February 19, 2024 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

The Ukrainian military is monitoring how Russian forces are regrouping and preparing for their next moves after capturing the eastern town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said.

International pressure is growing on the US to act on more funding for Ukraine as the war reaches its two-year mark.

Meantime, the widow of an outspoken Kremlin critic is vowing to keep fighting after his death at a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle.

Here’s what to know:

Here’s a look at where things stand:

Ukraine shot down two Russian fighter jets in the eastern part of the country, the Ukrainian Air Force reported on Monday.

The two aircraft destroyed were Su-34 and a Su-35S, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. No further details were provided.

This comes after three Russian fighter jets, two Su-34 and a Su-35, were shot down on February 17 in the east as well, the Air Force added.

Canada is donating 800 drones to Ukraine to help fight Russia’s invasion of the country, the Minister of National Defense Bill Blair said on Monday. 

“Drones have emerged as a critical capability in Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression. With these drones, Ukrainian troops will be able to gather more situational awareness and information, so that they can assess targets more quickly, and more accurately,” a release from the Press Gallery Secretariat said.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, prompting an ongoing war that’s thrusted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to an international stage with many countries, including the US, offering help. Pressure is now mounting to offer more aid as Russia advances in some parts of Ukraine and ammunition is low.

“As we approach the second anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion, Canada stands firmly with Ukraine in defence of freedom and democracy,” Blair said.  

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks at the US Capitol on February 15 in Washington, DC.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing international criticism over his lack of swift action on Ukraine aid, which is ratcheting up pressure to make a critical decision that will not only have massive implications for his rookie speakership but also for Ukraine’s ongoing war effort against Russia.

So far, Johnson 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, something Johnson is eager to avoid. 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 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.

The stakes of the high-profile debate — and Johnson’s pivotal role in a legislative response — came into even greater focus over the weekend. Global leaders gathered at the annual Munich Security Conference just as news broke that Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny had died in prison, while Ukraine suffered a significant setback to Russian forces on the battlefield.

Those developments have injected a new sense of urgency for Congress to act as the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches this weekend and as the Ukrainian military warns it is running out of resources to resist.

While there is a contingent of House Republicans who support additional Ukraine aid and it has majority support from the chamber as a whole, Johnson has to manage a rambunctious right flank that is deeply resistant to additional aid. Further complicating matters, the Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has also injected himself into the debate, urging Republicans to oppose Ukraine funding and continuing to rail against NATO.

Here’s more about the House speaker and Ukraine aid.

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations accused Western countries of politicizing Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny’s death.

Vassily Nebenzia said the investigation into the death of Navalny has “not concluded yet” and the “exact cause of death” has not been disclosed. 

“Our Western colleagues rushed to claim that the death was the responsibility of the Putin regime,” Nebenzia said, speaking at a media stakeout at the UN Security Council.

Earlier, the Kremlin said that an investigation into the circumstances around Navalny’s death is underway and the results are unknown.

Several nations have summoned the Russian ambassador to their countries over Navalny’s death. On Monday, Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares and the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs summoned the ambassador to their countries.

It follows similar actions taken by the United Kingdom and Germany since Navalny’s reported death on Friday. 

CNN’s Al Goodman, Benjamin Brown and Caitlin Danaher contributed reporting to this post.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged the United States to “deliver what they promised,” by facilitating Ukraine with a support package to help in their defense against Russian aggression. 

Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Saturday, Stoltenberg said it was vital and urgent that the US decide on a package for Ukraine.  

“What I can say is the vital and urgent need for the US to decide on a package for Ukraine, because they need that support and we have a burden sharing between Europe and Canada and United States,” Stoltenberg said in a discussion panel during the Munich Security Council. 

Stoltenberg reminded the audience in attendance that Ukraine is currently running low on resources, particularly ammunition.

“At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we depleted our stocks, but now they are running quite low. So now we are focusing extremely also very much on how to ramp up production,” Stoltenberg said.

