Russian invasion of Ukraine: Day 728

Summary for Wednesday, 21st February 2024 - DAY 728

Key developments over the past 24 hours:

• We wake up to news today that barely 10% of Europeans now believe Ukraine can defeat Russia, according to an EU-wide survey – with some form of “compromise settlement” seen as the most likely end point. Most Europeans “are desperate to prevent a Russian victory” but do not believe Kyiv can win militarily.
  
  
• According to Reuters, Russia’s top general, chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov, visited troops fighting in Ukraine to discuss the next steps after taking Avdiivka, state media reported on Wednesday.
  
  
• President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday Russian troops would push further into Ukraine to build on their success on the battlefield after the fall of the town. Gerasimov was shown awarding medals to Russian troops involved in taking Avdiivka.
  
  
• Russia launched 19 attack drones at Ukraine over Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, as well as six missiles, with Ukrainian air defences destroying 13 of the drones and one missile, the Ukrainian air force said.
  
  
• Unconfirmed reports on Russian social media channels accompanied by photos and video claimed 65 Russian soldiers were killed by a Ukrainian missile strike at Trudivske, in Volnovakha district of Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Tuesday. Reports said they had been ordered to line up awaiting a commanding officer, leaving them vulnerable to attack, on what was said to be a training ground. Footage showed many bodies lying in a churned-up field. More were injured, reports said.
  
  
• Eleven Ukrainian children who had been taken away by Russia crossed the border from Belarus back into Ukraine on Tuesday evening. At a humanitarian crossing on the Belarus border, the children hugged waiting family members. Oleksandr, 16, one of the oldest returned, said: “My new life is starting,” describing his “joy and slight nerves”. The children had been received by Qatar’s embassy in Moscow on Monday under a scheme mediated by the Qataris.
  
  
• 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 the 33-year-old woman was a resident of Los Angeles with dual citizenship. A Russian legal NGO said the woman, named by Russian media as Ksenia Khavana, may stand accused of transferring $51 (£40) to a Ukrainian charity.
  

Ukrainian aviation strike ten places of concentration of Russian forces, two enemy air defense systems over day

Interfax-Ukraine
Over the past day, the aviation of the defense forces carried out 12 strikes – on 10 locations of enemy forces and on two of its anti-aircraft missile systems, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports the situation as of 18:00 of Wednesday.
"During the day, the aviation of the Defense Forces struck 10 areas of concentration of personnel, two anti-aircraft missile systems of the enemy," the General Staff said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
As the General Staff recalls, over the past day, "another Su-34 fighter-bomber and three reconnaissance UAVs" of the Russian forces were destroyed.
It is also reported that units of the missile forces struck five areas of concentration of personnel, weapons and military equipment, two warehouses of fuel and lubricants, three control points, eight artillery facilities and one enemy radar station.

Russians redeploy equipment and units from Avdiivka to other areas

Ukrainska Pravda
Maksym Zhorin, Deputy Commander of the 3rd Assault Brigade, has said that the Russian army has begun to move the surviving units and equipment from Avdiivka to other areas. 

Source: Zhorin on Telegram

Quote: "As of today, everything is generally obvious on the Avdiivka front; they [the Russians] will advance as far as they have enough strength, depending on who survives."

Details: Zhorin said that the situation is expected to be difficult in other areas as well, as the Russians have started to move their surviving units from Avdiivka to other parts of the front line. In particular, to the Kharkiv front and Ukraine’s south.

Background:

• On 19 February, the soldiers of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade posted a video of fighting in a summer house cooperative in Avdiivka, with soldiers breaking through Russian lines.
  
  
• On the same day, the 47th Separate Mechanised Brigade reported that soldiers of their 25th Separate Assault Battalion were the last to leave the Avdiivka Coke Plant and suffered no casualties.
  
  
• On 17 February, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi announced the withdrawal of Ukrainian units from Avdiivka.
  

