Closing summary
It’s 10.20pm in Moscow, 7.20pm in London and 2.20pm in New York, and we’re closing our Ukraine live blog coverage now. Thanks for joining us.
Here’s what we were following today:
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.
EU demands transparency on Navalny death from chief Russian diplomat
The European Union said on Tuesday it had summoned the Russian charge d’affaires in Brussels over the death in prison of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Separately, three more countries announce they were also summoning Russia’s ambassadors: Italy, Poland and Slovenia.
The EU’s managing director for Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia, Michael Siebert, called for an independent and transparent investigation into the death of Navalny during his meeting with Kirill Logvinov, chief diplomat of Russia’s mission to the EU, according to a statement issued by the union:
The EU side conveyed EU’s outrage over the death of the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, for which the ultimate responsibility lies with President Putin and the Russian authorities.
[We urge] Russia to release his body to his family without further delay and allow the family to organize a funeral.
On Monday, France, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands said they had summoned diplomats from Russian embassies.
Joe Biden has confirmed his administration will announce on Friday full details of a major new raft of sanctions that will be imposed on Russia following the death of Alexei Navalny.
The US president spoke briefly to reporters in the grounds of the White House as he left just now for a fundraising appearance in California. He refused to expand on what would be in the measures.
Reuters, citing national security adviser Jake Sullivan, said the package would target Russia’s “defense industrial base and sources of revenue for the economy”, but no other details were forthcoming.
Earlier, John Kirby, the administration’s strategic communications coordinator for the national security council, said the sanctions would “hold Russia responsible for what happened to Mr Navalny”.
Here are some images sent to us over the news wires on Tuesday relating to Alexei Navalny’s death, Russia, and the war in Ukraine:
Ukraine is seeking a military coalition with at least 20 new countries to help supply drones, cooperate on technology, and strengthen its military, Reuters reports.
Deputy Defense minister Kateryna Chernohorenko told a media briefing that eight countries had so far signed up to the joint initiative launched by Ukraine, Latvia and the UK.
“We think that eight countries is only the beginning. We want more countries to join” Chernohorenko said.
Drones have become a crucial part of tactics for surveillance and striking targets for both sides in the Ukraine-Russia war, because of their relatively low cost.
Ukraine has ramped up its domestic drone production significantly over the past year.
Vadym Sukharevskyi, commander of Ukraine’s drone forces, said the objective was to send more drones to the front lines than Russia.
“The enemy is moving on, it has a powerful industrial base. Yes, we are catching up somewhere... we will do everything to improve this parity and overtake them.”
The White House says it’s looking into reports that a dual US-Russian citizen has been arrested in Russia for treason.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Russia’s federal security service (FSB) had taken into custody a 33-year-old woman who lives in Los Angeles. She is accused of donating to a US-based organization that raises money for weapons and other equipment for Ukraine’s military.
The woman was not named.
John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the national security council, told reporters in Washington DC on Tuesday that the White House “is aware of and seeking information about” the woman, Reuters reported, identifying her as a ballerina.
The Times said the treason charge stemmed from a $50 donation she is alleged to have made to Razom for Ukraine, a New York-based nonprofit that it said sends financial assistance to the country.
She was arrested in Yekaterinburg in central Russia, according to the FSB. If convicted, she faces 20 years in prison.
News of the arrest came the same day as a Russian court rejected a complaint by Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich about the extension of his pre-trial detention in Moscow until 30 March on spying charges, which he denies.
The wife of Ukrainian-Russian businessman German Khan lost a legal challenge in London on Tuesday against UK sanctions imposed on her two years ago, Reuters reports.
The ruling, the agency says, underlines the high legal hurdle for relatives and allies of those similarly targeted for links to Russian president Vladmir Putin’s regime.
Anzhelika Khan was sanctioned in April 2022, a month after her husband, who co-founded investment group LetterOne and whose net worth is estimated at $8.4bn (£6.65bn) by Forbes magazine.
She argued she had no involvement in Russian politics and held no influence over the Russian government, meaning it was unlawful to subject her to sanctions.
High court judge Sara Cockerill dismissed her case in a written ruling, saying the sanctions were capable of serving the purpose of “sending a signal to Ms Khan and via her to the government of Russia and the international community… that the UK does not accept acts which destabilize the Ukraine”.