The NATO secretary general went on to announce that “there are new factories being set up, production has increased, but there is urgent need to do more.”

Last week, the US Senate passed a $95.3 billion foreign aid bill with assistance for Ukraine, but the bill faces an uncertain future in the US House of Representatives, where House Speaker Mike Johnson has signaled he will not bring it for a vote.

Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi speaks during the 2024 Munich Security Conference on February 17, in Munich, Germany.

China does not sell lethal weapons to parties in conflict, the country’s top diplomat told his Ukrainian counterpart over the weekend, during their meeting at the Munich Security Conference.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing does not add “fuel to the fire” and will continue to play a constructive role in ending the Russia-Ukraine war, according to a statement published Sunday by China’s Foreign Ministry.

China claims impartiality in the war but has refused to condemn Moscow’s illegal invasion and has acted as an increasingly critical lifeline for the sanctions-hit Russian economy.

Meanwhile, United States officials have repeatedly raised concerns with China about evidence it has suggesting that Chinese companies have sold non-lethal equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine. Last year, a US intel report said China was providing technology and equipment to Russia that was increasingly important to Moscow’s war.

Despite its close ties with Moscow, Beijing has also attempted to promote itself as a peace broker in the conflict — a position reiterated by Wang in remarks at the conference Saturday.

“China has never given up on promoting peace or slackened its efforts to facilitate talks,” he said, adding that Chinese leader Xi Jinping “had in-depth exchanges with world leaders including Russian and Ukrainian leaders, playing a constructive role in addressing the crisis.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on X that he spoke with Wang about “bilateral relations, trade, and the need to restore a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian military is monitoring how Russian forces are regrouping and preparing for their next moves after capturing the eastern town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region, Ukrainian military spokesperson said Monday. 

Illia Yevlash, spokesperson for the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said now Russian forces had won Advdiivka, they would be able to move their forces wherever else they deemed necessary.

Yevlash said many brigades who had been involved in taking Adviivka, including intelligence units, special operations units, artillery, paratroopers and motorized infantry units could now be redirected.

“So now we will be actively monitoring how they will regroup. Usually, they need some time, about a week, to regroup, move their units, and then we will monitor where they will start to pressure,” Yevlash said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Monday. 

Russian forces have been attacking areas near Bakhmut and Mariinka in the Donetsk region, pushing towards the city of Kupiansk in Kharkiv region in the north, and amassing forces in Zhaporizhzhia region in the south. 

Two dark fleet oil tankers engaged in a possible ship-to-ship transfer of Russian crude oil in the Laconian Gulf in early February. CNN has added blur to this image to protect the identities of the ships.

Russia is entering its third year of war in Ukraine with an unprecedented amount of cash in government coffers, bolstered by a record $37 billion of crude oil sales to India last year, according to a new analysis, which concludes that some of the crude was refined by India and then exported to the United States as oil products worth more than $1 billion.

This flow of payments, ultimately to Moscow’s benefit, comes from India increasing its purchases of Russian crude by over 13 times its pre-war amounts, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air analysis, exclusively shared with CNN. It amounts to US strategic partner New Delhi stepping in to replace crude purchases by Western buyers, reduced by sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the analysis said.

Not sanctioned: While Russian crude sales to India are not subject to sanctions and are entirely legitimate, an examination of shipping routes by experts suggests this huge volume of shipments might involve the so-called “shadow fleet” of crude tankers, specially created by Moscow to try to disguise who it is trading with and how, and maximize the Kremlin’s profits.

Read the full story.

Letters and correspondence obtained by the Free Press (FP), a US based media company and independent media organization Holod.Media show Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny – who died at the age of 47 – had been communicating with famous refusenik Natan Sharansky and readers of Holod.Media at the organization’s request. 

The term “refusenik” referred to those who had been refused exit visas in the Soviet Union.