Russian court to hear case brought by Navalny’s mother

A court in the Russia will next month hear a case brought by the mother of dead opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been prevented from seeing his body, his allies said on Wednesday, reports news agency Agence-France Presse (AFP).
Lyudmila Navalnaya has travelled to the remote IK-3 prison where her son died, but since Saturday, when she arrived, she has been prevented from seeing his body. On Tuesday, she appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the release of her son’s body.


The mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Lyudmila Navalnaya, appeared in a video outside the Arctic penal colony where Navalny died on Friday. Photograph: AP

State news agency Tass reported that the court had received a complaint on “illegal acts” and that the hearing would take place behind closed doors. Navalny’s team said on social media that the court in the Arctic city of Salekhard would consider the case on 4 March – more than two weeks after Putin’s opponent died.
On Tuesday, Lyudmila Navalnaya broke her silence on her son’s death, calling on Putin to let her see her son’s body in a video address. “I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin. The solution to the issue depends only on you,” she said. “Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body be released immediately so that I can bury him in a humane way.”
Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya echoed the call, demanding authorities allow for him to be “buried with dignity.”
Putin has not commented or responded. The longtime Russian leader has been silent on the death in prison of his main political opponent.

Barely 10% of Europeans believe Ukraine can still defeat Russia, finds poll

Jon Henley - The Guardian

Exclusive: Shift in sentiment requires EU politicians to focus on defining an acceptable peace, say authors

Support for Ukraine among Europeans remains broad, but nearly two years after the full-scale invasion barely 10% now believe it can defeat Russia, according to an EU-wide survey – with some form of “compromise settlement” seen as the most likely end point.
The shift in sentiment – this time last year, more Europeans than not said Ukraine must regain all its lost territory – will demand that politicians take a more “realistic” approach that focuses on defining what an acceptable peace must actually mean, the report’s authors argue.
“In order to make the case for continued European support for Ukraine, EU leaders will need to change how they talk about the war,” said co-author Mark Leonard of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), which commissioned the polling.
Most Europeans “are desperate to prevent a Russian victory” but do not believe Kyiv can win militarily, Leonard said, meaning that the most convincing argument for an increasingly sceptical public was that continuing aid “could lead to a sustainable, negotiated peace that favours Kyiv – rather than a victory for Putin”.

Read more here.

Ukraine’s army on Wednesday denied that it had lost Krynky, its bridgehead on the Russian-occupied side of the Dnipro river, a day after Russia’s defence minister said the area had been taken

- AFP reports.
Ukrainian troops last year established positions around the tiny east bank village on the war, crossing into the Moscow-controlled side of the river in what was touted as a major success. The Dnpro river marks the frontline along the southern end of the front.
“We officially inform that this information is not true,” the command of the Ukrainian army on the southern front said on social media. “The defence forces of southern Ukraine continue to hold their positions (in Krynky).” Krynky is a tiny hamlet that lies in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.
It claimed Russian forces made an assault on Krynky but suffered “significant losses” and retreated. AFP was not able to verify the claims.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu told president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that Krynky had been “cleared” of Ukrainian forces.

Russia’s top general, chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov, visited troops fighting in the war in Ukraine to discuss the next steps after the taking the town of Avdiivka, state media reported on Wednesday

- according to news agency Reuters.

Chief of the general staff of Russian armed forces, Valery Gerasimov visited Russian troops involved in taking Avdiivka, on Wednesday. Photograph: Russian Defence Ministry/Reuters

Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russian troops would
push further into Ukraine to build on their success on the battlefield after the fall of the town of Avdiivka where he said Ukrainian troops had been forced to flee in chaos.
Gerasimov was shown awarding medals to Russian troops involved in taking Avdiivka and he was given a report by the commander in charge of the Russian assault on Avdiivka, Col Gen Andrei Mordvichev, state media said.
Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN that Avdiivka would not have fallen had Kyiv received weapons held up by the US Congress’ failure to approve a large aid package.