The Court of Appeal is due to rule next week on a case brought by
Eugene Shvidler, a billionaire ally of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, in the first substantive appellate test of British sanctions imposed following Russia’s Ukraine invasion.
Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, once an outspoken admirer of Russian president Vladimir Putin, landed himself in hot water Tuesday with a comment on the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Agence France-Presse writes.
The head of the anti-immigrant League party, said it was “up to Russian doctors and judges” to determine the cause of Navalny’s death.
Asked about Salvini’s remark, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said EU member states had adopted a joint declaration attributing responsibility for Navalny’s death “to President Putin and the Russian authorities”.
It is a declaration approved by Italy,” Borrell said.
He advised that:
Members of governments to simply read what their governments approve and adopt.”
The League signed a co-operation deal with Putin’s ruling party in 2017, deepening their ties.
There is a little more detail on the announcement from the White House that the US will announce new Russia sanctions on Friday, in response to the death of Alexei Navalny.
The Agence France-Presse news agency reports:
At President Biden’s direction, we will be announcing a major sanctions package on Friday of this week to hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr Navalny,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
Russia last Friday announced the death of Navalny, a persistent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who survived a 2020 poisoning and died at a remote prison in the Arctic where the anti-corruption campaigner was serving a 19-year sentence.
Whatever story the Russian government decides to tell the world, it’s clear President Putin and his government are responsible.
Absent some credible investigation into his death, it’s hard to get to a point where we can just take the Russians’ word for it. We’re calling for complete transparency by the Russian government for how he died,” Kirby said.
He added that the sanctions on Russia were for:
All its actions over the course of this vicious and brutal war that has now raged on for two years.
US to announce new sanctions on Russia related to death of Navalny
The US will announce a major package of sanctions on Friday aimed at Russia over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, it was announced moments ago.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby made the statement on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The package will:
Hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr Navalny” and for its actions over the course of the war in Ukraine, Kirby said, without providing details on the sanctions measures.
It’s coming very close to two years since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and the US announcement will be made on the eve of that anniversary.
Updated
Russia denies US claims that Moscow plans nuclear weapons in space
Russian president Vladimir Putin said that he was against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space and his defence minister flatly denied any plans for such a deployment.
The United States has told the US Congress and allies in Europe about new intelligence related to Russian nuclear capabilities that could pose an international threat, Reuters reports.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said that US claims about Russian intentions were aimed at scaring US lawmakers into allocating more funds to spend on countering Russia.
Putin said Russia’s activities in space did not differ from those of other countries, including the US.
Last week, the Guardian reported, the White House confirmed that it is monitoring a new Russian anti-satellite weapon which it said is being developed but not yet deployed – calling it “troubling” but not an immediate threat to anyone’s safety.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said that Russian troops should develop their success on the battlefield in Ukraine after the fall of Avdiivka.
He said Ukrainian troops were forced to flee the devastated city in chaos, Reuters reports.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Russian offensive was continuing and troops were moving westwards.
Shoigu said Russian forces had taken control of the village of Krynky in the Kherson region.
The Guardian’s Angela Giuffrida adds in this report that Russia earlier said it has taken full control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, its biggest gain since capturing Bakhmut last May.
Russian troops launched multiple attacks further west from Avdiivka in a bid for further battlefield gains, a Ukrainian army spokesperson said on Sunday.
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).
Poland summons Russian ambassador
Poland’s foreign ministry has summoned Russia’s ambassador.
In a statement, Poland’s foreign ministry said 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.”
“The authorities of the Russian Federation demonstrate a complete rejection of moral norms not only in the context of dealing with domestic civil society, but also in the ongoing war against Ukraine,” the Polish ministry said.
Also on Tuesday, Slovenia said it had summoned a Russian envoy to the ministry in Ljubljana, urging Moscow to release all political prisoners.
On Monday, France, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands said they had summoned diplomats from Russian embassies.
Many western countries have unanimously blamed the Russian authorities for the death of Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader who had been serving a 19-year prison sentence at a remote prison in the Arctic.
My colleagues Luke Harding and Lisa O’Carroll have more on the escalation of Poland’s bitter dispute with Ukraine over farm imports that has seen blockades taking place at several border crossings with Ukraine:
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.
X social network says Yulia Navalnaya's account was suspended because of technical error
The safety account for the social media platform X has 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.
“We unsuspended the account as soon as we became aware of the error,” it said.
