The Washington Post

04 March 2024 20:34

Explosion at rail bridge deep inside Russia shows Ukraine’s reach

KYIV — Ukraine hinted Monday that its agents were responsible for an explosion on a Russian railway bridge used to transport ammunition, in what appears to be the latest successful operation targeting infrastructure deep behind enemy lines as Ukrainian forces struggle against advancing Russian troops.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the GUR, said Monday that the explosion on the railway bridge in Russia’s Samara region — about 650 miles from the Ukrainian border — occurred about 6 a.m. local time. “Its use in the next few weeks is impossible,” the agency said in a post on the Telegram social media app.

The GUR did not directly assert responsibility for the attack, but this wouldn’t be the first time Ukraine’s security services have targeted military rail routes in Russia — a hybrid warfare technique that has increased as Russia has regained the offensive initiative along the front line in Ukraine.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

03 March 2024 15:38

Alexei Navalny’s mourners also grieve for a democratic Russia

MOSCOW — In the weeks since Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died suddenly in an Arctic prison, the simple act of laying flowers — at his graveside or makeshift memorials — has become an act of political defiance.

Wartime Russia brooks no dissent.

When he was alive, Navalny, an anti-corruption and pro-democracy activist, had urged his followers not to be afraid as they struggled for what he called a free and “happy” Russia of the future.

On Saturday, one day after he was laid to rest at a Moscow cemetery, mourners, many of them carrying bouquets, were still braving the police to pay their respects.

But in today’s Russia, freedom and happiness have never seemed further away.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

01 March 2024 19:22

Russians turn out to bury Alexei Navalny, as police try to keep them away

MOSCOW — Thousands of Russians who risked arrest Friday to attend the Moscow funeral of opposition leader Alexei Navalny were thwarted by a huge force of riot police, deployed to ensure that President Vladimir Putin’s charismatic rival was buried with as little fanfare as possible.

But the throngs of supporters who braved the security presence sent a powerful message that many Russians still support Navalny’s vision of a free, democratic Russia — and showed his pivotal role as a man who fearlessly defied Putin from prison.

Navalny died Feb. 16 in prison at age 47, with an official investigation declaring that his death was due to “natural causes.” His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and aides have accused Putin of his “murder,” while many Western leaders have said Putin was responsible.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

29 February 2024 20:12

Russia seizes more villages in Ukraine, raising fears of growing momentum

KYIV — After taking the strategic northeast Ukrainian town of Avdiivka two weeks ago, Russian forces have seized three more villages in the past few days, suggesting a growing momentum in their advance even as Western officials warn of the ammunition shortages Kyiv’s military is facing.

Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that its troops had taken the village of Stepove, seven miles northwest of Avdiivka. Ukrainian officials said the previous day that Kyiv’s forces had pulled back from Stepove and the neighboring village of Sieverne.

Ukrainian forces also withdrew from the village of Lastochkyne “to organize defenses” along a new line of settlements, “aiming to prevent further enemy advancement to the west,” Dmytro Lykhoviy, a military spokesman, said Monday on Ukrainian television.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

29 February 2024 13:23

Analysis: Foreign troops in Ukraine? They’re already there.

Kyiv has suffered recent battlefield setbacks as it grapples with shortages in munitions and workforce. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico had earlier suggested that there were European countries “prepared to send their own troops to Ukraine” — a revelation that was put to other European officials in attendance.

Officials from the United States, Germany, Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic and a number of other NATO countries all dismissed the suggestion that they were considering sending troops. But French President Emmanuel Macron chose “strategic ambiguity” and stressed the importance of not allowing Russia to win the war.

Leaked documents last year confirmed that some NATO countries — including the United States, Britain and France — had deployed small numbers of special forces and military advisers to Ukraine in unspecified roles probably related to logistical support work and training.

Read the full analysis here.

The Washington Post

27 February 2024 21:24

Analysis: Zelensky’s increasingly blunt comments about Trump

The relationship between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been one of intrigue and consequence from the start. What began with then-President Trump’s attempts to leverage Zelensky for political gain over Joe Biden in the 2020 election — the thing Trump was initially impeached for — has more recently involved candidate Trump’s efforts to kill two attempts at funding Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion.