Russia launched 19 attack drones at Ukraine overnight and six missiles, with the Ukrainian air defence systems destroying 13 of the drones and one missile, Ukraine’s air force said on Wednesday

- Reuters reports.
Some of the drones that were not destroyed did not reach their targets, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app, without providing further detail. It said that the 13 drones that were destroyed were downed chiefly over regions close to the frontline.
The air force also said that it destroyed a Kh-59 air-to-surface guided air missile in the Poltava region. It said that Russia launched five other missiles, but it did not say whether the missiles that were not destroyed reached their targets.
Reuters could not independently verify the Ukrainian air force’s report. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

EU approves 13th sanctions package against Russia - EU sources

The EU on Wednesday approved its 13th package of sanctions against Russia, the EU’s Belgian presidency said on social media platform X, confirming what sources had earlier told Reuters.
“EU ambassadors just agreed in principle on a 13th package of sanctions in the framework of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine”, the Belgian presidency said, calling it “one of the broadest approved by the EU”.
The new package will see nearly 200 entities and individuals added to the list but no fresh sectoral measures.
The package will be formally approved in time for the second anniversary of the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

Russia adds Republican senator Lindsey Graham to ‘terrorists and extremists’ list

Martin Pengelly - The Guardian

The Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a key ally of Donald Trump, has been added to a list of “terrorists and extremists” kept by Russia’s state financial monitoring agency.
Tass, the state-run news agency, first reported the move by Rosfinmonitoring, which allows authorities to freeze Russian bank accounts, though in Graham’s case is likely to be chiefly symbolic.
On Tuesday afternoon, Graham tweeted sarcastically: “There goes all my rubles!”
The Rosfinmonitoring list includes more than 12,000 individuals and more than 400 companies, as well as domestic and foreign terrorist entities and Russian political opposition groups, according to the website opensanctions.org.

Read more here.

Latest EU sanctions against Russia includes extensive section on the illegal abduction of Ukrainian children to Crimea, Belarus and Russia

Lisa O'Carroll - The Guardian
The latest round of EU sanctions against Russia includes an extensive section centring on the illegal abduction of Ukrainian children to Crimea, Belarus and Russia.
On the draft list that was approved by EU representatives were a series of men and women said to be directly involved.
Among those named were Inna Varlamova, described in the sanctions as “the wife of Sergei Mironov", who is a member of the Russian State Duma and the leader of the ‘Just Russia – For Truth’ party in the Duma.” She is said to have changed the name and birthplace of one of the children.
“Together with her husband, Varlamova adopted a child who was kidnapped from an orphanage in Kherson, a Ukrainian city which fell under Russian illegal occupation. Varlamova personally travelled to the Kherson region and illegally transported two children to the Russian Federation. For one of the children, the last name was changed to Mironova and her place of birth was changed to Podolsk, Russia, instead of Kherson, Ukraine.”
Another listing: “Marina Peschanskaya is the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights in Sevastopol in Russian- occupied Crimea. In her role, she has personally been involved with the illegal transportation of children from an orphanage in Melitopol to Sevastopol. Regarding the illegal transportation of Ukrainian children, she has justified the positions of Maria Lvova-Belova,”
Several Belarussians are listed including Olga Volkova who is described as “one of the key persons involved in the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children to Belarus and their subsequent illegal adoption by Russian and Belarusian families”.
Belarussia was accused of taking over 2,400 Ukrainian children, according to research by Yale University last year.
Also on the draft list was Dmitriy Demidov, described in the document as “one of the key persons involved in the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children to Belarus and their subsequent illegal adoption by Russian and Belarusian families”.
The sanctions list also describes in detail the attempt to reprogramme children with a number of patriotic military schools mentioned where students of 6-18 meet soldiers from the frontline, are encouraged to send them cards and letters of support and learn how to handle drones. Among the play activities are battle games.

