Summary
Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
Alexei Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, said she has been shown her son’s body. The Russian opposition leader died in prison last Friday aged 47.
Navalnaya has accused Russian investigators of “blackmailing” her over the funeral of her son, claiming they are trying to force her to hold a private burial ceremony without mourners. She made the allegation in a video published on YouTube.
Navalnaya also said that she recorded the video because investigators were “threatening” her. She added: “Looking me in the eye, they said that if I do not agree to a secret funeral, they’ll do something with my son’s body ... I ask for my son’s body to be given to me immediately,.”
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, called the west’s reaction to the death of Navalny “hysteria”, and said that western countries had no right to meddle in Russia’s affairs. Lavrov said on Thursday that Moscow is open to dialogue on strategic stability with the United States, but that it must be “honest”, the Russian state news agency, TASS, reported.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said he believed US president Joe Biden had called him a “crazy SOB” in response to a comment he made last week saying he would rather have Biden as president than Donald Trump. Putin agreed in response to a TV reporter’s question that Biden’s remark was “rude”, Reuters reports.
The UK has added 50 new entities to its Russia sanctions list, with the foreign secretary David Cameron saying “our sanctions are starving Putin of the resources he desperately needs to fund his struggling war”. The government claims the targets of the sanctions are people and businesses supplying munitions such as rocket launch systems, missiles and explosives.
The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has announced the UK will send 200 more anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. PA Media reports he added that the UK would train more Ukrainian troops alongside other allies, adding: “Together we will train a further 10,000 in the first half of 2024.”
Biden endorsed the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte to be the next Nato head, a US official told Reuters. The official said: “President Biden strongly endorses PM Rutte’s candidacy to be the next secretary general of Nato.” Rutte would be succeeding the current Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, a Norwegian national.
Updated
Here is the video of Alexei Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, saying that she has been shown the body of her son, who died suddenly in a Russian penal colony last week at 47 years old:
In the video, Navalnaya accuses Russian authorities of blackmailing her over the funeral of her son, which she said they are urging her to hold in secret without mourners.
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires around Alexei Navalny’s sudden death last week at the Russian penal colony Polar Wolf:
By pressuring Alexei Navalny’s mother into burying her son in a secret ceremony without mourners, the Kremlin appears to want to ensure his funeral doesn’t turn into a public show of support for the late opposition leader.
“Authorities fear Navalny’s funeral could turn into a political action,” wrote Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
“But people mourn him calmly and with dignity, even though they are being persecuted for it,” Kolesnikov added, referring to the hundreds of Russians who have been detained while paying tribute to Navalny.
Updated
Alexei Navalny's mother: "If I do not agree to a secret funeral, they'll do something with my son's body"
In a video released on social media, Alexei Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, said that she recorded a video because investigators were “threatening” her, AFP reports.
Navalnaya, who said she was taken secretly to a morgue to view her son’s body, said that Russian officials are blackmailing her over the conditions for where, when and how her son should be buried.
“I want that for those of you for whom Alexei is dear, for everyone for whom his death became a personal tragedy, to have the possibility to say goodbye to him,” AFP reports her saying.
“Looking me in the eye, they said that if I do not agree to a secret funeral, they’ll do something with my son’s body ... I ask for my son’s body to be given to me immediately,” she added.
Updated
Here are some further quotes from Alexei Navalny’s mother Lyudmila who has accused Russian investigators of planning a”secret” funeral for her son and said she would not agree to it.
“They want this to be done secretly, with no farewell. They want to bring me to the edge of a cemetery, to a fresh grave and say: here lies your son. I don’t agree to this,” she said in a YouTube video.
There was no immediate response from Russian investigators.
Navalny, 47, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony last week.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Moscow is open to dialogue on strategic stability with the United States, but that it must be “honest”, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
Alexei Navalny’s mother accuses Russian investigators of 'blackmail'
Alexei Navalny’s mother Lyudmila has accused Russian investigators of “blackmailing” her over the funeral of her son, claiming they were trying to force her to hold a private burial ceremony without mourners.
