Summary
Thanks for following us today. Here is a wrap of the day’s key events:
The mother and mother-in-law of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were among mourners who brought flowers to his grave in Moscow on Saturday. It comes a day after thousands turned his funeral into one of the largest recent displays of dissent.
Three people were killed, eight wounded and six still missing after a Russian drone crashed into an apartment block in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa on Saturday, authorities said. Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported that the Odesa region was attacked by eight drones, of which seven were shot down by air defenses.
Russia’s state news agency says a drone crashed into an apartment building in St Petersburg. The Associated Press cited a report by RIA Novosti, which said six people received medical help after an explosion on Saturday morning, citing the press service of the city’s health care committee.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said a child was injured in the reported strike on the Odesa apartments. Posting on X, the Ukraine president made a further plea for military support to “effectively protect our people from Russian terror”. He said the search and rescue operation in the area continues.
More than 20 settlements in the eastern Ukrainian province of Kharkiv have reportedly sustained Russian artillery and mortar attacks. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov is reported to have said this morning that the eastern Ukrainian province had sustained Russian artillery and mortar attacks, while high-rise buildings in the regional capital, also called Kharkiv, were damaged by a drone attack.
The German defence ministry is checking whether a confidential videoconference on the Ukraine war had been wiretapped after a recording was posted on Russian social media, in a potentially huge embarrassment for Berlin. The head of Russia’s state-backed RT channel, Margarita Simonyan, on Friday posted a 38-minute audio recording of what she claimed were German army officers discussing striking Crimea.
The German defence ministry is checking whether a confidential videoconference on the Ukraine war had been wiretapped after a recording was posted on Russian social media, in a potentially huge embarrassment for Berlin.
The head of Russia’s state-backed RT channel, Margarita Simonyan, on Friday posted a 38-minute audio recording of what she claimed were German army officers discussing striking Crimea.
“We are investigating whether communications in the air force sector were intercepted,” a spokeswoman for the German defence ministry told AFP.
Navalny's mother brings flowers to his grave a day after thousands attended his funeral in Moscow
The mother and mother-in-law of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were among mourners who brought flowers to his grave in Moscow on Saturday, a day after thousands turned his funeral into one of the largest recent displays of dissent.
Police kept a heavy presence at the cemetery but the situation was calm, Russian independent TV channel Dozhd (Rain) reported.
“The police let those wishing to bid farewell to the politician pass through and do not rush anyone,” the outlet wrote on the Telegram messaging app, quoting one of its readers on the scene.
Dozhd also reported that “spontaneous memorials” to Navalny had been destroyed in several Russian cities. Flowers were removed in cities including St. Petersburg and Voronezh, it said.
Updated
More than 20 settlements in the eastern Ukrainian province of Kharkiv have reportedly sustained Russian artillery and mortar attacks.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov is reported to have said this morning that the eastern Ukrainian province had sustained Russian artillery and mortar attacks, while high-rise buildings in the regional capital, also called Kharkiv, were damaged by a drone attack.
He said that there were no casualties, but that three people suffered an “acute stress reaction”.
Across the country more widely, air defences shot down 14 of 17 drones launched against Ukraine, according to the country’s Armed Forces.
Meanwhile, in the partly occupied Kherson region, AP is reporting that Russian artillery shelling killed a 53-year-old man on Saturday morning
Three people are now reported to have been killed when a Russian drone hit an apartment block in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa overnight, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said today.
A further eight people sustained injuries, authorities said.
Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported that the Odesa region was attacked by eight drones, of which seven were shot down by air defenses.
More on this story to follow.
Here’s another picture of the US president Joe Biden meeting Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House this week. Something appears to have caused an outpouring of humour at the meeting in which the US president hailed the Italian PM for her support of Ukraine. Could it be Mr Biden’s rather unusual US-branded socks?
Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress managed to ward off a damaging federal government shutdown with a last-minute compromise reached this week – but remain deadlocked over approving further military assistance for Ukraine and Israel, and tightening immigration laws.
Congress was up against a Friday midnight deadline to reauthorize government spending or see a chunk of the federal departments cease much of their operations.
On Wednesday, top lawmakers including Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, and Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, announced they “are in agreement that Congress must work in a bipartisan manner to fund our government”, and the following day lawmakers passed a short-term spending measure that Joe Biden signed yesterday.
The US president hailed Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s support for Ukraine during a meeting at the White House.
Similar agreement between the Republicans and Democrats has proven elusive when it comes to funding both the continuation of Ukraine’s grinding defense against Russia’s invasion and Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Last month, a bipartisan Senate agreement that would have paired the latest tranche of military aid with measures to limit the number of undocumented people and asylum seekers crossing into the country from Mexico was killed by Republicans – reportedly so Donald Trump, who is on the cusp of winning the Republican presidential nomination, could campaign on his own hardline approach to immigration reform.
The Senate then approved a $95bn bill that would authorize aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan without changing policy at the border, but Johnson has refused to put it to a vote in the House. Meanwhile, the government funding saga isn’t quite over. This week’s agreement pushed the funding deadlines for the two bills authorising spending to 8 and 22 March. In their joint statement, the House and Senate leaders said lawmakers would vote on the 12 separate appropriations bills funding federal departments before these dates.
