February 20, 2024 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

Sergei Shoigu addresses a conference in Kubinka, Moscow region, on August 15, 2023. 

Russia produces “thousands of drones a day,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in an interview with state media TASS on Tuesday.

Shoigu said Russia had made a “giant step” in making uncrewed aircraft “over the past eight to nine months.”

According to Shoigu, the significant increase in production was possible in part due to “the new generation of entrepreneurs” who got involved in drone and military equipment production.

Ukraine also plans to ramp up its drone production this year.

During a press conference in December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv plans to produce one million drones in 2024.

Two men were killed and one woman was injured after a Russian drone hit a car with civilians in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Kharkiv, a military official said on Telegram Wednesday.

A man with his wife and a driver were on their way home from work at a local farm when the strike took place in the village of Petropavlivka, said Oleh Syniehubov, the head of Kharkiv regional military administration.

The woman was taken to the hospital after the strike, Syniehubov said.

Oleksandr (L), who was kept at a state boarding school in Russian-occupied Lugansk hugs his aunt Viktoria, after he crossed the border from Belarus to Ukraine, in the Volyn region, on February 20.

Eleven Ukrainian children reunited with their families after being repatriated from Russia on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said on X.

Oleksandr, 16, told Agence France-Presse (AFP): “Everything will get better. After all, with loved ones, life will be easier from now on.”

The children were repatriated from Russia through Qatari mediation and with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund. 

A local civilian chops wood for making fire in the downtown of Ocheretyne, a village near Avdiivka on February 19.

An Ukrainian commander stationed on the outskirts of Avdiivka said 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.

Here are the latest headlines:

In this July 2021 photo, a US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft, assigned to the 121st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, is refueled during a mission in support of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve in the US Central Command area of responsibility.

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 talks during the Strong Ideas For The New Times Forum in Moscow, Russia on February 20.

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.

Pentagon Deputy Spokesperson Sabrina Singh holds a press briefing at the Pentagon on January 26, 2023 in Arlington, Virginia.

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.

Maksym Zhorin speaks on stage during a rally in Kyiv, in December 2021.

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.

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 15.

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.”

A view of the town of Avdiivka on Monday.

The town of Avdiivka would not have been lost if Ukraine “had received all the artillery ammunition that we needed to defend it,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Kuleba said the war would continue and that “Russia does not intend to pause.”

White House official John Kirby also laid the blame for Ukraine’s withdrawal from Avdiivka at the feet of Republicans in Congress.

“Let’s be clear about this: Ukraine’s decision to withdraw from Avdiivka wasn’t because they weren’t brave enough, wasn’t because weren’t well-led enough, it wasn’t because they weren’t trained, it wasn’t because they didn’t have the tactical acumen to defend themselves and to defend that town. It was because of congressional inaction,” he said Tuesday.

The White House is calling for “complete transparency” surrounding the circumstances of Alexey Navalny’s death, even as it conceded there was little confidence in getting a straight answer from Russia on how the opposition leader died.

He pointed the finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying “regardless of the actual scientific answer, Mr. Putin is responsible for it.”

Navalny’s body will not be returned to the family for at least another 14 days, his spokesperson Kira Yarmish said Monday. His body will be under “some sort of chemical examination” in that period, the spokesperson added.

The White House said absent a “credible investigation” of Navalny’s death, it would be difficult to get a clear cause.

“It’s hard to get to a point where we can just take the Russians’ word for it. So clearly, we’re calling for complete transparency by the Russian government for how he died and we’ll continue to do that.,” Kirby said.

Captain Maxim Kuzminov, pilot of a Russian military Mi-8 helicopter, who flew the machine into Ukrainian territory and surrendered to the country's authorities, pictured in Kyiv, Ukraine, on September 5.

A Russian helicopter pilot Maxim Kuzminov who defected to Ukraine in a dramatic operation is dead, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR) tells CNN.

The statement comes as Spanish authorities investigate the killing of a man shot dead in Spain a week ago.

Initially, the Spanish Civil Guard said the victim was a 33-year-old Ukrainian but later said the man’s identity was still part of an investigation, which had been sealed by a judge. 

