February 20, 2024 - Russia-Ukraine news

The first four Ukrainian pilots are scheduled to complete training on F-16 fighter jets by summer, according to the Arizona National Guard. The pilots began training in mid-October with the 162nd Fighter Wing in Tucson, Arizona. The Pentagon said the training process would take several months to complete.

A second group of another four pilots began training in January, according to Capt. Erin Hannigan, a spokeswoman for the Arizona National Guard, while a third group of four is currently going through English-language training, which is required to fly the fourth-generation US fighter jet.

All of the pilots are expected to complete their training between May and August, said Hannigan, though the exact timeline depends on the progress of the program.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky requested F-16 fighters for months, believing the advanced US jets would be able to challenge Russia's aerial power over the battlefield. 

Last summer, a coalition of nations led by Denmark began training Ukrainian pilots on the US jets. The Netherlands, Denmark and Norway have pledged to provide Ukraine with the F-16s jets after the training program. The US also committed to approving the transfer of the jets as soon as training was completed.

Estonia has detained 10 suspects for “acting on behalf of a Russian special service” in connection to influence operation on its territory, its government announced Tuesday.

The people arrested by the Estonian Internal Security Service include both Russian and Estonian nationals, officials said. The goal was for the Russian group to "spread fear and create tension in Estonian society,” the Estonian Internal Security Service said in a statement.

Investigators suspect these people were recruited by the Russian special service to gather information and perform various actions — like vandalizing the cars of the interior minister and several monuments. Some of those arrested were recruited via social media, according to Margo Palloson, director general of the Estonian Internal Security Service.

Russia has not yet responded to these claims.

More context: With Russia's war in Ukraine raging in the region, the arrests in Estonia come as the tension between Talinn and Moscow has continued to rise in recent days.

Estonia joined NATO in 2004 and has been a particular target because of its substantial Russian-speaking minority — nearly 25% of the population. The Kremlin is also directly involved in shaping Russian influence operations in neighboring countries, according to Presidential Administration documents leaked last year.

CNN's Jim Sciutto contributed reporting to this post.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Avdiivka “an unconditional success” during his meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in the Kremlin on Tuesday.

However, Putin said the success in Avdiivka “needs to be developed” and Russian troops have to push further, well prepared “with personnel, weapons, equipment, and ammunition.”

Putin noted that he would talk to Shoigu separately about meeting the needs of the military in this area.

Shoigu echoed Putin, agreeing that the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Avdiivka is “a great success for the mixed group of troops, units, formations, everyone without exception.”

“For nine years, day after day, underground passages, concrete structures were made, special lines were made so that one could move without going to the surface,” Shoigu said, adding that Russian air force, army and attack aviation played a major role in capturing Avdiivka as Russia carried out “about 460 aerial strikes” daily before the withdrawal from the city.

Shoigu claimed that Ukrainian armed forces leadership was ordered to withdraw from the city when the Ukrainian troops “were already on the move and leaving this settlement” and called it “a chaotic retreat.” Shoigu noted that while retreating, a lot of Ukrainian soldiers were captured as they were wounded in the process and were unable to escape.

The defense minister also claimed that Krynky, a small riverside village situated on the left bank of Dnipro river in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, is “completely” under Russian control at the moment.

Ukraine's Operational Command "South" denied Russian claims of being in control of Krynky after Shoigu's announcement and called it “a manipulation and falsification of facts.” 

“The defense forces of southern Ukraine continue to hold their positions, inflicting significant losses on the enemy,” the command said.

US officials had been working on a new sanctions package for Russia ahead of last week's death of Alexey Navalny, and are now supplementing them in the wake of the opposition leader's death, according to a senior US official.

The package will be timed around the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and officials are coordinating with European partners on the new package, the official said.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday the new measures would be a "substantial package" that covers a wide range of elements linked to the Russian defense industrial base and sources of revenue for the Russian economy that power the country's "war machine."

Sullivan described the package as "another turn of the crank" after withering western sanctions on Moscow since the start of the Ukraine war. While those sanctions have hampered Russia's economy, they haven't deterred President Vladimir Putin from proceeding with the invasion.

Existing sanctions have "isolated" Russia on the world stage, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said aboard Air Force One Tuesday. American assistance has degraded the country's military, she said.