The correspondence began between Navalny and Sharansky on April 3, 2023, and lasted until April 17, 2023, according to the letters published by the FP. The FP published two letters Navalny wrote to Sharansky and one letter Sharansky wrote in response.  

Navalny’s team told CNN that it is “safe to presume” the letters were written by Navalny. 

The letters published by the FP show a shared humor between the two, as Sharansky called the punishment cell where he was held his “alma mater” and Navalny joked there was no better place to spend the Holy Week (Easter week) than in a punishment cell, according to the FP.  

Navalny was the first to reach out to Sharansky on April 3 of last year from penal colony IK-6, saying that he was expecting to be transferred to the same colony where Sharansky once served his sentence and adding that there will “probably be a plaque” saying “Natan Sharansky was held here,” according to letters published by the FP.

The FP say Navalny obtained a Russian copy of Sharansky’s memoir ‘Fear No Evil’ from his lawyers before reaching out. In a second letter, Sharansky said he received a “kind shock” after receiving his letter and responded to him “not only as an ‘author to reader’” but also as an “admirer.”

U.S. President Joe Biden talks briefly with reporters after returning to the White House on February 19, in Washington, DC.

US President Joe Biden said House Republicans are “making a big mistake” in not responding to Russian aggression with more security funding for Ukraine. Biden added he’s willing to meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson about the matter “if he has anything to say.” 

“They’re making a big mistake not responding,” Biden said on Monday. “Look, the way they’re walking away from the threat of Russia, the way they’re walking away from the threat of NATO, the way they’re walking away from meeting our obligation, it’s shocking. I’ve never seen anything like this.” 

He did not sound optimistic when asked if he thought Alexey Navalny’s death would do anything to nudge the House GOP toward taking up the bill. “I hope so, but I’m not sure anything is going to change,” he said. 

He also said he was considering additional sanctions in the wake of Navalny’s death in a Russian prison camp.

Three days after Russian prison services announced that Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny had died, his widow Yulia Navalnaya vowed to continue his mission to create a “happy, beautiful Russia.”

The jailed Russian opposition figure died Friday at a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle, according to the Russian prison service. He was serving multiple sentences for fraud, extremism and other charges that he dismissed as politically motivated.

In an 8-minute-long address on social media, Navalnaya accused President Vladimir Putin of being responsible for his death while saying authorities were hiding her late husband’s body, suggesting he had been poisoned.

Separately, Navalny’s spokesperson said on X that his body will not be returned to the family for at least another 14 days.

Meanwhile, on the battlefront, Ukrainian forces on Friday announced their withdrawal from Avdiivka, a key town that in recent months became one of the most fiercely contested battles on the eastern front.

Here’s what else to know this morning:

Jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny is seen on a screen via a video link from the IK-3 penal colony during a hearing of his complaint at the Supreme Court in Moscow, Russia, on January 11.

Alexey Navalny’s body will not be returned to the family for at least another 14 days, said Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmish, in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

His body will be under “some sort of chemical examination” in that period, she added.

Navalny’s widow has accused President Vladimir Putin of being responsible for his death.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the annual Munich Security Conference, in Munich, Germany, on February 17.

Traveling from the Munich Security Conference toward Ukraine’s frontlines, the polite frustration and manicured pleas of Western leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky feel yet more desperate. The warnings that Ukraine might suffer setbacks on the frontline if the US Congress continued to hold up a $60 billion aid package have now curdled into a bitter, brutal reality.

The pledges and rhetoric have so far amounted to little; in the wait, or abyss, ahead, Ukraine is losing people and land. It is all very real, very immediate and stark. After months of stalemate, the possibility of sweeping changes on the frontlines is quite real.

The horrific death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny meant the brutality of President Vladimir Putin’s regime was amplified and crystal-clear for European leaders who had feared the gathering would be dogged by doubts over a future Trump presidency’s adherence to the NATO alliance. Latvia’s president spoke of “murder,” Germany’s defense minister of how the death showed Russia was “willing and able to provoke” the West. Ukraine reasoned it was clear proof Putin was too irrational a man to negotiate with.

