Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 726

Summary for Monday, 19th February 2024 - DAY 726

• Russian troops launched multiple attacks to the west of just-captured Avdiivka in a bid for more gains, a Ukrainian army spokesperson said on Sunday. Kyiv also announced it had opened a war crimes investigation after two separate reports of Russian troops shooting captured Ukrainian soldiers emerged. On Monday, state news of Russia said its troops had also taken control of the coking coal plant where some Ukrainian troops had remained. There was no verification of this from trustworthy sources.
  
  
• Russia’s Avdiivka offensive is now likely to be reaching the end of its potential, or the “culmination” point, as the Ukrainians are able to withdraw to prepared lines of defence not far from Avdiivka, the the Institute for the Study of War has assessed as of Monday morning. The ISW acknowledged there were varying accounts of the strength of Ukraine’s new defensive positions.
  
  
• Ukraine’s forced withdrawal from Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region handed Moscow its first major territorial gain since May last year – a gain made at great cost of casualties and equipment. “The enemy is trying to actively develop its offensive,” said Dmytro Lykhoviy, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army commander leading Kyiv’s troops in the area. Ukraine’s general staff reported failed Russian attacks on the village of Lastochkyne, around 2km (one mile) to the west of Avdiivka’s northern edge. “But our considerable forces are entrenched there,” Lykhoviy said.
  
  
• Lykhoviy also reported failed Russian attacks near the villages of Robotyne and Verbove in the southern Zaporizhzhia region – one of the areas where Ukraine managed to regain ground during last year’s counteroffensive. He said it would be “very difficult” for Russia to break through there, given heavy Ukrainian defensive lines and natural conditions of the terrain. “The situation in the Zaporizhzhia sector is stable … No positions have been lost. The enemy was kicked in the teeth and retreated.”
  
  
• Denmark has decided to donate all its artillery to Ukraine, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, told the 60th Munich Security Conference on Saturday, pointing out that other European countries are also holding munitions they do not immediately need. “If you ask Ukrainians, they are asking us for ammunition now, artillery now,” he said. “From the Danish side, we decided to donate our entire artillery.”
  
  
• The widow of Alexei Navalny, who died aged 47 in highly suspicious circumstances in an Arctic prison on Friday, will join EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, days before the two-year mark of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Navalny was serving a three-decade sentence that was imposed for being an opponent of Vladimir Putin. He was subjected to years of persecution that included poisoning with a nerve agent in Siberia in 2020.
  
  
• The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, announced the visit by Yulia Navalnaya to highlight “support to freedom fighters in Russia and honour the memory of Alexei Navalny”. Ministers are due to discuss military support for Ukraine and what would be the EU’s 13th package of sanctions against Putin’s regime since the 24 February 2022 full-scale invasion.
  
  
• Japan promised more aid for Ukraine as it hosted the country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, on Monday in Tokyo. Japan has pledged more than $10bn worth of financial aid but cannot provide direct military support because the export of lethal weapons is forbidden. “Japan has stood with and continues to stand with Ukraine,” said Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida. He announced a new bilateral tax treaty with Ukraine and negotiations towards an investment treaty.
  
  
• More than 100 Kremlin documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by the Washington Post reportedly show that Russia ran a disinformation campaign to undermine Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The US publication said Kremlin instructions had “resulted in thousands of social media posts and hundreds of fabricated articles” that “tried to exploit what were then rumoured tensions” between Zelenskiy and his top army commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
  

Navalny's mother not allowed into the morgue in Russia - spokesperson

'Putin is a murderer,' Estonia's foreign minister says

Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine found dead in Spain, intel says

Maksim Kuzminov, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine in August 2023, was reportedly found shot dead in Spain.

Kremlin says west's reaction to Navalny's death is 'absolutely unacceptable'

At least 90 people have now been punished in Moscow and St Petersburg after the protests in Alexei Navalny’s name over the weekend

Journalists confirm identities of over 44,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine

 Through open source research, Mediazona, a Russian independent media outlet, together with BBC Russia, confirmed the names of 44,654 Russian soldiers who had been killed since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Since Mediazona’s last update in early February, the names of 1,194 Russian soldiers have been added to the list of casualties.
The journalists specify that the actual figures are likely considerably higher since the information they have verified so far comes from public sources, including obituaries, posts by relatives, news in regional media, and reports by local authorities.
In the past two weeks, 15 military personnel with ranks from Lieutenant Colonel and higher have been added to the list…
Total estimates of Russia’s casualties since the full-scale invasion vary widely. Senior US defence officials estimate that about 315,000 Russian troops had either been killed or injured so far in the war.
As of 18 February, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces says that Russia lost 402,430 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 February, 2022.

Navalny's widow says she will continue her husband's work as she accuses Putin of killing opposition leader

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, said she would continue the work of the Russian opposition leader as she accused Vladimir Putin of killing him.
“I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia,” Navalnaya said in a video message entitled “I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny”.
“Vladimir Putin killed my husband,” Navalnaya said, adding that she would work with the Russian people to battle with the Kremlin to create a new Russia.
“By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me - half of my heart and half of my soul,” Navalnaya said.
“But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up. I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny, continue to fight for our country.”

https://twitter.com/PjotrSauer/status/1759533035081380308?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1759533035081380308%7Ctwgr%5Ea86db22d71172c16a1cb0875c8f2089c32600fe7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2Flive%2F2024%2Ffeb%2F19%2Frussia-ukraine-war-live-avdiivka-alexei-navalny-volodymyr-zelenskiy-vladimir-putin%3FfilterKeyEvents%3Dfalsepage%3Dwith3Ablock-65d34ed38f08fee2fe08ddcb

The Kremlin has denied involvement in his death but Western leaders have said they hold the Kremlin responsible for it.
Navalny, 47, died in jail on 16 February at 2.17pm local time, said his official spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, citing a message from Navalny’s mother and challenging Russia’s official explanation that Navalny died after a fall at the Arctic penal colony where he was being held.

