Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 727

Summary for Tuesday, 20th February 2024 - DAY 727

• Russia is exploiting delays in aid to Ukraine, and the situation in areas where Russian troops are concentrated is “extremely difficult”, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. Ukraine’s president spoke visiting the frontline in the Kupiansk sector in the north-east. “This is a very sensitive matter. Artillery shortages, the need for frontline air defence and for longer-range weapons,” said Zelenskiy.
  
  
• A Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine with his aircraft in 2023 has been found dead in Spain, according to the main military intelligence agency in Kyiv, the GUR. Spanish media said Maksim Kuzminov was found shot 12 times on a car park ramp underneath an apartment block in the town of Villajoyosa in Alicante on the Mediterranean coast.
  
  
• It comes after the suspected killing by Russia of the leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny in a Siberian prison camp. On Monday, Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya published a video address in which she vowed to continue her late husband’s political work and called on Russians to rally around her.
  
  
• Ukraine shot down two more Russian warplanes used to drop guided aerial bombs, 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 had shot down three Russian Su-34s and one Su-35.
  
  
• Ukrainian troops were 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 government has said it is trying to work with SpaceX to prevent Russian invaders using Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service. “We found an algorithm and made a proposal to SpaceX,” said Mykhailo Fedorov, a Ukrainian government minister. “SpaceX has done something similar with the Israeli government.” Fedorov said Ukraine needed its own terminals to work in all areas “because specific technologies are being used linked to drones. There are other ways so that our Starlinks work and others [the Russians’] do not. We are working on this with SpaceX.”
  
  
• Sweden will on Tuesday announce military assistance to Ukraine of SEK7.1bn, according to Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish news outlet. It works out to about US$680m/€630m/£540m.
  
  
• Joe Biden, the US president, said he was willing to meet with the speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, to discuss Ukraine funding, adding that Republicans are making a mistake by opposing it. The Senate this month passed a $95bn aid package that includes funds for Ukraine, but Johnson has refused to bring it up for a vote on the floor of the House, which Republicans control by a 219-212 margin.
  
  
• NBC News reported the White House was prepared to send long-range tactical missiles to Ukraine if Congress approves a new funding package.
  
  
• Canada will donate more than 800 SkyRanger R70 multi-mission drones to Ukraine, Canada’s defence minister, Bill Blair, has said. The drones, from Teledyne in Waterloo, Ontario, were valued at over C$95m, the ministry said, and funded through C$500m in previously announced military assistance.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Belgium’s foreign minister, Hadja Lahbib, has called on the EU to develop an army amid increasing nervousness about Russian aggression.
  
  
• 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.
  

Polish farmers will step up protests on the border with Ukraine on Tuesday

Russian troops have carried out 435 strikes against 19 settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region, killing two people in Primorskyi and Lisnyi

Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine shot dead in Spain

Ukrainian Defence Forces kill over a thousand Russians and destroy 40 artillery systems in one day

Over the past day, Ukraine’s Defence Forces killed 1230 Russians, as well as destroyed 36 Russian armoured personnel carriers, 40 artillery systems and two aircraft.

• approximately 404,950 (+1,230) military personnel;
  
  
• 6,503 (+5) tanks
  
  
• 12,268 (+36) armoured combat vehicles;
  
  
• 9,773 (+40) artillery systems;
  
  
• 988 (+2) multiple-launch rocket systems;
  
  
• 675 (+1) air defence systems;
  
  
• 338 (+2) fixed-wing aircraft;
  
  
• 325 (+0) helicopters;
  
  
• 7,521 (+61)  strategic and tactical UAVs;
  
  
• 1,902 (+3)  cruise missiles;
  
  
• 25 (+0)  ships and boats;
  
  
• 1 (+0) submarines;
  
  
• 12,805 (+38) vehicles and tankers;
  
  
• 1,551 (+6) special vehicles and other equipment.
  

US-Russian woman arrested in Russia for alleged treason

Killed Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine was a 'moral corpse', says Russian intelligence chief

Russian airstrike claims two lives near Konotop, ignites residential buildings

Lukashenko threatens enemies with "crippling damage" again

The self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has once again threatened to inflict "crippling damage" upon his enemies.

• Lukashenko has repeatedly threatened the use of Russian nuclear weapons, which Russia has deployed on the territory of Belarus.
  
  
• For example, in October 2023, Lukashenko hinted at the possibility of using them to cause "crippling damage" to the enemy: "We are not talking about the more powerful weapons that we now have in order to demonstrate our might and inflict crippling damage on the adversary [if Belarus is attacked]. We will not buy thousands of tanks, but we can always inflict crippling damage. In other words, before attacking Belarus the adversary will have to think about a potential response that will be insurmountable for them."
  

Navalny's death: Putin promotes Russian deputy chief jailer

• On the afternoon of 16 February, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at Correctional Facility No. 3 in Kharp.
  
  
• Navalny had been imprisoned since early 2021. The Moscow City Court sentenced him to 19 years in prison in a special-regime colony for "extremism" in August 2023.
  
  
• In December, the opposition leader was transferred to Correctional Facility No. 3, known as Polyarnyi Volk (Polar Wolf), which is located in Kharp in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Siberia.
  
  
• After the Russian authorities announced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's death in prison, his wife Yulia accused President Vladimir Putin of murder and promised to carry on her husband's struggle.
  

