Kyiv suffers ‘largest ever’ drone attack by Russia leaving ‘five wounded’
The Kremlin may have ordered Russia’s military to capture the key frontline city of Avdiivka in time for the presidential elections in March, analysts have suggested, after Vladimir Putin announced his re-election campaign at a military awards ceremony.
The military setting suggests Mr Putin could make the war in Ukraine a more central pillar of his re-election campaign than previously anticipated, the Institute for the Study of War suggested.
Meanwhile, it emerged that Mr Putin’s jailed arch-critic Alexei Navalny has not been heard from in three days after suffering a “serious health-related incident”, according to allies who fear his “life is at great risk”.
The Russian opposition politician’s press secretary said his lawyers stood all day outside the penal colony where he is detained – but were denied entry.
Mr Navalny’s team has been coordinating a vast telephone campaign to seek to undermine Russian support for Mr Putin ahead of March’s election, and for the war in Ukraine. Mr Putin, already the longest-serving Russian ruler since Joseph Stalin, is on course to hold the presidency until at least 2030.