Yet still, the conference – often a talking shop, fixated on entourages and colored passes over concrete results – ended without major progress. US President Joe Biden had said in 2021 that Navalny’s death would lead to “devastating consequences” for Russia. Yet the White House’s toolkit has been somewhat emptied by the 2022 invasion and as of Monday morning – 72 hours after Navalny’s passing was announced – no measures have been announced.

Read more on decisions the West will face in the coming months

On Ukraine’s southern front, both Russian and Ukrainian sources speak of a massive Russian build-up in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Kyiv tried to launch its counteroffensive last summer.

According to some analysts, a force of 50,000 Russian troops has been assembled.

It comes as Russian forces look to push their advantage on the eastern front after raising their flag in several parts of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, center, poses for a picture with Ukrainian servicemen as he visits their position in a front line near Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, in Ukraine on February 19.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited frontline positions in the Kupiansk sector in Kharkiv region on Monday and was briefed on the situation on the battlefield, his office said in a statement.

He met Lt. Col. Oleksiy Trubnikov, commander of the 14th separate mechanized brigade, which is defending Kupiansk. Here’s what they discussed, according to the statement:

Zelensky also congratulated the troops and thanked them for defending Ukraine, the statement said.

Some context: Russia has been pushing toward Kupiansk to recapture areas lost to the Ukrainian military. The city of Kupiansk and parts of the Kharkiv region were occupied by Russian forces from February 2022 to September 2022. The Ukrainian military managed to regain the areas, but the Russian military has been trying to advance and capture them again.

Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, right, shakes hands with European Council President Charles Michel before a meeting in Brussels on February 19.

Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, is in Brussels on Monday for meetings.

Upon arrival at the European Council, she shook hands with its president Charles Michel, before meeting with him behind closed doors. The council is composed of the heads of state or government of all EU member states and serves as its chief decision-making body.

On Sunday, the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said he would welcome Navalnaya at the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Monday.  

“EU Ministers will send a strong message of support to freedom fighters in Russia and honour the memory of Alexey Navalny,” he added in his post on X.

Borrell also expressed his “deepest condolences” to Navalnaya on X, and said Russian President Vladimir Putin and “his regime will be held accountable.”

Navalnaya met Friday with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Von der Leyen posted on X that she was “deeply disturbed and saddened” by news of Navalny’s death.

Meanwhile, Germany and Spain said they have summoned their Russian ambassadors to the country in the wake of Navalny’s death. The Swedish Foreign Ministry also summoned the Russian ambassador, and said Sweden backed calls for the European Union to introduce a new sanctions regime targeting “the internal repression in Russia,” the statement outlined. 

Some context: The Russian prison service said Navalny died on Friday. The cause of his reported death remained unclear. Navalny returned to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he had been treated after being poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent. On arrival, Navalnvy was swiftly arrested on charges he dismissed as politically motivated.

CNN’s James Frater, Eve Brennan, Benjamin Brown and Caitlin Danaher contributed to this report.

Yulia Navalnaya at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on September 28, 2022.

Following the death of her husband, Yulia Navalnaya has made a promise: She will not be deterred by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Alexey Navalny died Friday in a Russian prison north of the Arctic Circle, after being arrested in 2021 upon returning to Russia.

On Monday, Navalnaya vowed to continue her late husband’s legacy, saying “no one except ourselves will protect us.”

In the spotlight: While she is now front and center of her husband’s fight, Navalnaya used to largely avoid the spotlight.

The couple met shortly after Yulia, a Moscow native, graduated from Plekhanov University of Economics, where she studied international relations. She worked in a bank before leaving to care for their eldest daughter, Darya.