Through much of it, Zelensky has been mostly diplomatic toward the former and potentially future president who, regardless of the 2024 election results, holds considerable sway over the survival of Zelensky’s country.

But increasingly, Zelensky has apparently decided that diplomacy involves putting pressure on and, in some cases, directly criticizing Trump.

Read the full analysis here.

The Washington Post

27 February 2024 13:45

With U.S. aid in doubt, Europe struggles to rearm Ukraine

SASTAMALA, Finland — The race to stave off disaster in Ukraine’s war against Russia is unfolding in the battle-scarred fields and forests of Eastern Europe and, in a small way, a quiet wooded area of southwest Finland.

Workers at this plant, which now operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, have increased their output of 155mm shells fourfold since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The scramble here reflects an effort intensifying across the continent, as European nations seek to accelerate the production of weapons needed to sustain Ukraine’s battle against Kremlin forces and to harden their own defenses against what the continent’s leaders now see as a heightened Russian threat.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

25 February 2024 17:50

Zelensky says 31,000 Ukrainian troops killed since Russian invasion

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that 31,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since Russia invaded two years ago, marking the first time he has provided an official estimate of Ukraine’s military losses during the conflict.

Zelensky gave the figure at a news conference in Kyiv to mark the second anniversary of the war.

“I don’t know if I have a right to tell you the numbers of our losses. Every single person is a tragedy,” he said, adding, “31,000 [members] of Ukraine’s military were killed during this war.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

24 February 2024 13:30

Five maps show where the war in Ukraine stands after two years

Russia’s war in Ukraine has stalled over the past year, with neither side making any huge gains along the hundreds-of-miles-long front line. Attacks including missile strikes, drone strikes and shelling from both Ukrainian and Russian forces remain concentrated in the same general areas they were mired in at the end of 2022.

But the fighting has intensified, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which has been tracking such incidents throughout the war. The organization recorded 9,700 battle events — armed clashes, or the takeover or recovery of territory — in the second year of the war, a 32 percent increase compared with the first year. It said the increase was mainly due to increased fighting in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, both of which Ukraine focused on in its failed counteroffensive.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

23 February 2024 14:15

What the Pentagon has learned from two years of war in Ukraine

The U.S. military is undertaking an expansive revision of its approach to war fighting, having largely abandoned the counterinsurgency playbook that was a hallmark of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan to focus instead on preparing for an even larger conflict with more sophisticated adversaries such as Russia or China.

What’s transpired in Ukraine, where this week the war enters its third year with hundreds of thousands dead or wounded on both sides and still no end in sight, has made clear to the Pentagon that battlefield calculations have fundamentally changed in the years since it last deployed forces in large numbers. Precision weapons, fleets of drones and digital surveillance can reach far beyond the front lines, posing grave risk to personnel wherever they are.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

22 February 2024 11:45

For many young Russians, dreams of democracy died with Alexei Navalny

RIGA, Latvia — As shared grief over Alexei Navalny’s death echoed across countless Russian émigré communities — in online chatrooms, and encrypted messenger calls — many of the opposition leader’s young, idealistic followers described the same sinking feeling: their dreams of a free, democratic Russia died with him, forcing many to redraw their life plans.

Over six days of shock and mourning, of flowers and candles brought to makeshift memorials in Russia and across the world, many said they felt deeply alone, left to fight President Vladimir Putin one-on-one with little hope of victory. For many already abroad it means never going home; and for those still home it means deciding whether to leave, once and for all.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

21 February 2024 13:29

Navalny’s mother, in video, pleads with Putin to release her son’s body

RIGA, Latvia — Alexei Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, appealed to President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to direct authorities in the northern Yamalo-Nenets region to hand over the opposition leader’s body for burial.

“It’s been five days, and I still can’t see him; they don’t give me his body, and they don’t even tell me where he is,” Navalnaya said in a video statement, standing in front of the Polar Wolf high-security prison where her son died Friday.

