, hawkish tone as he rattled through a detailed version of developments on the front line, saying Russian advances were accelerating.
Russian troops had captured 270 square km (104 sq miles) of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine in August and two large groups of Ukrainian troops – one comprising 4,500 to 4,800 men, the other up to 2,000 – were surrounded, he said. Reuters could not independently verify those assertions.
Russia continues to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, Putin said, adding that Moscow’s forces were preparing to launch massive strikes against energy infrastructure in Ukraine.
Putin said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s warning to airlines that Ukrainian drones would effectively shut down Russian airspace sounded like “state terrorism” and that Moscow would find a way to respond if it happened.
Speaking at a news conference after a summit in Kyrgyzstan, Putin said it was not possible to negotiate with “terrorists”.
He also said, however, that Moscow was open to talks aimed at ending, rather than freezing, the war, and restated its willingness to talk to U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys.
“If someone makes, or can make, a tangible contribution to this process, we are all in favour,” Putin said.
“The only thing we would want to avoid is the process spinning its wheels pointlessly. However, if someone is capable of bringing something positive to these negotiations – which, as we understand it, are currently somewhat frozen – then, generally speaking, we are not opposed.”
Putin specifically acknowledged that Ukrainian drone strikes had caused damage to Russian oil refineries, although without referring to widespread fuel shortages that have resulted from those attacks.
But he said that the level of protection had improved, and “we only have 10% of our refineries left to repair”.
Putin responded scathingly to an accusation by the German government on Tuesday that Russia was to blame for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport last month.
He said the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz was pointing the finger at Moscow to distract from domestic problems and falling approval ratings.
Putin accused Germany of planting evidence in order to frame Russia for the drone attack, but he did not say what he was basing that accusation on.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov in Moscow and Maxim Rodionov in London; additional reporting by Ksenia Orlova, Filipp Lebedev, Darya Korsunskaya, Anton Kolodyazhnyy, Gleb Stolyarov and Andrew Osborn; writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)