Returning from maternity leave, Navalnaya helped her parents-in-law sell furniture for a few years, but after their son, Zakhar, was born – and with Navalny increasingly in the spotlight – she decided to focus solely on the family.

However, the opposition leader fell gravely ill in August 2020 while on a return flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk. The pilot made an emergency landing in Omsk, where Navalny was taken to hospital for urgent treatment before being transferred to Germany, still critically ill.

As Navalny lay comatose in a clinic in Omsk, Navalnaya suddenly stepped into the center stage – and her image of a stoic, calm, and collected woman became a story of its own.

Navalnaya risked arrest as she attended protests calling for her husband’s release, and helped put public and international pressure on the Russian government.

Independent Russian media outlets compared her to former US First Lady Michelle Obama, and supporters wondered if the day would come when she would lead the country’s opposition movement. On Instagram, supporters dubbed her “the First Lady” for risking arrest to protest for her husband’s release.

No surrender: Now a more defiant symbol than ever for Navalny’s cause, Navalnaya has promised she will continue his fight for a democratic Russian government.

Russia made one of its first notable gains in months when it forced the Ukrainian withdrawal from the eastern town of Avdiivka, and appears poised to pressure Kyiv’s defenses further all along the eastern front.

In southern Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian sources speak of a massive Russian build-up near Zaporizhzhia — where Kyiv tried to mount a counteroffensive last summer.

This map shows the latest areas of control in Ukraine:

Smoke rising from the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant on February 15, in Avdiivka district, Ukraine.

The Russian flag has been raised in several parts of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, hours after Ukrainian forces beat a hasty retreat from the ruins of the eastern town they’ve been defending for a decade.

But Ukraine’s army is under pressure at several other points along the front line that meanders for about 1,000 kilometers from the border with Russia in the north to the Black Sea.

The Russians launched a determined drive to seize Avdiivka in October. But they are also on the attack near Bakhmut and Mariinka (also in Donetsk) and toward Kupiansk in the north.

On Ukraine’s southern front, in Zaporizhzhia, Russian and Ukrainian sources speak of a massive Russian build-up in the area where Kyiv tried to launch its counteroffensive last summer. According to some analysts, a force of 50,000 men has been assembled.

Window of vulnerability: The Russian military may have sensed a window of vulnerability in its adversary. Ukraine’s better units are exhausted after two years of combat; there is a new commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi; and Ukrainian troops are short of shells and vulnerable to relentless airstrikes.

While the goal of President Volodymyr Zelensky and the armed forces is to recover all illegally occupied territory, the Ukrainians are now struggling to prevent the Russians from adding to the approximately 18% of Ukrainian territory they already hold.

Remember: President Vladimir Putin’s declared aim is to seize all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, but few believe he will stop there if there are further opportunities.

The Ukrainian parliament passed legislation in February to allow and fund the use of soldiers’ frozen sperm in case of their death.

Once President Volodymyr Zelensky signs the bill into law, it will, for the first time, allow the widows of Ukrainian soldiers to use their dead partners’ reproductive cells — both sperm and eggs — to have children.

It will also enable wounded soldiers to use their preserved reproductive cells to have children where their injuries would normally make that impossible.

Additionally, the state will pay to store these frozen cells for three years after a male or female soldier’s death, with clauses specifically recognizing the deceased biological parent on the child’s birth certificate. Currently, the government will pay for the initial freezing of reproductive cells.

Cryopreservation has been an “urgent but difficult issue,” MP Olena Shulyak, co-author of the bill, said in a post on Telegram.

It’s a law that will likely benefit many.

Ukraine’s battlefield losses are a closely guarded secret, but US officials estimate about 70,000 soldiers have been killed and nearly twice that number wounded.

Read the full story.

Yulia Navalnaya shared a video on her husband's social media platforms.

Yulia Navalnaya said Monday that the Russian authorities are hiding her husband’s body and “lying pathetically,” while waiting for traces of poisoning to disappear.