She made the allegation in a video published on YouTube, Reuters reports.
Navalny’s team have said the death certificate says the Russian opposition leader died from natural causes.
Updated
Russian president Vladimir Putin said he believed U.S. president Joe Biden had called him a “crazy SOB” in response to a comment he made last week saying he would rather have Biden as president than Donald Trump.
Putin agreed in response to a TV reporter’s question that Biden’s remark was “rude”, Reuters reports.
Alexei Navalny's mother says she has been shown her son’s body
Alexei Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, says she has been shown her son’s body, Reuters reports.
The Russian opposition leader died in prison last Friday aged 47.
Updated
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called the west’s reaction to the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny “hysteria”, and said that western countries had no right to meddle in Russia’s affairs.
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen urged allies to give more donations to Ukraine after announcing a new military aid package.
According to Reuters, she said:
It is necessary to emphasise that if they [Ukraine] are to succeed on the battlefield, more donations must come now.
It’s in this light that we continue to make further Danish donations in the hope that more countries will do the same, not in six or 12 months, but now when the need is very, very big.
Updated
German lawmakers backed providing further military support for Ukraine almost two years after Russia’s invasion, but rejected a call by the opposition to deliver long-range cruise Taurus missiles to Kyiv.
Germany is the second biggest donor of military aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia, but chancellor Olaf Scholz has resisted domestic and foreign pressure to supply the Taurus missiles, fearing an international escalation of the conflict, Reuters reports.
Defence minister Boris Pistorius told the Bundestag lower house:
[Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s Russia is and will remain the greatest security threat to Europe for the foreseeable future.
He added that Germany would counter it “with all our strength”.
The motion put by Social Democrat Scholz’s coalition, also comprising the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), committed to supplying “additional long-range weapon systems and ammunition” but made no specific mention of Taurus.
Raising the pressure on Scholz, the conservative opposition put down a motion explicitly calling for the delivery of the cruise missiles which could give Ukraine the capability to cause significant damage deeper within Russian-occupied territory.
Highlighting divisions within Scholz’s awkward coalition, the FDP head of the parliamentary defence committee Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann voted for the opposition motion.
UK hits Russian military with 50 sanctions as Cameron says UK will back Ukraine 'for as long as it takes'
The UK has added 50 new entities to its Russia sanctions list, with foreign secretary David Cameron saying “our sanctions are starving Putin of the resources he desperately needs to fund his struggling war.”
The government claims the targets of the sanctions are people and businesses supplying munitions such as rocket launch systems, missiles and explosives.
Among those sanctioned include manufacturers of weapons and of machine tools. Flight operator 224th Flight Unit State Airlines and its director have been targeted following reports it has been involved in the transfer of weapons from North Korea to Russia.
Firms deemed to be supporting Russia’s war efforts and included on the list include three from China.
It is the second set of new sanctions on Russian interests in days from the UK government, with measures applied yesterday by the UK on the heads of the Arctic penal colony where Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny was held.
Announcing the new sanctions in a statement, Cameron said:
Ukraine has shown that it can and will defend itself. Putin mistakenly thought that because Russia’s economy is bigger than Ukraine’s, he would gain a quick victory. But the economies of Ukraine’s friends are 25 times bigger than Russia’s. And two years on, we stand united in support for Ukraine.
Our international economic pressure means Russia cannot afford this illegal invasion. Our sanctions are starving Putin of the resources he desperately needs to fund his struggling war. Together, we will not let up in the face of tyranny. We will continue to support Ukraine as it fights for democracy – for as long as it takes
UK to send 200 more anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, train further 10,000 Ukrainian troops
UK defence secretary Grant Shapps has announced the UK will send 200 more anti-tank missiles to Ukraine.
