Closing summary
It has just gone 6pm in Kyiv and 7pm in Moscow. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Russia and Ukraine coverage here.
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.
Updated
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, reports AFP.
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.