“I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin, the resolution to the issue depends solely on you,” she said. “Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body be immediately handed over so that I can humanely bury him.” The video was posted on Navalny’s YouTube channel.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

19 February 2024 21:44

Ukrainian officials say Navalny’s death shows Putin’s regime is ‘evil’

KYIV — For Ukrainian officials, the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny offered the latest evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin runs a murderous regime and that Ukraine cannot and must not negotiate with him.

But there has also been no outpouring of condolences from Kyiv officials over Navalny’s death — a reflection of the ambivalence many Ukrainians felt toward the late Russian opposition leader, who was half-Ukrainian but also made controversial statements that spurred suspicions that he harbored Russian nationalist views similar to Putin’s.

“Putin is the ultimate evil who is afraid of any competition,” Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration posted on X. “The lives of Russians are nothing to him. Everyone who calls for negotiations must realize that he cannot be trusted. The only language he understands is force.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

18 February 2024 21:17

Hundreds risk arrest, and Kremlin’s wrath, to lay flowers for Navalny

MOSCOW — Ahead of the third day of mourning for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died suddenly in an Arctic prison, activists sent out safety tips for Russians wishing to lay flowers at memorials that have sprung up across the country, from St. Petersburg in the northwest to Magadan in the Far East; in the capital, Moscow, that was Navalny’s beloved home — and even in the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

“Bring your passport. Keep a copy of the hotline for detainees. Bring water, a fully charged phone, and a powerbank,” one post stated. Navalny’s team, now operating in exile, also offered to pay any fines meted out to protesters.

Navalny, who was the most prominent challenger of President Vladimir Putin, often urged his supporters not to be afraid.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

18 February 2024 14:45

In Munich, Zelensky urges U.S. and other allies not to abandon Ukraine

MUNICH — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded on Saturday for the United States and other international supporters to stick with Ukraine, warning a gathering of political leaders and security and defense officials that his country, if left alone, will be destroyed by Russia.

Zelensky, in a speech at the annual Munich Security Conference, seemed to speak directly to members of Congress who are blocking critical aid as he highlighted short-term deficits on the battlefield as well as the longer-term threat posed by Russia’s aggression to the rules-based international order.

Read the full story.

The Washington Post

04 March 2024 15:02

Zelensky in bind over how to draft more troops as Russian forces advance

KYIV — Even as he promises international partners that Ukraine will handle the fighting if given needed weapons and other support, President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top military commanders have failed so far to come up with a clear plan to conscript or recruit many thousands of new soldiers critically needed to defend against Russia’s continuing attacks.

Zelensky’s inability to forge a political consensus on a mobilization strategy — despite months of warnings about a severe shortage of qualified troops on the front — has fueled deep divisions in Ukraine’s parliament and more broadly in Ukrainian society. It has left the military relying on a hodgepodge of recruiting efforts and sown panic among fighting-age men, some of whom have gone into hiding, worried that they will be drafted into an ill-equipped army and sent to certain death given that aid for Ukraine remains stalled in Washington.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

02 March 2024 20:52

Inside Ukraine’s last stand in Avdiivka and its ‘road of death'

DONETSK REGION, Ukraine — On Feb. 17, Russia claimed total control of the eastern city of Avdiivka — its first significant territorial gain in almost a year.

The loss was a stinging defeat for Ukraine, which up until the last minute was still rushing troops to the city in a desperate last-ditch attempt to hold the Russians off.

Seven troops from the 3rd Assault Brigade spoke to The Post about their final days under Russian assault inside the former Ukrainian stronghold. Their accounts drive home the urgency of Ukraine’s battlefield disadvantage as soldiers — far outnumbered by Russians — wait for Western weapon deliveries and troop reinforcements.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

01 March 2024 15:14

Alexei Navalny buried as Russian public blocked from cemetery

MOSCOW — The body of Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable critic, was lowered into the ground to the strains of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” as thousands of his supporters outside a cemetery chanted to be allowed in to pay their respects.

Under the supervision of busloads of riot police, Navalny’s body was whisked into a church for a brief ceremony before being taken for burial.

The opposition leader died suddenly at the age of 47 in the Polar Wolf prison colony in northern Russia.

Follow live updates here.