Polish police said on Wednesday they were investigating a banner at a farmers’ protest calling on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to get Ukraine “in order”, which sparked anger in Kyiv

- AFP reports
Farmers in Poland have been protesting what they say is unfair competition from cheaper imports from their eastern neighbour, an issue that has already soured ties between Warsaw and Kyiv.
During fresh protests on Tuesday, farmers in Gorzyczki, southern Poland unfurled a banner saying “Putin, get Ukraine, Brussels and our government in order” along a Soviet flag fixed to a tractor.
The picture of the banner was widely circulated on social media, prompting angry reactions from Ukrainian users.
“The banner and the flag were seized by the police during the proceedings,” a spokesperson for the local police told AFP. “The person who was driving the vehicle was identified. Criminal investigations are ongoing,” she added.
Officers have launched an investigation into promoting a fascist or totalitarian regime and inciting hatred, she added – an offence that carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.
In recent protests, Polish farmers have blocked roads to the border and dumped Ukrainian grain from trucks and freight cars.


Polish farmers staged protests against cheap Ukrainian grain flooding the market and EU regulations on pesticide and fertiliser usage in Sulechów on Tuesday. Photograph: Karol Serewis/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Poland’s ties with Ukraine have become increasingly strained over the border blockades staged by farmers, only weeks after Warsaw managed to quell a similar two-month blockade by Polish truckers.
On Wednesday, Poland’s minister in charge of the secret services, Tomasz Siemoniak, denounced the “scandalous” banner as a “provocation”.
“These are shameful words that absolutely do not correspond with the position of the state or the feelings of our citizens,” Siemoniak told Poland’s Radio Zet.

UK imposes sanctions on heads of Arctic penal colony where Navalny died

The UK on Wednesday imposed sanctions on six individuals in charge of the Arctic penal colony where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died last week, reports Reuters.
Those sanctioned, including the head and five deputy heads of the penal colony, will be banned from the UK and have their assets frozen, UK foreign secretary David Cameron said.
“It’s clear that the Russian authorities saw Navalny as a threat and they tried repeatedly to silence him,” Cameron said in a statement. “Those responsible for Navalny’s brutal treatment should be under no illusion – we will hold them accountable.”
The UK is the first country to impose measures in response to the politician’s death, which has been widely blamed on the Kremlin by western countries, the UK Foreign Office said, according to the Press Association (PA).
Vadim Konstantinovich Kalinin, who allegedly oversaw the brutal prison camp where Navalny was kept in solitary confinement for up to two weeks at a time, is among those sanctioned, according to a statement from the department on Wednesday.
Five others have also been targeted for “activity that violates the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the right to life”, the UK government said.
They are:

• Lt Col Sergey Nikolaevich Korzhov
  
• Lt Col Vasily Alexandrovich Vydrin
  
• Lt Col Vladimir Ivanovich Pilipchik
  
• Lt Col Aleksandr Vladimirovich Golyakov
  
• Col Aleksandr Valerievich Obraztsov
  

“No one should doubt the oppressive nature of the Russian system, said Cameron. “That’s why we’re today sanctioning the most senior prison officials responsible for his custody in the penal colony where he spent his final months.”

Russian capture of Avdiivka prompts departure of elderly in nearby towns

- Reuters reports
Russia’s capture of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine has alarmed people in nearby towns and many are now leaving for safer areas after hunkering down for months from constant hostile fire, reports Reuters.
Most of those fleeing are elderly. Having watched districts turn into rubble, they now see the 1,000 km (600 mile) frontline in the nearly two-year-old war moving ever closer.
According to Reuters, in many cases barely mobile, they have help from an evacuation charity called East SOS, but it is still not easy.


Volunteers of the East SOS non-governmental organisation help a woman to board an evacuation train in Pokrovsk, Ukraine on Tuesday. Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

In the town of Selydove, Maryna Batrak, bundled up against the cold, is helped down the stairs and loaded into a minibus waiting in the courtyard to take her to a train station in the town of Pokrovsk.
“They have reached Nevelske,” Batrak says of Russian forces, referring to a town to the east. “Another 20-30 km and that’s it. They will destroy us too. Have you seen how those cities were wiped off the face of the earth?”
Batrak’s apartment was destroyed. She lists the local toll of two years of war – schools, kindergartens, a college, a maternity hospital, all in ruins.