Our platform's defense mechanism against manipulation and spam mistakenly flagged @yulia_navalnaya as violating our rules. We unsuspended the account as soon as we became aware of the error, and will be updating the defense.
— Safety (@Safety) February 20, 2024
X on Tuesday briefly blocked Navalnaya’s account, just one day after she created it after the death of her husband, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The @Yulia-Navalnaya account page was accessible again, about 50 minutes after it was suspended without explanation.
Navalnaya, 47, has accused the Russian authorities of murdering her husband, hiding his body and waiting for traces of the nerve agent novichok to disappear from it.
Updated
Russian hybrid attack in Estonia foiled, prime minister says
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.
“We know the Kremlin is targeting all of our democratic societies,” Kallas said in a post on social media X.
Estonia has successfully stopped a hybrid operation by Russia's security services on our territory.
— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) February 20, 2024
We know the Kremlin is targeting all of our democratic societies.
Our answer: be open and reveal their methods. This is the way to deter harmful actions and make us resilient.
The ISS director general Margo Pollson said the aim of the hybrid operation was to sow fear and tension and undermine civil society.
“There was a plan to attack specific individuals’ vehicles yet, which we foiled. This is a new method of influence. In our assessment, Russia did not achieve its objective,” she said.
Some of those detained were recruited in Russia, others were recruited through social media with a fee that “was not significant and certainly not worth the risk”.
The foreign ministry will summon Russia’s top diplomat in Estonia.
“It is a clear example of Russia trying to weaken and undermine the unity of the west. Estonia takes the situation very seriously and we are doing our utmost to stop any action against our state,” Estonia’s foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, said on Tuesday.
Last week, Moscow put Kallas, who has been leading efforts to increase military assistance to Kyiv and tighten sanctions against Russia, and other Baltic states officials on a wanted list.
Russia said the Estonian state secretary, Taimar Peterkop, the Lithuanian culture minister, Simonas Kairys, and Kallas were accused of “destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers”.
Updated
Another jailed member of Russia’s opposition has said that he fears for his life after the death of Alexei Navalny.
In a letter from prison, opposition member Ilya Yashin wrote that he had only learned of Navalny’s death on Monday.
“It’s hard to convey my shock,” wrote Yashin, who had known Navalny for more than a decade. “It’s hard to collect my thoughts. The pain and horror are unbearable.”
Yashin was sentenced to prison for eight years for publishing reports about the Russian military’s commission of war crimes in Bucha in 2022. He told the Guardian in letters from prison that he believed that Vladimir Putin had gone “mad from power”.
On Tuesday, he compared Navalny’s death with that of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down near the Kremlin walls.
“Now both my friends are dead,” he said. “I feel a black emptiness inside. And, of course, I understand my own risks. I am behind bars, my life is in Putin’s hands, and it is in danger. But I will continue to push my line.”
He said he was sure that Putin had ordered the murder of Navalny behind bars.
Read the full story here
X restores access to Yulia Navalnaya's account
X has restored access to Yulia Navalnaya’s account. There still appears no explanation for the temporary suspension. The top post on her account is the video of Alexei Navalny’s mother demanding the return of her son’s body.
— Yulia Navalnaya (@yulia_navalnaya) February 20, 2024
Updated
France summons Russian ambassador after Navalny's death
France has called for an “independent” probe into the death of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny after summoning Moscow’s envoy.
“France holds the Russian authorities fully responsible for the death of Alexei Navalny,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
France “calls for an independent and in-depth investigation,” the ministry said, adding that Russia’s ambassador had been summoned on Monday. Germany also summoned Russia’s ambassador in Berlin on Monday over Navalny’s death.
“France calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Russia and expresses in particular its deep concern over the critical state of health of opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza,” the statement added.
On Friday, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, accused Moscow authorities of condemning “free spirits” to death.
Navalny, 47, died in his Arctic prison colony on Friday, Russian authorities said. The opposition politician’s team says he was murdered.
Summary of the day so far...
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 social media network X, formerly known as Twitter, appears to have later suspended the account of Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, who has accused the Russian authorities of murdering her husband, hiding his body and waiting for traces of the nerve agent novichok to disappear from it. There was no reason given for the suspension.
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).
Updated
X appears to suspend Yulia Navalnaya's account
The social media network X, formerly known as Twitter, appears to have suspended the account of Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died in highly suspicious circumstances in an Arctic Circle jail on Friday.