Apartment building in St Petersburg damaged in drone attack, Russia state media says
Russia’s state news agency says a drone crashed into an apartment building in St Petersburg.
The Associated Press cited a report by RIA Novosti, which said six people received medical help after an explosion on Saturday morning, citing the press service of the city’s health care committee.
The Mash news site said that the apartment building was hit by a Ukrainian drone – a claim which could not be verified by the AP
This site published videos appearing to show the moment the apartment building was struck, showing a strong flash of light engulfing one side of the building and fragments of debris flying into the air.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has not commented on the incident.
Zelenskiy: 'We need more air defense capabilities from our partners'
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said a child was injured in the reported strike on the Odesa apartments.
Posting on X, the Ukraine president made a further plea for military support to “effectively protect our people from Russian terror”.
He said the search and rescue operation continues – with six people still missing.
Russia continues to wage war against civilians. It launched a night attack using Shahed drones on Kharkiv, Odesa, and cities in the Sumy region. One of the drones hit a residential building in Odesa, destroying 18 apartments.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 2, 2024
Currently, two deaths have been confirmed, with eight… pic.twitter.com/RpFGx9dE3v
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our latest live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. Here’s a rundown on the latest news.
Two people were killed, eight wounded and six still missing after a Russian drone crashed into an apartment block in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa on Saturday, authorities said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said 18 apartments were destroyed.
A video he posted showed an apartment building with a chunk several storeys tall ripped out of it, and dozens of rescuers scrambling to cut through a sea of rubble on the ground.
More on that story shortly. In other developments:
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, signed a security deal with Ukraine in Kharkiv on Friday and said the Netherlands would help fund the supply of 800,000 artillery shells. Rutte met President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on a surprise visit to the north-eastern city, just 40km (26 miles) from the Russian border, and became the seventh western leader to sign a 10-year security agreement with Ukraine in the past two months.
Three people were killed in a drone attack on a car in the Russia-controlled part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, the Moscow-installed governor said on Friday. Vladimir Saldo did not provide any details of the attack.
Russia is accumulating large forces around Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine as it seeks to make a breakthrough in the Donetsk region, a Ukrainian official said on Friday. Illia Yevlash, spokesperson for the operational group overseeing the eastern frontline, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that Russian forces were concentrating efforts to make a push on the strategic city to the west of Bakhmut, which fell to Moscow last May, hoping to advance towards Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
President Joe Biden hailed Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s “unwavering” support for Ukraine as they held talks on Friday overshadowed by concerns about the future of US aid for Kyiv. “We have each other’s backs – we also have Ukraine’s back,” Biden told Meloni at the White House. He sought to reassure Meloni that he was urging Republicans in Congress to stop blocking $60bn (£46bn/€55bn) of vital US military assistance for Ukraine.
Anti-war slogans were chanted as thousands of mourners gathered for the funeral service of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow on Friday. Amid a large police presence, many in the crowd clutched flowers and some joined in chants including “Putin is a murderer”, “No to war” and “We won’t forgive”, defying the Kremlin’s warning of arrests. Crowds shouted “Navalny, Navalny!” when the hearse carrying his coffin arrived at a church.
Police arrested at least 67 people across Russia at tributes to Navalny on Friday, according to rights monitoring group OVD-Info. The arrests were in 16 towns, including six arrests in Moscow, it said, while saying earlier that 18 people were detained in Novosibirsk. Navalny tributes were also held in cities outside Russia including Berlin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belgrade, Zagreb, Yerevan and Tbilisi.
Russia on Friday declared the acclaimed novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya a “foreign agent” for opposing the war in Ukraine and allegedly promoting LGBTQ “propaganda”. The 81-year-old literary icon, who lives in exile, is a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin and joins a long line of Russian cultural figures, including writer Boris Akunin, shunned by the Kremlin for their criticism of the war.
Canada on Friday announced restrictions on indirect imports of Russian diamonds weighing one carat and above in a coordinated move with other Group of Seven countries. The restriction adds to a ban on Russian diamonds announced in December.
Russia’s foreign minister visited Turkey, which has sought to revive Russia-Ukraine peace talks and ways to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea. Sergei Lavrov attended a diplomatic forum in Antalya on Friday and met his Turkish counterpart, with a Turkish diplomatic source saying Lavrov acknowledged Ankara’s efforts but said the conditions that prompted the war “remained unchanged”.
Two reportedly killed in Russian drone attack on Odesa apartment block
Two people were killed, eight wounded and six still missing after a Russian drone crashed into an apartment block in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa on Saturday, authorities said.
“Russia continues to fight civilians ... One of the enemy drones hit a residential building in Odessa,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a Telegram post. “18 apartments were destroyed.”
Reuters also reports that a video posted by Zelenskiy showed an apartment building with a chunk several storeys tall ripped out of it, and dozens of rescuers scrambling to cut through a sea of rubble on the ground.
According to Zelenskiy, the drone was a Shahed – a large, winged kamikaze drone supplied by Iran. Russia has launched several thousand of these throughout the war at targets deep inside Ukraine.
Odesa’s regional governor, Oleh Kiper, said at 8.30am local time (0630 GMT) that work was ongoing to clear the rubble and that a man had been pulled out alive, having likely been in the basement at the time of the strike.
Ukraine’s Suspilne public broadcaster cited local prosecutors as saying six people were still unaccounted for.