Marina Batrak reacts as she is evacuated from her home in Selydove, Ukraine on Tuesday, after an increase of Russian missile strikes on settlements in the area around Avdiivka. Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

Valentyna Kitush, who exchanged a tearful embrace with neighbours as she boarded the van, said Avdiivka’s fall – after it endured Russian attacks since October – was the last straw.
“The shelling has intensified. And after our troops left Avdiivka, it will now get even worse,” she said. “They are bombarding and destroying everything. Shall I wait till they destroy us? I’ve made up my mind. I’m leaving.”
The capture of Avdiivka indicated a change of momentum in the stalemated war as the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine neared. It was Russia’s biggest battlefield victory since its forces captured Bakhmut in May 2023 and president Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday Russian troops would push further into Ukraine.

Iran has provided Russia with hundreds of ballistic missiles, Reuters sources say

Iran has provided Russia with a large number of powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, six sources told Reuters, deepening the military cooperation between the two US-sanctioned countries.
Iran’s provision of about 400 missiles includes many from the Fateh-110 family of short-range ballistic weapons, such as the Zolfaghar, three Iranian sources said. This road-mobile missile is capable of striking targets at a distance of between 300 and 700 km (186 and 435 miles), experts say.
Iran’s defence ministry and the Revolutionary Guards – an elite force that oversees Iran’s ballistic missile programme – declined to comment on Reuters’ report. Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment either.
The shipments began in early January after a deal was finalised in meetings late last year between Iranian and Russian military and security officials that took place in Tehran and Moscow, one of the Iranian sources told Reuters.


White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said in early January the US was concerned that Russia was close to acquiring short-range ballistic weapons from Iran. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

An Iranian military official – who, like the other sources, asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information – said there had been at least four shipments of missiles and there would be more in the coming weeks. He declined to provide further details.
Another senior Iranian official said some of the missiles were sent to Russia by ship via the Caspian Sea, while others were transported by plane. “There will be more shipments,” the second Iranian official said. “There is no reason to hide it. We are allowed to export weapons to any country that we wish to.”
UN security council restrictions on Iran’s export of some missiles, drones and other technologies expired in October. However, the US and EU retained sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile programme amid concerns over exports of weapons to its proxies in the Middle East and to Russia.
A fourth source, familiar with the matter, confirmed to Reuters that Russia had received a large number of missiles from Iran recently, without providing further details.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said in early January the US was concerned that Russia was close to acquiring short-range ballistic weapons from Iran, in addition to missiles already sourced from North Korea. A US official told Reuters that Washington had seen evidence of talks actively advancing but no indication yet of deliveries having taken place. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters on the missile deliveries.
Ukraine’s top prosecutor said on Friday the ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea to Russia had proven unreliable on the battlefield, with only two of 24 hitting their targets. Moscow and Pyongyang have both denied that North Korea has provided Russia with munitions used in Ukraine.
By contrast, Jeffrey Lewis, an expert with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said the Fateh-110 family of missiles and the Zolfaghar were precision weapons. “They are used to point at things that are high value and need precise damage,” said Lewis, adding that 400 munitions could inflict considerable harm. He noted, however, that Russian bombardments were already “pretty brutal”.

Pro-war Russian blogger who revealed huge Avdiivka losses dies by suicide

Pjotr Sauer - The  Guardian

Andrey Morozov said he had been pressured to delete post detailing number of casualties

Andrey Morozov, a prominent pro-war Russian blogger, has reportedly died by suicide following outrage over a post in which he claimed that the Russian army lost 16,000 soldiers during the capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka.
Morozov, who went by the pseudonym Murz on Telegram, was an ultra-nationalist commentator who fought alongside Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and participated in Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
On Sunday, Morozov wrote to his 120,000 followers on Telegram that Russia lost 16,000 personnel and 300 pieces of armour during its months-long capture of Avdiivka. The post drew heavy criticism from senior Russian propagandists, who accused the blogger of “slandering the Russian defence ministry”.

Read more here.