“Account suspended,” a notice says on her account. It was not immediately clear why.
Navalnaya, 47, has accused the Russian authorities of murdering her husband, hiding his body and waiting for traces of the nerve agent novichok to disappear from it.
The Kremlin said on Monday it had “nothing to add” to the news on the death of Navalny. It denies involvement in his death.
Updated
Farmers in Poland resumed a blockade of about 100 roads to the Ukrainian border on Tuesday morning to protest against “uncontrolled” imports and demand a change to EU agricultural policy.
For weeks, Polish farmers have been blocking Ukrainian goods lorries from entering their country in anger at what they say is unfair competition from cheaper imports from Ukraine.
Across Europe, farmers have been protesting over rising costs, high fuel prices, bureaucracy and the environmental requirements in the EU’s common agricultural policy and its forthcoming “Green Deal”.
Dozens of tractors travelled to Ryki, a town 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Poland’s capital, Warsaw, to block a major highway that leads to the Ukrainian border.
According to AFP, farmers hung red and white Polish flags on their tractors along with placards that said: “Stop the uncontrolled influx of Ukrainian goods” and “Farming is dying little by little”.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said it was vital for the US to maintain its funding of humanitarian agencies to ease the refugee crisis caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
UNHCR requires $993m to fund its response to the crisis caused by the invasion. A total of $600m has been earmarked to repair houses and provide aid to ensure that those who fled can return home. But only 13% of the appeal has been funded so far.
“We are, of course, very much looking at the situation in the US, which is our main funder globally,” Philippe Leclerc, UNHCR Regional Director for Europe, told a briefing in Geneva via video link, according to Reuters.
“The state department is supposed to get additional budget possibilities, including for the aid to Ukraine, which has not yet been voted by Congress. Obviously part of that support could possibly go to UNHCR and other UN agencies to support refugees in Ukraine.”
Until now, the US was easily the largest supplier of military aid, having given Ukraine $44.9bn worth of equipment. Pentagon officials acknowledged early in January that they can no longer give weapons or ammunition to Ukraine because they have used up previous budgets allocated by Congress.
The Senate in a bipartisan vote earlier this month passed a $95bn aid package that includes funds for Ukraine, but the House of Representatives speaker, Mike Johnson, so far has declined even to bring it up for a vote on the floor of the House, which Republicans control by a narrow 219-212 margin.
Updated
The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, is to visit Budapest this week to meet Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán – days before Hungary’s parliament is expected to finally vote on Sweden’s Nato membership.
Kristersson’s office made the announcement of the visit – due to take place on Friday – amid reports that Hungary’s parliament will vote on the issue on Monday.
It comes after Orbán invited his Swedish counterpart to negotiations on the question soon after Turkey approved the Nordic country’s Nato membership – leaving Hungary the last remaining member of the alliance to give Sweden the green light.
At the time, Tobias Billström, Sweden’s foreign minister, said they would have to “think through what the letter signals” before responding.
The Swedish government said the agenda for Friday’s meeting between the two leaders would include security and defence policy cooperation, preparation for Hungary’s upcoming EU presidency and the EU’s strategic agenda.
Afterwards Kristersson and Orbán will hold a joint press conference.
Alexei Navalny's mother demands Putin hand over her son's body
Lyudmila Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny’s mother, has demanded that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, hand over her son’s body.
“For the fifth day, I have been unable to see him. They wouldn’t release his body to me. And they’re not even telling me where he is,” Navalnaya said in the video.
“I’m reaching out to you, Vladimir Putin. The resolution of this matter depends solely on you. Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body is released immediately, so that I can bury him like a human being,” she said.
Navalnaya and her son’s lawyer travelled over the weekend to the notorious “Polar Wolf” IK-3 penal colony in Russia’s Arctic north, where Navalny had been held since last year, to track down his body, but received contradicting information from various institutions over its location and left without recovering or seeing her son.
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.
The Russian opposition leader had been serving a decades-long prison term on various charges, the latest of which was a 19-year sentence on six counts.
He had been behind bars since returning from Germany in January 2021 for charges that he rejected as politically motivated.
Updated
Here are some images supplied by the Tass news agency of the US-Russian woman Russia’s FSB security services said was arrested on suspicion of treason (see earlier post at 09.34 for more details):
Updated
Ukraine PM describes Russian invasion as an 'existential war'
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.