The Washington Post

29 February 2024 15:47

Putin threatens nuclear response to NATO troops if they go to Ukraine

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin used his annual State of the Nation address on Thursday to take aim at the West, threatening to use nuclear weapons against NATO countries if they send forces to help defend Ukraine from a Russian victory.

In a speech to Russia’s Federal Assembly that was predominantly dedicated to the economy, Putin delivered a tough warning, threatening retaliatory strikes against the West in the event of attacks on Russian territory.

“They must understand that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” he said, warning of “tragic consequences” if NATO forces were ever deployed to Ukraine. “All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

28 February 2024 18:05

Navalny’s widow warns in E.U. speech of arrests at husband’s funeral

MOSCOW — Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, warned the European Parliament on Wednesday of possible arrests at her husband’s funeral, which is now set for Friday.

Wearing a somber black and white dress, Navalnaya went on to chastise Western politicians and officials for their policies on Russia and Ukraine, and she implored them to change their tactics against Russian President Vladimir Putin and treat him not as a statesman but as a mafia leader.

She spoke on the same day that Navalny’s supporters were finally able to find a venue for his funeral. His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media that the ceremony would take place in his home district of Maryino, on the southwestern edge of Moscow, at 2 p.m. Friday and that he would then be buried in Borisov Cemetery.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

27 February 2024 16:45

Russian activist from Nobel-winning organization gets prison term

MOSCOW — Prominent Russian activist Oleg Orlov, leader of the Memorial human rights organization that jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, was sentenced to 2½ years in prison Tuesday for denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Orlov, 70, a veteran human rights campaigner who worked as a hostage negotiator during the Chechen War in the 1990s, was initially fined $1,630 for “discrediting the armed forces” for a 2022 article in which he branded Russia a “fascist” regime and said that the army was committing “mass murder.” When he appealed the ruling, a Moscow court slapped him with an even more severe sentence.

The new penalty comes amid a crackdown on Russia’s pro-democracy activists and the death of the most prominent one, Alexei Navalny, in an Arctic prison colony. His spokeswoman said Tuesday that no venue would agree to host his funeral this week.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

26 February 2024 21:56

Aide to Navalny says prisoner swap was in the works before his death

Negotiations were underway on a prisoner exchange that would have involved swapping Alexei Navalny and two Americans for a Russian agent imprisoned in Germany when the Russian opposition leader died in prison, one of his associates said Monday.

Maria Pevchikh, who chairs Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said in a video address on YouTube that negotiations were in their final stages on Feb. 15 just before his death in the Polar Wolf prison colony in the Yamalo-Nenets region of northern Russia.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

24 February 2024 15:40

Frontline Ukrainian commander pleads with Senate leader Schumer for aid

DONETSK REGION, Ukraine — As U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) led a congressional delegation to western Ukraine on Friday, a 31-year-old Ukrainian drone commander sat perched in a muddy foxhole in the country’s east, scanning his laptop screen for Russian targets.

Schumer and four other U.S. senators were in the western city of Lviv to meet with military leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The meeting was a show of U.S. support as Republicans in Congress continue to block an aid package that would give Ukraine desperately needed military assistance as Russia’s invasion enters a third year.

On Feb. 13, the Senate approved a $95 billion package that would commit $60 billion to Ukraine, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) preemptively rejected the legislation and has refused to bring it up in the House.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

23 February 2024 20:18

Two years of war in Ukraine, seen through its leader’s biggest moments

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, expecting a quick and painless victory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, often clad in camouflage, has become one of the world’s most recognizable leaders — marshaling his country’s improbably strong and successful defense, and, in his gravelly voice, imploring other nations to help.

Though Zelensky was initially skeptical of warnings from Washington that Russia was about to invade, he stayed put when Russian troops began to attack from the north and the east aiming to seize Kyiv, the capital, and to kill him. He gave emotional speeches that helped secure massive military and financial support from abroad.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

22 February 2024 15:31

A Russian missile killed 59 Ukrainian villagers — and divided the survivors

HROZA, Ukraine — A banner at the bus stop outside this grieving village in northeast Ukraine delivers a verdict — and a warning to would-be Russian informants.