Russia arrests US dual national over alleged $51 Ukrainian charity donation

Andrew Roth - The Guardian

The White House has said it is seeking information after Russia announced it had arrested a dual US-Russian citizen on treason charges, accusing her of collecting funds for Ukrainian organisations and openly opposing the Russian war in Ukraine.
A Russian legal NGO, First Dept, said the woman, named by the media in Russia as Ksenia Khavana, may stand accused of transferring $51 (£40) to a Ukrainian charity on 24 February 2022, the day Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. She faces up to 20 years in prison.
Russia’s FSB security agency reported on Tuesday that it had detained a 33-year-old woman from Los Angeles who holds dual citizenship. Reports said she had attended the Ural Federal University in Ekaterinburg and later married an American citizen and moved to the US.

The BBC Russian Service and news outlet Mediazona have confirmed the identity of about 45,000 Russian soldiers who died in Ukraine since the invasion began in February 2022

- AFP reports.
The issue of military casualties is extremely sensitive in both countries. Russia has banned criticism of the conflict and no official figures have been released since 2022.
“The BBC, together with Mediazona … and a team of volunteers managed to establish the names of 45,123 Russian militaries who died in the war in Ukraine since February 2022,” the report said.
It only included the names of soldiers publicly identified in open-source data – mainly obituaries – and warned the real toll may be twice as high.
“Two-thirds of the dead we have identified had no links to the army prior to the invasion: volunteers, mobilised, prisoners and private company recruits,” the BBC’s Russian language service said.
After over a year of grinding trench warfare that failed to yield territorial gains for either Moscow or Kyiv, the Kremlin is ramping up deployments to the front.
Russian president Vladimir Putin rarely acknowledges setbacks on the battlefield, framing the almost two-year war as a battle for Russia’s survival in a bid to rally patriotism.
Ukraine also keeps its military losses and casualties secret, although analysts believe they number in the tens of thousands after two years of fighting.

At least 60 Russian soldiers killed in missile strike

Novinite.com
The situation in Ukraine's Donbas region escalates as reports emerge of a devastating rocket attack on a Russian training camp, resulting in the deaths of at least 60 Russian soldiers. The BBC, citing unconfirmed information from both Moscow and Kyiv, reveals the grim aftermath of the assault.
According to the BBC, the strike targeted a training facility near the Donetsk village of Trudovske, where soldiers had gathered to welcome Major General Oleg Moiseev, a key commander in the ongoing conflict. Shocking footage from the scene captures the tragic loss of life, underscoring the severity of the attack.
While a Russian representative acknowledged the strike on Telegram, they dismissed reports of casualties as "extremely exaggerated," casting doubt on the true extent of the tragedy. The incident occurred just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, where recent battlefield successes, including the capture of Avdiivka, were discussed.
Amidst the chaos, reports emerge of the death of prominent military blogger Andrey Morozov, known as Murz, under mysterious circumstances. In his final posts, Morozov claimed that over 16,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded in the battle for Avdiivka, implicating efforts by Russian state media to silence him.
Meanwhile, conflicting accounts emerge regarding the status of Krynky, a strategic settlement on the Russian-occupied side of the Dnieper River. Ukrainian military officials challenge assertions by Putin and Shoigu that Russian forces have regained control, asserting that the bridgehead remains firmly in Ukrainian hands.

Closing Summary

It has just gone 6pm in Kyiv and 7pm in Moscow.
Here is a recap of today’s latest developments:

• The EU on Wednesday approved its 13th package of sanctions against Russia. The new package, which will formally be approved in time for the second anniversary of the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, will see nearly 200 entities and individuals added to the list but no fresh sectoral measures. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the agreement by the EU’s 27 countries and said it would further cut “Russia’s access to drones”. “We must keep degrading Putin’s war machine,” she wrote on X.
  
  
• Multiple diplomats said new EU sanctions against Russia included adding three mainland Chinese firms to a list of companies that EU businesses were banned from dealing with. The firms – the first in mainland China to be targeted by the measures – were accused of involvement in supplying sensitive military technology to Russia. Firms in Turkey and India were also included, as the EU increasingly targets third countries for helping Moscow circumvent its sanctions.
  