Her remarks, part of an 8-minute address shared on her husband’s social media platforms, referenced “traces of another of (President Vladimir) Putin’s Novichoks’s to disappear.” 

Novichok is a poison used on Navalny in August 2020. A CNN and Bellingcat investigation later uncovered that a Russian intelligence service squad planted the poison on his underwear. 

Navalny returned to Russia in 2021 after being treated in Germany for Novichok poisoning.

Some background: Novichok, which means “newcomer” in Russian, was first developed in secret by the Soviet Union during the Cold War in the 1980s, as a means of countering US chemical weapons defenses.

Its existence remained secret until the mid-nineties when information regarding its production was revealed as part of a deliberate leak by disgruntled Soviet scientist and whistle-blower Vil Mirzayanov. Even today, no country outside of Russia is known to have developed the substance. Read more about how it works.

155mm artillery shells that are ready to be shipped are stored at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant on April 12, in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

As funding for Ukraine faces an uncertain future in Congress, the US Army has been left to foot the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars in support for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia over the past few months.

Army officials are also increasingly concerned that without new funding, they will have to begin pulling money from other critical projects to continue supporting Kyiv.

Since October 2023, the beginning of the fiscal year, the Army has spent more than $430 million on various operations, including training Ukrainian troops, transporting equipment, and US troop deployments to Europe.

So far, that bill has been paid from the Army’s Europe and Africa Command. Without a 2024 budget approved by Congress, and without additional funding specifically for Ukraine, the command has roughly $3 billion to pay for $5 billion of operations costs, a second senior Army official explained.

That includes the operations related to Ukraine support — training and ferrying weapons and equipment to Poland and Ukraine — and other operations for the US command throughout Europe and Africa.

If Congress still hasn’t passed new funding for Ukraine within a few months, Army officials say they will have to start making hard decisions and divert money from less critical projects, such as badly needed barracks construction or enlistment incentives amid record-low recruiting.

Read the full story.

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, center left, walks with his wife Yulia after arriving from Kirov at a railway station in Moscow, Russia, on July 20, 2013.

The widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny on Monday claimed President Vladimir Putin “killed the father of my children,” and “took away the most precious thing that was my closest and most beloved person.” 

The fierce Kremlin critic was jailed in 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was being treated after being poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020. On Friday, the Russian prison service said he had died aged 47.

In an 8-minute address posted on Alexey Navalny’s social media accounts, Yulia Navalnaya promised that she would find out who was responsible for his death and that “We will name names.” 

She also promised to continue her husband’s work.

“Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and half of my soul. But the other half of me remains and it tells me that I don’t have the right to surrender,” she said. “No one except ourselves will protect us.”

European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell talks to the press as he arrives for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium, on February 19.

The European Union is set to rename its human rights sanctions regime to pay homage to Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny who died in an Arctic prison last week.

Changing the name to the “Navalny human rights sanction regime” would allow the dissident’s name “to be forever written on the work of the European Union on defending human rights,” the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

The EU’s “global human rights sanctions regime” came into force in December 2020 and provides the EU with a legal basis “to target individuals, entities and bodies – including state and non-state actors – responsible for, involved in or associated with serious human rights violations and abuses worldwide.”

Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, will on Monday address the 27 European foreign ministers, delivering “a political message about how to support the opposition, the political opposition inside Russia against Putin’s regime,” Borrell said. 

Amid the abrupt and sometimes chaotic withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the city of Avdiivka, one horrifying story has emerged of several injured soldiers who did not escape — and were later killed as Russian troops reached their position.

Ivan Zhytnyk, 30, whose call sign is “Django,” had been fighting in Avdiivka for nearly two years, as had the 110th Brigade.

The junior sergeant and combat medic was badly injured and could not move. But on Thursday, he reached his sister Kateryna and other family members in an emotional video call, which has since received widespread coverage on Ukrainian and social media. 