“I believe the United States will support Ukraine also, like the European Union, like Japan, like all the G7 countries and the IMF and all international financial organisations,” Shmygal told a press conference when asked about “Ukraine fatigue” in the international community.
“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.
On February 19, PM Kishida held a meeting with H.E. Mr. Denys SHMYHAL, Prime Minister of Ukraine, who was visiting Japan to attend Japan-Ukraine Conference for the Promotion of Economic Growth and Reconstruction.#Ukraine #StandWithUkraine
— MOFA of Japan (@MofaJapan_en) February 20, 2024
👉https://t.co/7N6qsPZaDW pic.twitter.com/TqCcJuHWoX
The capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka on Monday gives Russia full control of the area surrounding Donetsk, a large Ukrainian city that was seized by Russian proxy forces in 2014, and comes as the second anniversary of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nears.
The Ukrainian army had struggled on the frontline around Avdiivka in recent months during one of the most intense battles of the war, which left the city almost destroyed and caused nearly all of the more than 30,000 prewar population to leave.
The US president, Joe Biden, had warned that the city might fall to Russia due to weapons shortages exacerbated by months of Republican congressional opposition to a new US funding package for the Ukrainian military.
Five people killed in Russian drone attack in Sumy region - Ukrainian authorities
A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s northerly Sumy region hit a residential building on Tuesday, killing five people, authorities said.
“ … a family was killed: a mother and two sons, as well as two distant relatives,” the regional military administration wrote on Telegram, citing updated data.
Ukraine’s military had said earlier that Russia had launched 23 drones overnight and its air defences had destroyed all of them.
The Ukrainian military has said it is critically short of ammunition and shells, worsened by the holdup of a $60bn US aid package.
Last week, Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the US failure to vote through a fresh military aid package for Ukraine is already having an impact on the battlefield.
“The fact that the US has not been able to make a decision so far has already had consequences. It is impacting the flow of support,” the Nato chief told reporters in Brussels on Thursday.
Updated
Evan Gershkovich: Moscow court upholds detention of Wall Street Journal reporter until 30 March
A Russian court has rejected a complaint by 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.
“Gershkovich will remain in custody until 30 March 2024,” the Moscow courts service said in a statement.
The appeal was a technical hearing against an earlier ruling to extend Gershkovich’s pre-trial detention period and did not concern the substance of the case.
The US has heavily criticised the Kremlin over his arrest and ongoing detention.
“The charges against Evan are baseless. The Russian government has locked Evan up simply for reporting news,” the US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, who attended the hearing, said on Tuesday.
Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) last March in the Urals city of Ekaterinburg on charges of espionage that carry up to 20 years in prison.
In an interview with the former Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said earlier this month that he believes “an agreement can be reached” to free Gershkovich, hinting he would trade him for a Russian killer serving a life sentence in Germany.
Updated
Putin did not watch Yulia Navalnaya's video released after the death of her late husband - Kremlin
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, did not watch Yulia Navalnaya’s video statement, but her assertion that her late husband Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent is unfounded, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Asked about Navalnaya’s claim that Putin had killed her husband, Peskov said that he would not comment given that Navalnaya had recently been widowed.
But Peskov said that in general accusations that Putin was responsible for Alexei Navalny’s death were absolutely unfounded and obnoxious.
Navalnaya, 47, published a video address on Monday in which she vowed to continue her late husband’s political work and called on Russians to rally around her.
She accused the Russian authorities of murdering her husband, hiding his body and waiting for traces of the nerve agent novichok to disappear from 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.
The Russian opposition leader had been serving a decades-long prison term on various charges, the latest of which was a 19-year sentence on six counts. He had been behind bars since returning from Germany in January 2021 for charges that he rejected as politically motivated.
Updated
Killed Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine was a 'moral corpse', says Russian intelligence chief
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.
Reports in Russian and Spanish media said Maksim Kuzminov was found dead after allegedly moving to the town of Villajoyosa in Alicante on the Mediterranean coast, in an area popular with holidaymakers.
His body was discovered last Tuesday, it was said, on the car park ramp underneath an apartment block. The reports claimed he had been murdered by unknown gunmen who fired 12 shots.
Kuzminov crossed the frontline last August while on a flight between two Russian airbases. He was supposed to transport parts for SU-27 and Su-30 fighter jets. Instead, he landed his twin-engine Mi-8 AMTSh helicopter on Ukrainian territory.