  
• Diplomats said the EU also imposed an asset freeze and visa ban on North Korea’s defence minister Kang Sun Nam for the supply of ballistic missiles to Moscow, as part of its new package of EU sanctions against Russia.
  
  
• The latest round of EU sanctions against Russiaalso includes an extensive section centring on the illegal abduction of Ukrainian children to Crimea, Belarus and Russia. On the draft list that was approved by EU representatives were a series of men and women said to be directly involved.
  
  
• The head of Germany’s far-right populist AfD, has condemned what he has called the “theatrics” around the death of Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, claiming it has been exploited for political means. Tino Chrupalla said the speech of Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya at the Munich Security Conference last weekend had been “stage managed”, implying that it had been instrumentalised by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to shore up her own support having just launched her own bid for reelection.
  
  
• The UK on Wednesday imposed sanctions on six individuals in charge of the Arctic penal colony where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died last week. The UK is the first country to impose measures in response to the politician’s death, which has been widely blamed on the Kremlin by western countries, the UK Foreign Office said.
  
  
• Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, once an outspoken admirer of Russian president Vladimir Putin, has ignited controversy with his recent remarks on the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Salvini, leader of far-right League party asserted it was “up to Russian doctors and judges” to determine the cause of Navalny’s death.
  
  
• In response to Salvini’s comments, the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell highlighted a joint declaration by EU member states, including Italy, assigning responsibility for Navalny’s demise to president Putin and Russian officials. Borrell emphasised the significance of government-approved statements and urged officials to align with their country’s official positions.
  
  
• Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, on Wednesday ruled out working with Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s “friends” in the next EU parliament. “Those who are defending our values against Putin’s friends, these are the ones with which I want to work,” von der Leyen told journalists in Brussels.
  
  
• A court in the Russia will next month hear a case brought by the mother of dead opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his allies said on Wednesday. Lyudmila Navalnaya has travelled to the remote IK-3 prison where her son died, but since Saturday, when she arrived, she has been prevented from seeing his body. State news agency Tass reported that the court had received a complaint on “illegal acts” and that the hearing would take place behind closed doors. Navalny’s team said on social media that the court in the Arctic city of Salekhard would consider the case on 4 March – more than two weeks after Putin’s opponent died.
  
  
• Barely 10% Europeans believe Ukraine can defeat Russia, even though support for Ukraine among Europeans remains broad, according to an EU-wide survey – with some form of “compromise settlement” seen as the most likely end point.
  
  
• Ukraine’s army on Wednesday denied that it had lost Krynky, its bridgehead on the Russian-occupied side of the Dnipro river, a day after Russia’s defence minister said the area had been taken. It claimed Russian forces made an assault on Krynky but suffered “significant losses” and retreated. AFP was not able to verify the claims. Meanwhile, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu told president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that Krynky had been “cleared” of Ukrainian forces.
  
  
• Polish police said on Wednesday they were investigating a banner at a farmers’ protest calling on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to get Ukraine “in order”, which sparked anger in Kyiv. On Wednesday, Poland’s minister in charge of the secret services, Tomasz Siemoniak, denounced the “scandalous” banner as a “provocation”. In recent protests, Polish farmers have blocked roads to the border and dumped Ukrainian grain from trucks and freight cars.
  
  
• Iran has provided Russia with a large number of powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, six sources told Reuters, deepening the military cooperation between the two US-sanctioned countries. Iran’s defence ministry and the Revolutionary Guards – an elite force that oversees Iran’s ballistic missile programme – declined to comment on Reuters’ report. Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment either.
  
  
• Finland has said it has launched almost 800 investigations into potential sanctions busting activities on its border with Russia in the two years since Putin invaded Ukraine. The border with Russia has recently been closed because of irregular migration which the Finns believe was orchestrated by Russia from St Petersburg. It has meant train and shipping transport are now the focus of sanctions enforcement in Finland.
  