He told parliament:
Today I can announce a new package of 200 “Brimstone” anti-tank missiles in a further boost to defend Ukraine. These missiles have previously had significant impact on the battlefield, in one instance forcing Russian forces to abandon and retreat an attempted crossing of a river.
PA Media reports he added that the UK would train further Ukrainian troops alongside other allies, adding: “Together we will train a further 10,000 in the first half of 2024.”
Tass reports that Vladimir Putin has said the new supersonic Tu-160M missile carrier can be accepted into the Russia air force. Russia’s president was on board a flight on the new model from Kazan which lasted 30 minutes.
Lili Bayer is in Brussels for the Guardian. Here is an excerpt from her report on the US and UK endorsing Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte’s candidacy to become the next secretary general of Nato:
Mark Rutte is one of Europe’s longest-serving heads of government, having been prime minister since 2010, and is considered a safe pair of hands who could be well positioned to grapple with the challenges of Donald Trump’s possible return to the White House.
After the collapse of his government last year, Rutte stepped down as leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and said he would leave politics. But over the past months he has served as caretaker prime minister while coalition talks drag on.
A senior diplomat, however, cautioned that Rutte’s candidacy was not a done deal and that his endorsement by big countries did not mean all allies were onboard.
One Dutch official said: “Rutte’s strength lies in three things: his people skills, his pragmatic mind and his Nokia”, a reference to Rutte being well connected with Europe’s leaders.
“A convinced Atlanticist and admirer of Churchill, his phone book by now spans two generations of world leaders beyond the confines of the western world and with whom he has forged bonds and maintains good contact – also in private, even after their departure. Merkel and Rutte still meet up,” the official said.
“He had a great bond with Obama but also maintained constructive ties with Trump. And while his domestic legacy is now perhaps called into question his international credentials are excellent.”
Read more of Lili Bayer’s report here: US and UK endorse Dutch PM Mark Rutte as next Nato chief
Updated
The UK said it had added 50 new designations under its Russia sanctions regime and two new designations under its Belarus sanctions regime.
More information to come …
Biden backs Rutte to be Nato head
US president Joe Biden endorses Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte to be the next Nato head, a US official told Reuters.
The official said:
President Biden strongly endorses PM Rutte’s candidacy to be the next secretary general of Nato.
Rutte would be succeeding current Nato Chief Jens Stoltenberg, a Norwegian national.
The British Foreign Office on Thursday said it was backing Rutte to succeed Stoltenberg as the next secretary general of the Nato alliance.
At the Munich Security Conference last week, Rutte told European security leaders to “stop moaning and nagging and whining about Trump”.
His comments came after former US President Donald Trump caused outrage across Europe, saying that if re-elected in November, he would not defend Nato allies who fail to spend enough on defence.
Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen said she would turn down an offer to become Nato’s next secretary general.
Updated
Russian president Vladimir Putin will fly on a modernised Tu-160M strategic bomber, Reuters and Russian state television reports.
Alexei Navalny’s wife Yulia said that she and her daughter Dasha were together and comforting each other after the opposition politician’s sudden death last week in a Russian penal colony.
Yulia Navalnaya posted a photograph on X showing her and Dasha, huddled together – Yulia looking into the camera with her hand over her mouth, and Dasha wrapped in a black coat and gazing sadly into space.
She said:
My dear girl. I flew here to hug you and support you, and you are sitting and supporting me. So strong, brave and resilient. We will definitely cope with everything, my dear one. It’s so good that you’re at my side. I love you.
It was not clear where and when the picture was taken. Navalnaya, 47, was in Munich last week when she learned of the death of her husband, Russia’s best known opposition leader in the west, according to Reuters.
Putin has not commented publicly on the death of Navalny, who was serving sentences totalling more than 30 years on a series of charges, including fraud and extremism, that he said were trumped up to silence him.
The Kremlin has said it was not involved in his death, the circumstances of which it says are under investigation.
