February 23, 2024 - Russia-Ukraine news

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged the House of Representatives to pass aid for Ukraine after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit to the country.

Despite House Speaker Mike Johnson's refusal to hold a vote on the Senate-passed foreign aid package, Schumer insisted that the United States will not give up on Ukraine. 

"The United States is with you. We will not abandon you. We will fight and fight and fight to get this needed aid to you and to your brave soldiers," he said. 

"If Speaker Johnson put this bill on the floor today, we're confident it would pass with a large number of both Democrats and Republicans. So it's really in his hands," Schumer added. "Again: Speaker Johnson, history is looking down upon you, looking over your shoulder. Rise to the occasion." 

Russian authorities are trying to prevent a funeral ceremony for opposition leader Alexey Navalny, because they are "afraid" many people would want to attend, the head of investigations at Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, Maria Pevchikh, said Friday. 

"They are attempting to avoid the funeral farewell ceremony or a church sermon where people can physically approach the coffin, lay flowers and bid their farewells — this is what they are so afraid of," Pevchikh said during a live interview.

Pevchikh also said that although Navalny's mother is in the town of Salekhard — which is near the penal colony where Navalny was imprisoned and died — with her lawyer, she has to talk to investigators alone.

"Every day they are coming up with new ideas for blackmail," Pevchikh said.

US President Joe Biden blasted House Republicans for taking a two-week break and urged Speaker Mike Johnson and members of Congress to return and pass much-needed aid for Ukraine.

He also offered praise for the Ukrainian people two years after Russia’s initial full-scale invasion, saying they “remain unbowed and unbroken in the face of Putin’s vigorous onslaught.”

“This is due to their sheer bravery and their sacrifice, but it's also due to us: Remember, the United States pulled together a coalition of more than 50 nations — 50 nations — for Ukraine,” he said. “We unified and expanded NATO — we can't walk away now.”

Some background: The speaker has resisted calls to bring a Senate-passed aid package up for a quick vote – a move that would require Democratic support and almost certainly spark a revolt from his right flank. The speaker has said the legislation, which includes over $60 billion in assistance for Ukraine, would not pass in its current form, and privately told Republicans last week there is “no rush” to address the issue.

Alexey Navalny's team is offering a reward for information about the death of the Russian opposition leader and the alleged perpetrators. 

Navalny's team also called on members of the Russian military and law enforcement to anonymously contact them with any information about the circumstances that led to his death.

Friday marks a national military holiday in Russia.

The US State Department on Friday imposed sanctions on three Russian prison officials in connection to the death of opposition figure Alexey Navalny.

The sanctions hit Valeriy Gennadevich Boyarinev, the deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, which has oversight of the penal colony where Navalny died.

According to a State Department fact sheet, Boyarinev "reportedly instructed prison staff to exert harsher treatment on Aleksey Navalny while he was in detention."

"Following Navalny’s death, Boyarinev was promoted to 'Colonel General' by decree of Vladimir Putin," according to the fact sheet. 

The sanctions also target Igor Borisovich Rakitin, "the overall head of the Federal Penitentiary Service of1322 Russia for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, in which Penal Colony IK-3 is located," and Vadim Konstantinovich Kalinin, the prison warden.  

A spokesperson for the late Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, Kira Yarmysh, said on Friday that Navalny's mother was given an ultimatum by a Russian investigator: either agree to a secret funeral without a public farewell, or Navalny would be buried at the penal colony where he was imprisoned. 

"She demands compliance with the law, which obliges investigators to hand over the body within two days from the moment the cause of death is established. According to the medical documents she signed, these two days expire tomorrow. She insists that the authorities allow the funeral and memorial service to be held in accordance with customs," Yarmysh added. 

The alleged ultimatum is "hell on earth before our eyes," the head of investigations at Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, Maria Pevchikh, said Friday. 

Russia has begun serial production of new Zircon hypersonic missiles, which experts say are almost impossible to shoot down, President Vladimir Putin said Friday. 

Use of missile in war: Ukraine has claimed it has evidence that Russia fired a Zircon hypersonic missile in its attacks on the capital Kyiv on February 7 for the first time since the start of the war.

Experts say the Zircon, if it lives up to what Moscow says about it, is a formidable weapon. Its hypersonic speed makes it invulnerable to even the best Western missile defenses, like the Patriot, according to the United States-based Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA).

What else Putin said: Russian defense industry enterprises have "in recent years" increased the production and supply of weapons "multiple times over," including high-precision strike weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, air defense systems, counter-battery systems, and communications and reconnaissance equipment, he said in a Defender of the Fatherland Day address, which Russia marks on February 23.

Other technologies, including the introduction of artificial intelligence in the military sector, are also being developed, the Russian leader said.

He praised the "courage and valor" of members of the military, including those who serve in what Russia calls euphemistically its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

On the eve of the two-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, the United States unveiled a fresh slate of sanctions on more than 500 targets tied to Russia's invasion and the death of outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny.

Meanwhile, CNN went to Kherson, the first major Ukrainian city to be captured by Russian forces. It was liberated by Kyiv’s forces nine months later, but as the war enters its third year, Kherson feels as if it is under remote occupation. Residents describe the shelling from Russian forces under a mile away across the Dnipro River as the worst yet. Read the full report of the situation on ground here.

Here are some other key developments in the war:

A new counteroffensive: Ukraine will prepare a new counteroffensive following a campaign that didn't bring the desired results, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Fox News published Thursday. The situation on the battlefield "is not a stalemate" and "indeed, it's very complicated in the East," Zelensky said, claiming that Russia's "only" success over nine months has been taking control of Avdiivka.

EU also imposes fresh sanctions: The European Union adopted its 13th package of sanctions against Russia on Friday, including a further 194 individuals and entities responsible for hostile actions against Ukraine. It includes those involved in North Korea's armament supply to Russia, the bloc said. Almost 2,000 individuals and entities have been sanctioned since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, the EU said. Russia called the sanctions “illegal, undermining the UN Security Council's international legal prerogatives” and announced it is expanding its stop list, barring entry to EU representatives.

Overnight strikes in Odesa region: Three people were killed and at least eight wounded in overnight drone attacks in Ukraine, officials said Friday. In the Odesa region on the Black Sea, debris from one of the drones hit a building, causing a fire and killing three people, according to military administration head Oleh Kiper.

Ukraine's defense: Ukrainian air force said it destroyed 23 out of the 31 Iranian-made Shahed-131/136 drones detected over the Odesa, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv regions overnight.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield weighed in on the Biden administration’s move to levy additional sanctions on over 500 entities associated with Russia’s war machine Friday, repeating calls on the House of Representatives to follow the Senate’s lead and pass much-needed aid to Ukraine.

“The administration has been working diligently to get the assistance to the Ukrainian effort, including pressing Congress to provide needed funding, but the Ukrainians’ resilience can't be played down here,” she told CNN.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the stalled legislation, which includes over $60 billion in assistance for Ukraine, would not pass in its current form and privately told Republicans during a closed-door meeting last week there is “no rush” to address the issue, with Congress since having left town for a nearly two-week recess.

Thomas-Greenfield said the Ukrainians are not asking the US to fight for them, but "they're asking us to assist them — to give them the tools that they need to continue the fight, and we're working to try to get that to them.”