Kateryna asks her brother: “So, what, they… no one is coming? Your guys are there too [with you], or are you alone?” 
Django replied: “Everyone left, everyone retreated. They told us that a car would pick us up. I have two broken legs, shrapnel in my back. I can’t do anything…
He said there were six soldiers at the position, called Zenit. “Four people who are like me can’t walk either,” he told his sister. 
Kateryna responds: “I don’t know how to… who to call (crying)… I can’t figure it out. Who will pick you up?”

No-one did.

On Friday, a video was posted by a Russian military blogger that showed the bodies of several of the soldiers. The video carried the emblem of the Russian Army’s 1st Slavic Brigade, which had entered the area south of Avdiivka two days earlier, according to multiple accounts. 

The text on the video says: “February 16, 2024. Military Unit facility, Avdeevka. Ukrnazi, only death is waiting for you at our land.”

Kateryna said she recognized Ivan’s body by his clothes and the water bottle he held.

Russian troops have raised their country’s flag in the ruined town of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region after Ukrainian forces retreated.

Ukraine withdrew from the town, which it had been defending for a decade, months after Russia renewed efforts to seize it and tolerated devastating losses to do so.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that seven Russians were killed for every Ukrainian soldier lost.

Despite the high casualty rates, Russia is pressuring Ukrainian defenses at several other points along the 1,000-kilometer frontline.

The seizure of Avdiivka demonstrates Russia’s growing manpower advantage in what is becoming a war of attrition.

Here are the latest developments in the region:

Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny takes part in a march in memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, Russia, on February 24, 2019.

The Kremlin has said that an investigation into the circumstances around late Russian politician Alexey Navalny’s death is “underway,” and the results are currently “unknown.” 

Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, made the statement in his daily call with journalists.

When asked by CNN why Putin has yet to make any public comments on Navalny’s death, Peskov said: “I have nothing to add to what has been said on this topic.”

A spokesperson for the late Russian politician Alexey Navalny said his mother and lawyers were denied access Monday to the morgue where his body is allegedly being held. 

Spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said Navalny’s mother and lawyers “were not allowed” to go into the morgue after arriving “early” on Monday morning, according to a statement on X. 

Although Yarmysh did not specify the location in her post, she is believed to be referring to the same morgue in the town of Salekhard where his mother and lawyer were also denied access on Saturday. 

“One of the lawyers was literally pushed out. When the staff was asked if Alexey’s body was there, they did not answer,” Yarmysh said, recounting Monday’s visit. 

In a separate post, Yarmysh said Navalny’s mother and lawyers were told by Russia’s Investigative Committee that the investigation into his death had been extended for an undisclosed duration. 

“How much longer it will go is unknown. The cause of death is still ‘undetermined.’ They lie, stall for time, and don’t even hide it,” Yarmysh said, criticizing the investigation. 

Kremlin says “not involved”: The Kremlin said it is “not involved” in the issue of returning Navalny’s body to his family. 

“This is not the responsibility of the presidential administration,” Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, said in his daily call with journalists.

People gather at a makeshift memorial for Alexey Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 16.

At least 366 people have reportedly been detained across Russia since Friday for attending vigils and rallies in honor of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, according to OVD-Info, a human rights group that monitors Russian repression.

The jailed Russian opposition figure and outspoken Kremlin critic died on Friday at a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle, according to the Russian prison service. He was serving multiple sentences for fraud, extremism and other charges he dismissed as politically motivated.

According to OVD-Info, 128 of those detained have since been released. The monitoring group cautioned that numbers could increase or decrease as it receives updated information.

Police detain people after laying flowers at a monument to victims of political repression to honor Alexey Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 17.

Outcry over return of Navalny’s body: By Sunday, nearly 30,000 people had also joined a petition to Russian authorities for the immediate release of Navalny’s body to his family. At the moment, the exact location of his remains is unclear.