A source at Ukraine’s GUR confirmed to CNN the body was that of Kuzminov, but would not comment on how he had died.

Spanish Civil Guard officers investigate the garage where the body of Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov was found in Villajoyosa, Spain, on February 13.

Asked Tuesday whether Russia had any knowledge of the death, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had no information on the matter.

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Director Sergey Naryshkin would also not comment directly on Kuzminov’s death, but told reporters the defector had become “a moral corpse the moment he began planning his dirty and terrible crime,” Russia’s RIA Novosti reported.  

Some context: Last September, CNN reported on how the Russian pilot flew his Mi8 combat helicopter across the border – in an operation directed by Ukraine’s GUR. In an interview, carried out under the auspices of the GUR, Kuzminov explained how he planned his defection and why he did it, telling reporters he was opposed to the war.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 18.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says the nation is staunchly committed to democracy, even as it is unclear if elections will be held this year during the country’s war against Russia.

Elections usually occur every five years in Ukraine — with the last held in 2019, when President Volodymyr Zelensky was elected — but do not take place while the country is under martial law, as it has been since Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.

In November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said holding elections during wartime would be “irresponsible.” Elections were scheduled for March 31 this year.

Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in Kyiv on Tuesday, Kuleba said that “people will be simply afraid to go and cast their votes.”

Amanpour asked what it would mean for democracy in the country if no elections were held.

“This is not an issue of willing or not willing to hold elections. This is an issue of finding answers to very specific questions. How do you ensure the security of voters who will go to the voting station?” he said.

On Navalny: Kuleba also commented on the death of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be considered a legitimate ruler if he “does not stick to his word.”

Yulia Navalnaya Twitter suspended on February 20.

The X account of Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, was briefly suspended on Tuesday morning.

The page @Yulia_Navalnaya displayed the following message: 

About 30 minutes later, however, Navalnaya’s account had been restored, with seemingly no explanation. Later in the day, X’s safety team said the platform accidentally flagged Navalnaya’s account as spam. In a post, they said they rectified the issue as soon as it came to light and would be updating their defense system.

While it was suspended, Alexey Navalny’s foundation, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, took to X, tagging the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, and asking, “Please explain exactly which rules were violated by @yulia_navalnaya.”

The account was online Tuesday morning, when Navalnaya responded to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

Peskov said her comments blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for Navalny’s death were “boorish” and “absolutely unfounded,” prompting Navalnaya to respond:

“I don’t care how the killer’s press secretary comments on my words. Give back Alexey’s body and let him be buried with dignity, don’t stop people from saying goodbye to him,” she posted on X. 

CNN has asked her team for comment.

This post has been updated with Navalnaya’s account being restored and comment from X’s safety team.

Polish farmers with their tractors and vehicles block the highway linking Warsaw and Lublin outside the town of Ryki, Poland, during a protest of farmers across the country against EU climate measures on February 20.

Ukraine on Tuesday slammed the scattering of Ukrainian grain on railroad tracks by protesters in Poland.

Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov posted a video that shows demonstrators opening railway carriages and allowing the grain to pour onto the tracks. 

Farmers in Poland have vowed to continue their demonstrations, which started on February 9, for 30 days. They have also been blocking access routes to border crossings with Ukraine.

Why are farmers protesting: Farmers in central and eastern Europe have been speaking out since 2023 against the impact of cheap Ukrainian grain imports, which have undercut domestic prices and hit the sales of local producers. They cannot compete with the price of Ukrainian grain, they say, and have demanded compensation from the European Commission.

Ukraine is often called the “breadbasket of Europe” due to the vast quantities of grain it produces. When Russia blocked Ukrainian Black Sea ports, it sparked fears about global food supplies and prompted the European Commission to set up what it called “solidarity lanes” in May to facilitate exports. The commission also temporarily eliminated all duties and quotas on Ukraine’s exports, allowing a glut of cheap grain to flow into Europe.

Anger grew after the European Commission announced a draft decision to extend duty-free and quota-free imports of Ukrainian grain until June 2024.

CNN’s Christian Edwards, Alex Hardie and Antonia Mortensen contributed reporting.