Russia loses six warplanes in three days, Ukraine says

Ukraine says Russia attacking with 'heavy fire' in Zaporizhzhia

Russian defence ministry says Ukraine poisoned two Moscow-installed governors

Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right politician, has railed against Ukrainian refugees

Ukrainians flock to the Netherlands from all over the EU, not because of the war, but for free housing, free healthcare and our jobs.
The Netherlands is once again the village idiot of Europe.

Red Cross investigating status of 23,000 people who have disappeared during war

Eleven Ukrainian children were setting off from Russia to Ukraine on Monday to be reunited with their families in the latest transfer under a Qatari-mediated scheme

Germany is to propose a new batch of sanctions against Russia over the death of Alexei Navalny

“We have seen the brutal force with which the Russian president represses his own citizens who take to the streets to demonstrate for freedom or write about it in newspapers,” the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said on Monday. “We will propose new sanctions in light of the death of Alexei Navalny.”
Sanctions could include the use of frozen Russian assets, a move that would be in addition to a levy Belgium exacts from interest on immobilised cash reserves.

https://twitter.com/JosepBorrellF/status/1759520995398840819?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1759520995398840819%7Ctwgr%5E3f9879db7230da982110d03f0e4c129170331956%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2Flive%2F2024%2Ffeb%2F19%2Frussia-ukraine-war-live-avdiivka-alexei-navalny-volodymyr-zelenskiy-vladimir-putin%3FfilterKeyEvents%3Dfalse

The death of the Russian opposition leader in a penal colony cast a long shadow over the Brussels meeting, with the EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, proposing that the EU’s global human rights sanctions regime be renamed.

You can read the full story by the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, Lisa O'Carroll,  here.

Russian troops executed wounded Ukrainian soldiers in Avdiivka despite promise of evacuation

Russian forces executed wounded Ukrainian soldiers trapped at the encircled Zenit plant in Avdiivka, after promising evacuation and subsequent POWs exchanges, Ukraine’s 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade confirmed.

Explosions rock Poltava Oblast and Dnipro

During an air-raid warning in Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast, the sounds of an explosion were heard on the night of 19-20 February.

Dramatic bodycam of Ukrainian soldiers escaping Avdiivka as Russian troops takeover city

The moments Ukrainian soldiers flee, under fire from Russian troops advancing into Avdiivka. Geraint Vincent reports:

Closing Summary

• The White House could be prepared to send Ukraine long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (Atacms) if Congress approves a new funding package, NBC News reported.
  
  
• The Red Cross said it was trying to find out what happened to 23,000 people who have disappeared over the course of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was seeking to determine whether they had been captured, killed or had lost contact after fleeing their homes,
  
  
• Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that Ukraine previously poisoned the Moscow-installed governors of Ukraine’s Kherson and Luhansk regions, though both were still alive. In an online briefing, Moscow said Ukraine poisoned Moscow-appointed Kherson head Vladimir Saldo in August 2022 and Luhansk governor Leonid Pasechnik in December 2023.
  
  
• European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has won the backing of her German centre-right party for a second term, putting her in a strong position to clinch another five years running the European Union’s executive body.
  
  
• Ukrainian troops are facing “heavy fire” from Russian forces in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a Ukrainian army spokesperson was quoted by AFP as saying. It comes after Russia said it had taken full control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, its biggest gain since capturing Bakhmut last May, after a retreat by Ukrainian troops.
  
  
• Ukraine’s military said it shot down two more Russian warplanes used to drop highly destructive guided aerial bombs on Kyiv’s troops, army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said. The destroyed planes were an Su-34 fighter-bomber and an Su-35 fighter, Syrskyi wrote on Telegram. Over the weekend, Ukraine said it shot down three Russian Su-34s and one Su-35.
  
  
• Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, said she would continue the work of the Russian opposition leader as she accused Vladimir Putin of killing him. “I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia,” Navalnaya said. “Vladimir Putin killed my husband,” she continued, adding that she would work with the Russian people to battle with the Kremlin to create a new Russia. “By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me - half of my heart and half of my soul,” Navalnaya said. Navalny’s mother and his lawyers were not allowed into the morgue in the Russian town of Salekhard, near the prison colony where authorities said he died, Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, said earlier.
  
  
• Speaking on his way into the summit of foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, Estonia’s foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, called Vladimir Putin a “murderer” and said Ukraine urgently needs more ammunition.
  
  
• The Kremlin said that the west’s reaction to Alexei Navalny’s death was “absolutely unacceptable”. “We consider it absolutely unacceptable to make such, well, frankly obnoxious statements,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters.
  
  
• Austria’s defence minister, Klaudia Tanner, announced the procurement of 225 Pandur armoured personnel carriers for around €1.8bn (£1.5bn). The procurement is “an investment in the future, the security and the Austrian economy,” Tanner said during a press conference.
  
  
• Belgium’s foreign minister, Hadja Lahbib, has called on the EU to develop an army amid increasing nervousness about Russia’s capacity to defeat Ukraine.
  
  
• Journalists at Mediazona, a Russian independent media outlet, together with BBC Russia, confirmed the names of over 44,000 Russian soldiers who have been killed since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.