Russian officials said Friday that a “procedural investigation” had been organized to clarify the circumstances surrounding Navalny’s death. Prison authorities said the opposition figure fell gravely ill shortly after returning from a walk — a statement met with skepticism from Western leaders.

Navalny and the war in Ukraine: Since he was imprisoned in 2021, Navalny had condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and encouraged anti-war protests across the country.

The reported death of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most high-profile critic punctuates a crackdown on dissidence in Russia that has accelerated during the war.

It has also reignited debate in the US about how forcefully to counter Russia and Putin.

US President Joe Biden delivers remark at a campaign event in Manassas, Virginia, on January 23.

In a call Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, US President Joe Biden directly tied Ukraine’s withdrawal from the key town of Avdiivka to Congress’ inability to pass further aid for the country’s effort to fend off Russia’s invasion.

“This morning, Ukraine’s military was forced to withdraw from Avdiivka, after Ukrainian soldiers had to ration ammunition due to dwindling supplies as a result of congressional inaction, resulting in Russia’s first notable gains in months. President Biden emphasized the need for Congress to urgently pass the national security supplemental funding bill to resupply Ukrainian forces,” a White House readout of the call stated.

The call bookended a week defined by US attempts to reassert leadership on the world stage.

It also highlighted renewed urgency to pass additional funds for Ukraine amid the withdrawal from Avdiivka, a key town that in recent months became one of the most fiercely contested battles on the eastern front, and Russia’s reports of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny’s death.

Destroyed buildings in Avdiivka, Ukraine, are pictured on February 15.

Ukrainian forces on Friday announced their withdrawal from Avdiivka, a key town that in recent months became one of the most fiercely contested battles on the eastern front.

The move followed an intensification of Moscow’s attacks on the area, as Russia pummeled it with airstrikes and artillery, and sent wave after wave of ground assaults by armored vehicles and soldiers.

While the town’s strategic significance is limited, Avdiivka marks the biggest gain for Moscow since it captured the city of Bakhmut last year, and is an indication of how the war appears to have turned in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s favor.

Ukrainian servicemen fire an anti-tank grenade launcher toward Russian troops in Avdiivka on November 8.

Ukraine faces renewed pressure across the eastern front, compounded by ammunition and manpower shortages.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the decision to pull back from Avdiivka was made to “save our soldiers’ lives.”

“In order to avoid being surrounded, it was decided to withdraw to other lines. This does not mean that people retreated some kilometers and Russia captured something, it did not capture anything,” he added.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a statement Saturday the city is now under full Russian control.

A member of Ukraine's coast guard mans a gun on a patrol boat as a cargo ship passes by in the Black Sea on February 7.

Ukrainians have had little to celebrate as the second anniversary of the Russian invasion looms, but continuing successes in the Black Sea are one surprising bright spot.

Last week, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence announced it had attacked and destroyed a large landing ship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet – the Caesar Kunikov – with maritime drones off the coast of Crimea. 

Ukraine has virtually no navy of its own, but technological innovation, audacity and Russian incompetence have given it the upper hand in much of the Black Sea.

It has now destroyed or disabled more than 20 Russian naval ships in the region, a third of Russia’s total Black Sea fleet.

That has secured a maritime corridor that allows Ukraine to export much of its grain and other produce from ports such as Odesa – an economic boon at a time when the economy has been battered by the conflict.

Remember: In July last year, Russia quit the UN-brokered Black Sea Initiative, which had allowed Ukraine safe passage to ship 31.5 million tons of grain and other food products from its ports to world markets. The deal had lasted just under a year.

Rather than fold, the Ukrainians declared a unilateral “Black Sea Humanitarian Corridor” for merchant shipping and stepped up its use of maritime drones and missile attacks against Russia’s Black Sea fleet. The corridor hugs the Ukrainian coast before reaching the waters of two NATO states, Romania and Bulgaria.

Read more about the flashpoints in the Black Sea here.