  
• Nato secretary-general Jens Stolenberg said he believes the best way to honour the memory of Alexei Navalny is to ensure a Russian defeat in the Ukraine war. Speaking to Radio Free Europe in Brussels, Stolenberg said: “I strongly believe that the best way to honour the memory of Alexei Navalny is to ensure that president Putin doesn’t win on the battlefield, but that Ukraine prevails.”
  
  
• Russia’s capture of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine has alarmed people in nearby towns and many are now leaving for safer areas after hunkering down for months from constant hostile fire, reports Reuters. According to the news agency, most of those fleeing are elderly and in many cases barely mobile, and are being helped by an evacuation charity called East SOS.
  
  
• The Romanian foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The ministry underlined the need for a transparent, independent investigation of Navalny’s death, and said Russian authorities had a moral obligation to return his body to his family.
  
  
• Russia lacks sufficient domestic ammunition production to meet its needs in its war on Ukraine but Putin has not given up his hopes of subjugating the country, western officials told Reuters on Wednesday. “Russia’s domestic ammunition production capabilities are currently insufficient for meeting the needs of the Ukraine conflict,” one official said. Despite the problems, Putin’s aims remained unchanged, the officials cautioned.
  
  
• The Czech foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, CTK news agency said on Wednesday.
  
  
• Russia’s top general, chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov, visited troops fighting in the war in Ukraine to discuss the next steps after the taking the town of Avdiivka. Gerasimov was shown awarding medals to Russian troops involved in taking Avdiivka..
  
  
• Russia launched 19 attack drones at Ukraine overnight and six missiles, with the Ukrainian air defence systems destroying 13 of the drones and one missile, Ukraine’s air force said on Wednesday. The air force also said that it destroyed a Kh-59 air-to-surface guided air missile in the Poltava region. Reuters could not independently verify the Ukrainian air force’s report. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
  
  
• US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will face each other across the table for the first time since they spoke briefly face-to-face at last year’s foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi, as foreign ministers from the G20 group of nations gather in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.
  
  
• The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak said the UK and its allies were considering all options to respond to the death of Alexei Navalny. During Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions session (PMQs) Sunak told the House of Commons: “Together with our allies we are considering all options to hold Russia and Putin to account and this morning we sanctioned those running the prison where Alexei Navalny’s body still lies.” Leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer told MPs Putin had stolen “the future and democracy of the Russian people”.
  
  
• Russia is the main international security threat to Sweden, and foreign enemies may try to exploit an elevated risk of extremist violence from Islamists and the far-right, the Swedish Security Service said on Wednesday. “We must all learn to live with the serious security situation,” Charlotte von Essen, head of the Security Service, told a news conference. Sweden has abandoned centuries of neutrality and applied to join Nato since Russia invaded Ukraine.
  
  
• The BBC Russian Service and news outlet Mediazona have confirmed the identity of about 45,000 Russian soldiers who died in Ukraine since the invasion began in February 2022. The issue of military casualties is extremely sensitive in both countries. Russia has banned criticism of the conflict and no official figures have been released since 2022.
  
  
• Andrey Morozov, a prominent pro-war Russian blogger, has reportedly died by suicide following outrage over a post in which he claimed that the Russian army lost 16,000 soldiers during the capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka.
  
  
• The White House has said it is seeking information after Russia announced it had arrested a dual US-Russian citizen on treason charges, accusing her of collecting funds for Ukrainian organisations and openly opposing the Russian war in Ukraine. A Russian legal NGO, First Dept, said the woman, named by the media in Russia as Ksenia Khavana, may stand accused of transferring $51 (£40) to a Ukrainian charity on 24 February 2022, the day Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine.
  
  
• The Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a key ally of Donald Trump, has been added to a list of “terrorists and extremists” kept by Russia’s state financial monitoring agency. Tass, the state-run news agency, first reported the move by Rosfinmonitoring, which allows authorities to freeze Russian bank accounts, though in Graham’s case is likely to be chiefly symbolic.