“In Russia it is customary to speak either good of the dead or nothing at all,” Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), was quoted as saying on Tuesday when asked about Kuzminov.
“This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse at the very moment when he planned his dirty and terrible crime,” Naryshkin was quoted as saying by Tass news agency.
Kuzminov’s defection to Ukraine was presented last year as a major coup for Kyiv.
He had been living in Spain with a Ukrainian passport under a different name, Spain’s state news agency EFE said.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence confirmed that Kuzminov had been found dead in Spain.
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US-Russian woman arrested in Russia for alleged treason
Russia’s FSB security services said on Tuesday it had arrested a US-Russian woman suspected of treason for raising funds for the Ukrainian army, AFP reports.
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.
It said the unnamed woman had been “proactively collecting funds … which were subsequently used to purchase tactical medical items, equipment, means of destruction and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces”.
The FSB said she had been acting “against the security of our country” and had been supporting the Ukrainian army while in the US.
Treason is punishable by up to life in prison under legislation toughened since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Several US nationals are imprisoned in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested on espionage charges last year.
The FSB has claimed he was collecting state secrets about the country’s military-industrial complex. Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal have denied the charges.
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Here is some more detail on the announcement from Sweden that it will donate military aid to Ukraine worth about 7.1 billion Swedish crowns (£541m) – see earlier post at 08.32 for more details.
The package includes about 2 billion crowns (£153m) worth of artillery ammunition as well as anti-aircraft artillery and recoilless rifles, Sweden said.
As part of the package, Sweden will also earmark cash for the purchase of material through international Ukraine funds, and 1 billion crowns (£76m) for the purchase of about 10 new armoured combat vehicles that will be ready for delivery to Ukraine in 2026.
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Russian troops have carried out 435 strikes against 19 settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region, killing two people in Primorskyi and Lisnyi, governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram on Tuesday morning.
Officials received 13 reports concerning the destruction of residential buildings and “infrastructure facilities”, according to Fedorov, who is head of the southern Zaporizhzia regional administration.
Polish farmers to step up Ukraine border protests
Polish farmers will step up protests on the border with Ukraine on Tuesday, blocking almost all traffic in what they say is an attempt to save their livelihoods but which Kyiv says is damaging its war effort.
Farmers across Europe have been demonstrating against constraints placed on them by EU measures to tackle climate change, as well as rising costs and what they say is unfair competition from abroad, particularly Ukraine.
“(There will be a) total blockade of all traffic at border crossings,” Adrian Wawrzyniak, a spokesperson for the Solidarity farmers’ union, said.
Wawrzyniak said that while military aid would be allowed through, all passenger traffic would be blocked, not only lorries. He said there would be blockades at ports and of motorways, according to Reuters.
The protests mark an escalation of the unrest as previous demonstrations by the truckers and farmers did not completely block all border crossings.
Kyiv says its agricultural exports through eastern Europe have not damaged EU markets.
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Sweden’s defence minister, Pal Jonson, has welcomed news that Hungary’s parliament plans to vote on the Nordic country’s Nato membership next week.
“We of course welcome this,” he told a press conference.
Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party has proposed that parliament should vote on the ratification of Sweden’s bid to join Nato on 26 February, which the party will support, the leader of Fidesz’ parliamentary group said on Tuesday.
Hungary is the only Nato country not yet to have ratified Sweden’s application, a process that requires the backing of all of the alliance’s members.
Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party has cited what it called unfounded Swedish allegations that it has eroded democracy in Hungary as the reason why Sweden’s bid had been held up.
Sweden applied to join Nato in May 2022, at the same time as Finland, in a historic shift in its security policy prompted by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that February.
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Sweden to donate its largest Ukraine military aid package to date
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 on Tuesday.
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).
“We will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Sweden’s defence minister, Pal Jonson, told a press conference.
The latest package includes artillery and artillery ammunition, maritime assault vessels and other equipment, Sweden said. The military aid also includes the transfer of equipment and fresh cash for arms procurement.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said last week that the parliament can ratify Sweden’s Nato membership when it convenes for its new spring session later this month, the only remaining parliament in the 31 member alliance to do so.
Sweden applied to join Nato nearly two years ago in a historic shift in policy prompted by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine. Here are the latest developments:
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.
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