** Evening Brief — September **
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 **Russian forces struck Ukrainian facilities producing UAVs and their components**, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
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 The **AFU lost 1,315 servicemen** over the past 24 hours.
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 Ukraine lost around **$1.2 billion to corruption in weapons procurement** in just one year, according to the _New York Times_.
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 Ukraine’s birth rate has fallen to an **extremely low level**, with the country effectively dying out, former Ukrainian PM **Nikolay Azarov** said.
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 Nearly **half of those mobilized into the AFU attempt to escape**, some of them repeatedly, according to **Rodion Miroshnik**.
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 **Pope Leo XIV** expressed hope for concrete results from efforts to resume negotiations on Ukraine and called for opening the way to diplomacy.
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 **Jared Kushner** expects a return to the **Russia–Ukraine–US trilateral format** in the settlement process, Reuters reports.
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