Denmark has agreed on a military aid package to Ukraine worth 1.7bn crowns ($247.40m), prime minister Mette Frederiksen said.
At a news conference, she said:
Time does not help Ukraine, only action counts on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s fight for freedom is our fight.
Russia’s absence from the Singapore airshow, as its companies struggle with sanctions and the demands of sustaining the invasion of Ukraine, shows an opportunity for rivals to step in with some Asian customers, experts and industry sources say.
Defence giants such as UAC and Russian Helicopters have historically had large presences at Asia’s biggest airshow, where companies show off a range of systems, from sensors and small arms to massive transport aircraft, missiles and satellites, Reuters reports.
This year, however, no Russian companies were listed among attenders – which competitors said was a sign the door was open in Asia.
“In this region you have seen a shift away from Russian equipment already,” said Robert Hewson of Sweden’s Saab. “Of course there are some natural client countries … who stay where they are” in terms of suppliers.
Sangshin Park, regional manager and chief of international business development for Asia at Korea Aerospace Industries, noted that his company had sold its FA-50 light fighter aircraft to Malaysia in a deal worth more than $1bn. Malaysia also operates Russian-made aircraft such as the Sukhoi Su-30.
Several other Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, also use Russian-made or Soviet Union-vintage equipment, sometimes alongside western-made gear.
Russia’s largest arms exporters did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Here are some of the latest images from the news wires:
Russian troops have taken the village of Pobieda in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the Russian defence ministry said.
Russia has launched more than 8,000 missiles and 4,630 drones at targets in Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2022, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said.
Ukraine has received advanced air defence systems, including several units of the Patriot system, from western allies throughout the invasion, enabling it to shoot down more missiles, Reuters reports.
Russia has earned $653bn from the sale of fossil fuels, since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, a new report says today, despite western sanctions.
The Kremlin has used loopholes and a “shadow fleet” of tankers to bypass an oil embargo by the US, EU and G7 nations, it says. Typically crude oil is shipped legally to countries such as India and China, It is then refined and sold internationally, Reuters reports.
The report by B4Ukraine – a coalition of more than 80 civil society groups – calls on western governments in 2024 to close down loopholes and to strengthen sanctions. It wants them to “defund” Russia’s war.
With Ukrainian cities under attack, the report said that Russian weapons recovered from the battlefield were made with foreign components. In 95 per cent of cases critical parts originated from coalition countries helping Ukraine, in particular the US. They reached Moscow via third party sellers, such as Hong Kong, Turkey and the UAE.
Some 358 multinational companies exited from the Russian market in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion. But 2138 corporations continue to operate in Russia. They have paid $40bn in taxes – cash used by the state to fund its war economy, the report says.
Nataliia Popovych, B4Ukraine’s co-founder said:
The flow of Russia’s fossil fuel revenue combined with corporate taxes paid by foreign companies and the supply of western military tech explain Russia’s ability to continue to wage war and further militarise.
Closing the existing sanctions loopholes and issuing guidance on the risks of remaining in Russia for the non-sanctioned businesses are of paramount importance to defunding Russia’s war machine. Further actions by the West are the key to crippling Russia’s capacity to wage war in 2024 and beyond.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked New Zealand’s prime minister for the military assistance package and continued support for Ukraine.
In a post on X, he said:
I am thankful to New Zealand and prime minister [Christopher Luxon] for the new assistance package.
This timely support includes facilitating Ukrainian soldier training, strengthening our defense capabilities, intelligence and logistics support, communications, humanitarian assistance, and recovery efforts.
I appreciate New Zealand’s continued and steadfast support for Ukraine, which demonstrates that geographical distance doesn’t matter when it comes to defending shared values of freedom and international law.