X social network says Yulia Navalnay's account was suspended because of technical error

Councils call for funding help as more Ukrainian refugees become homeless

Continuation of war has left more refugees unsettled, with councils stepping in to to relieve most cases of homelessness

In the UK, a Home Office minister said he wants the visa process to be “light touch” and “easy as possible” for Ukrainians, despite the government’s announcement that it will close the Ukraine family scheme on Monday.
Tom Pursglove told the House of Commons that Ukrainians will continue to be offered sanctuary in the UK and any suggestion otherwise is “deliberate scaremongering,” PA Media reports.
MPs criticised the move by the Home Office, stating it is “particularly cruel” to announce the end of the scheme as the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches.
The decision to close the Ukraine family scheme, which allowed applicants to join family members or extend their stay in the UK, was announced among a series of changes to immigration rules set out in a policy document.
The document also confirmed a visa extension scheme, which meant Ukrainian nationals and their immediate relatives could apply for permission to remain in the country, will close on 16 May.

Summary of the day so far...

• Poland’s foreign ministry has summoned Russia’s ambassador, saying it “called on Russian authorities to take responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny and conduct a full and transparent investigation to determine the circumstances and cause of his death.” On Monday, France, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands said they had summoned diplomats from Russian embassies.
  
  
• Lyudmila Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny’s mother, has demanded that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, hand over her son’s body. “Vladimir Putin … let me finally see my son,” Navalnaya said in a video message. The safety account for the social media platform X said that Yulia Navalnaya’s account was suspended earlier today after its “platform’s defence mechanism against manipulation and spam” mistakenly flagged it as being in violation of its rules.
  
  
• Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said her country has broken up a hybrid operation by Russia’s security services. The Internal Security Services (ISS) and the prosecutor’s office said they had arrested 10 people they believed were acting for Russia in connection with attacks on ministers and a journalist’s cars.
  
  
• Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmygal, has described Russia’s full-scale invasion of his country as an “existential war” during a visit to Tokyo. “So we can’t speak about fatigue, because it’s an existential war – you can’t be fatigued when you’re fighting for your future, for your life … for global security order,” he said.
  
  
• A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Sumy region hit a residential building on Tuesday, killing five people, authorities said.
  
  
• Protests from Polish farmers on Tuesday marked an escalation from previous demonstrations, with a near-total blockade of all Ukrainian border crossings and disruption at ports and on roads nationwide.
  
  
• A Russian court has rejected a complaint by Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich about the extension of his pre-trial detention until 30 March on spying charges, which he denies, the court’s press service said.
  
  
• Russia’s foreign intelligence chief said that a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine and was found shot dead in Spain last week was a “moral corpse” when he planned his defection, Russian news agencies reported.
  
  
• Russia’s FSB security services said it had arrested a US-Russian woman suspected of treason for raising funds for the Ukrainian army. The FSB in the central Urals city of Ekaterinburg said it had “suppressed the illegal activities” of a 33-year-old woman, a resident of Los Angeles with dual citizenship, and taken her into custody.
  
  
• Sweden will donate military aid to Ukraine worth about 7.1 billion Swedish crowns (£541m), the country’s largest contribution to date, the country’s defence ministry said. It will be Sweden’s 15th round of aid for Ukraine, taking the overall aid since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 to about 30 billion crowns (£2.3bn).
  

A group of FPV drones destroyed a parking lot of Russian armored vehicles hidden in a building

A hangar with destroyed Russian equipment, February 2024

In the Zaporizhzhia direction, Ukrainian troops brought a group of FPV strike drones into the hangars with hidden invaders’ equipment and destroyed it.
Wild Hornets, developers of the drones, released the video.
During the drone raid, the soldiers of the Bulava strike unit of the Presidential Brigade “Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi” destroyed vehicles, two tanks, BMPs, and the ARV of the enemy.

According to the servicemen, the Russian military secretly pulled military equipment to carry out the offensive, but an unexpected strike thwarted these plans.



You can see how drones penetrate the building one by one to find a target, after which they successfully hit it. Presumably, all the equipment burned down as a result of drone hits and a large-scale fire.
In their message, drone operators drew special attention to the fact that they used FPV drones of the Wild Hornets worth UAH 200 thousand to destroy all equipment, which is slightly more than $5 thousand.

The following equipment can be identified in the video:

• 2 tanks (presumably T-72 and T-80);
  
  
• BREM-1 armored recovery vehicle;
  
  
• BMP-3;
  
  
• 2 Ural trucks;
  
  
• A truck with an S-60 artillery mount.
  

The location where the invader equipment was destroyed was geolocated. These are hangars (here) on the outskirts of the village of Staromlynivka, located 5-6 kilometers from the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The site of the destroyed equipment in a hangar on the outskirts of Staromlynivka

The high effectiveness of group attacks by drones has been recognized worldwide, given the experience of their use in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
That is why the UK, together with its partner countries, in particular the United States, is working to develop autonomous drones for Ukraine that can operate in swarm mode.
Western militaries developing this technology believe that it could allow the Ukrainian armed forces to suppress the Russians in their positions. It is expected to arrive in Ukraine within a few months.

Closing Summary

• Joe Biden says the United States will unveil on Friday a major package of sanctions against Russia to hold it accountable for the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The US president’s national security adviser said the measures will target Russia’s “defense industrial base and sources of revenue for the economy”.
  
  
• The European Union summoned the summoned the Russian charge d’affaires in Brussels Kirill Logvinov to demand an independent and transparent investigation into Navalny’s death. Also on Tuesday, Italy, Poland and Slovenia summoned Russia’s ambassadors, following similar moves on Monday by numerous other European countries.
  
  
• Lyudmila Navalnaya, Navalny’s mother, has demanded that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, hand over her son’s body. “Vladimir Putin … let me finally see my son,” Navalnaya said in a video message.
  
  
• The safety account for the social media platform X said that the account of Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, was suspended earlier today after its “platform’s defence mechanism against manipulation and spam” mistakenly flagged it as being in violation of its rules.