Jean-Pierre said the White House was being careful in detailing the exact parameters of the sanctions to avoid capital flight before the punishments are in place.

President Joe Biden plans to confer with fellow G7 leaders on a conference call Friday timed around the anniversary of the start of the Ukraine war.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested a dual United States-Russian citizen on charges of treason for collecting funds for Ukrainian organizations and openly supporting Kyiv.

A regional court website from Sverdlovsk, where the case was opened, on Tuesday listed the person's name as Ksenia Pavlovna Karelina. It said she is being charged under article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code: treason. Karelina said she is appealing her arrest, according to Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti.

The FSB said earlier Tuesday that a 33-year-old Los Angeles resident was detained in Russia's city of Yekaterinburg for "providing financial assistance to a foreign state in activities directed against the security of our country."

The funds raised were used to "purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition by the Ukrainian Armed Forces," the FSB said.

The Sverdlovsk Regional Court press service told RIA her hearing was meant to take place today, but due to the absence of a lawyer, it was postponed until February 29.

CNN has reached out to the US Embassy in Moscow for comment.

This post has been updated with the US citizen's name and other information from RIA.

Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh once again urged the US House of Representatives on Tuesday to pass the national security supplemental legislation and provide security aid to Ukraine. 

Singh noted that allies and adversaries of the US are watching. "So we need the House to urgently pass and act — and work to pass this bipartisan supplemental agreement that passed last week in the Senate," she said.

Singh added that there would only be days after the House returned from recess — in roughly a week — before the funding for military construction will expire, and another week before funding for the entire Department of Defense expires. 

More countries have summoned their Russian ambassadors over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

The Russian ambassador to France was summoned on Monday and the ambassador to Poland on Tuesday, according to both country's foreign ministries.

The French Foreign Ministry called for an “independent and thorough investigation” into the circumstances of Navalny’s death. It urged also for the “immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Russia.”

Similarly, Poland called on the Russian authorities to take responsibility for the death of Navalny and conduct “a full and transparent investigation,” in a statement from the Polish foreign ministry.

The European Union's diplomatic body, the European External Action Service (EEAS) also summoned Russia’s Chargé d'Affaires to the European Union Kirill Logvinov in Brussels Tuesday. The bloc called on Russia to allow for an international investigation into Navalny’s “sudden death” and said Russia must release all political prisoners and those people detained in Russia when paying tribute to Navalny.

Some background: Several nations — including Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Germany — have also summoned the Russian ambassador to their countries over Navalny's death in the last couple of days. Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, accused Western countries of politicizing Navalny's death and said the investigation into the cause of death has "not concluded yet."

This post has been updated with the latest information from the European External Action Service.

CNN’s James Frater contributed reporting to this post.

A Ukrainian commander stationed on the outskirts of Avdiivka says Russia has the capacity to continue its advance into the eastern town and will "continue to do so."

Maksym Zhorin, deputy commander of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, posted to Telegram on Tuesday that Ukrainian troops are "clearly aware that the Russians have enough forces in the town itself to continue their offensive."

He said Russian troops were headed in the direction of Lastochkyne.

Some context: After years of fighting, Ukrainian forces made the decision over the weekend to abandon the town, handing Russia its most significant victory since it captured the city of Bakhmut last year.

The White House will announce a major sanctions package against Russia on Friday, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday.

The sanctions will hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for Russia's war in Ukraine — which hits the 2-year mark on Saturday — and for the death of opposition figure Alexey Navalny, he said. 

Kirby also repeated calls for Congress to pass the administration’s national security supplemental, directly tying the aid for Ukraine to the legislation, which remains stalled in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

President Joe Biden previewed the upcoming announcement at the White House on Tuesday, telling reporters they’d hear more from him on the subject Friday. 

"I told you we’d be announcing sanctions on Russia — we’ll have a major package announced on Friday,” Biden told reporters gathered on the South Lawn before departing the White House for a three-day fundraising swing in California.

Meanwhile, Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on a call Tuesday that the new sanctions against Russia will impact a "significant range of targets that we have worked persistently and diligently to identify, to continue to impose costs for what Russia has done — for what it's done to Navalny, for what it's done to Ukraine, and for the threat that it represents to international peace and security."