“KILLERS HAVE A NAME,” it reads. “KILLED 59 FELLOW VILLAGERS FOR RUSSIAN MONEY.”

Photos show a victim’s limp, dirt-caked hands next to a portrait of former local police officer Volodymyr Mamon, the word “traitor” stamped in bright red letters across his face.

Ukraine’s security services have accused Mamon and his younger brother, Dmytro, who both fled to Russia in 2022, of coordinating a Russian missile strike last October on a cafe hosting a funeral reception in Hroza, their hometown, killing 59 — about one-fifth of the population.

Last week, Ukrainian authorities also charged the younger Mamon brother with treason for voluntarily working for Russian forces when they occupied Hroza and the surrounding area.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

21 February 2024 16:36

Ukraine suffered losses during chaotic withdrawal as Russia seized Avdiivka

KYIV — Ukraine failed to safely evacuate all its troops from the eastern city of Avdiivka during its disorderly retreat last weekend, despite claims from its new top military commander that the move was designed to save lives and avoid encirclement by the advancing Russians.

Instead, at least six wounded troops from the 110th Brigade became trapped behind Russian lines, where they appear to have later been executed, the brigade said in a statement posted on Facebook.

Members of the military who participated in the operation said they were unsure how many others had also been left behind — but any number of casualties is sure to further deteriorate morale on the front line as Ukrainian troops, already outgunned and outnumbered, struggle to replenish their ranks and await further assistance from the West.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

20 February 2024 21:05

Bullet-riddled body found in Spain was Russian defector, Ukraine says

A man’s corpse, found riddled with bullets and run over by a vehicle in Spain last week, was identified as that of Russian military pilot Maksim Kuzminov, who flew his Mi-8 helicopter to Ukraine in a dramatic defection in August, Ukrainian officials said.

His apparent murder — after a very public threat to his life last year on Russian state television — has raised questions about whether this was a Russian-ordered assassination carried out on European soil.

News of Kuzminov’s violent demise emerged just days after the sudden death in prison of Russian political opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which European and U.S. officials have framed as evidence of the Russian government’s unchecked brutality.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

19 February 2024 16:18

Yulia Navalnaya steps up to lead fight against Putin as morgue retains her husband’s body

RIGA, Latvia — Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable opponent, vowed on Monday to carry on her husband’s crusade against the Russian regime, striving to build “a free, peaceful, happy Russia, a beautiful Russia of the future, which my husband dreamed of so much.”

Navalnaya, 47, made her announcement in a video statement on YouTube, in which she accused Russian authorities of fatally poisoning Navalny in the Arctic prison where he died suddenly on Friday at age 47.

“Putin did not only murder the person, Alexei Navalny,” she said, clad in black and her voice occasionally trembling during the dramatic video address. “He wanted, along with him, to kill our hope, our freedom, our future.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

18 February 2024 19:52

Trump remains silent on Navalny’s death

Former president Donald Trump, who earlier this month set off worries among allies after he said would encourage Russia to invade a NATO country that wasn’t spending enough on defense, has remained silent on the death of Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s most potent political opponent.

The front-runner of the GOP presidential primary has made multiple public appearances since Russia announced Navalny’s death in a faraway Arctic prison on Friday. He has not commented on the dissident’s shocking death, even though he frequently speaks about what he would do as president when confronting Russia, Putin and the war in Ukraine.

Navalny embodied the resistance to Putin’s regime more than any other Russian opposition figure, and his death at 47 in the prison camp was seen as a watershed signal that no dissent will be tolerated in Russia as Putin shifts toward a highly centralized, deeply repressive totalitarian regime.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

17 February 2024 21:12

Navalny team confirms death and demands authorities return body to family

RIGA, Latvia — A spokeswoman for Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died suddenly in an Arctic prison, demanded on Saturday that authorities hand over his body, as his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, and lawyers struggled fruitlessly with officials to reclaim his remains.

Russia’s Investigative Committee refused a lawyer’s demand to surrender the body until an official medical investigation was complete, according to the spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh.

“We demand that Alexei Navalny’s body be handed over to his family immediately,” Yarmysh wrote in a statement on Saturday.

Read the full story here.