I am thankful to New Zealand and Prime Minister @chrisluxonmp for the new assistance package.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 22, 2024
This timely support includes facilitating Ukrainian soldier training, strengthening our defense capabilities, intelligence and logistics support, communications, humanitarian…
Italy hopes to sign a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine “in the coming days”, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is negotiating the agreement with Ukrainian authorities, Tajani said during a parliamentary hearing.
He said:
We count on being able to finalise [it] in the coming days.
Kremlin says Biden comments about Putin debase the US
The Kremlin said Joe Biden’s remark about president Vladimir Putin debased the US and those who use such vocabulary, adding that it was a poor attempt to appear like a “Hollywood cowboy”.
Biden called Putin a “crazy SOB” during a fundraiser in San Francisco on Wednesday, warning there is always the threat of nuclear conflict but that the existential threat to humanity remains climate, Reuters reports.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said:
The use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin.
But it debases those who use such vocabulary.
Peskov said the remark was “probably some kind of attempt to look like a Hollywood cowboy. But honestly I don’t think it’s possible.”
He added:
Has Mr. Putin ever used one crude word to address you? This has never happened. Therefore, I think that such vocabulary debases America itself.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Below is a summary of the latest developments.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken about the loss of the eastern city of Avdiivka to Russian forces in excerpts released from a Fox News interview to be aired later on Thursday.
He pointed to earlier gains, particularly in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, where the Fox interview took place. “During these two years we got [back] part of the Kharkiv region. Now we are in this region … and we unblocked the Black Sea. There are grain routes and we destroyed a lot of their ships of the Russian fleet,” Zelenskiy said. “That is what we did over two years. And what they could do? Only this one place. But what for?”
Zelenskiy also expressed new discontent with the slowdown in western aid, without singling out the US. “We have to be more quick. That means to lose all the bureaucracy. Otherwise we will not have any chance,” he said.
In other developments:
Vladimir Putin remains intent on trying to defeat and dominate Ukraine two years after launching an invasion that has caused more than half a million casualties, western officials said in a fresh assessment of the war. However, Putin is not thought to have any clearcut medium-term strategy, the officials added. “We do not believe Russia has a meaningful plan beyond continuing to fight in the expectation that Russian manpower and equipment numbers will eventually tell,” they said. The officials also said they believed that “sanctions are hitting the Russian military complex hard”, causing severe delays and higher costs as Moscow scrambles to deal with shortages of western components.
The EU on Wednesday approved its 13th package of sanctions against Russia. The new package, which will be formally approved in time for the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, will see nearly 200 entities and individuals added to the sanctions list. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the agreement would further cut “Russia’s access to drones”. “We must keep degrading Putin’s war machine,” she wrote on X.
Three mainland Chinese firms were added to a list of companies that EU businesses were banned from dealing with, diplomats said. 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. The EU also imposed an asset freeze and visa ban on North Korea’s defence minister, Kang Sun Nam, for supplying ballistic missiles to Moscow, diplomats said.
Iran has provided Russia with a large number of 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.
Nato secretary-general Jens Stolenberg said he believes the best way to honour the memory of Alexei Navalny was to ensure a Russian defeat in Ukraine. Speaking to Radio Free Europe, 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.”
Ursula von der Leyen has ruled out working with 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 said.
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.
Russia’s capture of Avdiivka has alarmed people in nearby towns and many are now leaving for safer areas after hunkering down for months from constant fire, Reuters reported. Most of those fleeing are elderly and in many cases barely mobile, but are being helped by a charity called East SOS. Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, visited troops after the battle of Avdiivka, awarding medals to troops involved.
Ukraine’s army on Wednesday denied 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 assaulted Krynky but suffered “significant losses” and retreated. AFP was not able to verify the claims. Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin on Tuesday that Krynky had been “cleared” of Ukrainian forces.
Polish police are investigating a banner at a farmers’ protest calling on 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.
Finland has said it has launched almost 800 investigations into potential sanctions breaches 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.
The BBC Russian Service and news outlet Mediazona have confirmed the identities 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.
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.
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.
