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The Guardian: A UK Foreign Office minister has ruled out a prisoner swap for the imprisoned Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British citizen, who MPs warned could be next after the death of Alexei Navalny.

The Moscow Times: The Kremlin is suppressing memorials for Navalny in a bid to prevent his death from overshadowing Putin’s expected re-election. Officials are weighing whether to delay the funeral and the release of Navalny's body until the vote is over.

POLITICO: The U.K., Germany, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands have summoned the Russian ambassadors to their countries over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison on Friday.

NBC News: After months of requests from Ukrainian officials, the Biden administration is working toward providing Ukraine with powerful new long-range ballistic missiles, according to two U.S. officials.

Reuters: The European Union on Monday moved closer to new sanctions against Moscow over its war on Ukraine, as Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russia's top opposition leader who died in prison last week, said Putin must be held accountable.

The Kyiv Independent: Maksim Kuzminov, a Russian helicopter pilot who has defected to Ukraine, was found shot dead in Spain, Ukrainska Pravda and other outlets reported on Feb. 19, citing the press service of Ukraine's military intelligence.

The Guardian: A scheme allowing Ukrainians to join family members taking sanctuary in the UK has been unexpectedly closed, in what opposition politicians described as a cruel and “below the radar” move days before the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full invasion.

Joint Statement: The foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania said Russia’s plan to hold elections in "temporarily occupied and illegally annexed" Ukrainian territory is "a grave violation of international law, the UN Charter, and Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity."

Reuters: Ukraine's military said on Monday its troops had taken up new defensive positions in the east after retreating from the captured town of Avdiivka and were repelling Russian attempts to develop the offensive thrust.

Bloomberg: President Joe Biden said he would be willing to meet House Speaker Mike Johnson to discuss an emergency funding package for Ukraine and Israel, after White House officials previously dismissed the utility of direct talks.

Reuters: Japan said on Monday it had started negotiating an investment treaty with Ukraine and vowed to keep up support for the reconstruction of the country almost two years after Russia's invasion.

The Moscow Times: Russian investigators told the family and lawyers of Alexei Navalny that they will not hand over his body for at least another two weeks as they conduct a "chemical examination" to determine the cause of his death.

WSJ: Little-known oil industry operatives assembled a clandestine trading and shipping empire that moves vast quantities of Russian oil to global markets — and sidesteps Western sanctions (archive).

AFP: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell pledged after meeting the widow of Alexei Navalny Monday that Putin will be held to account for the opposition leader's death.

Reuters: A U.S. threat to hit financial firms doing business with Russia with sanctions has chilled Turkish-Russian trade, disrupting or slowing some payments for both imported oil and Turkish exports.

AFP: Ukrainian troops are facing "heavy fire" from advancing Russian forces in the southern Zaporizhzhia region after Moscow made its most significant territorial gain in nine months last week, Ukrainian army figures said Monday.

AP News: “I don’t like this reality,” Sen. Ron Johnson said. “Putin is an evil war criminal.” But he quickly added: “Putin will not lose this war.” That argument — that the Russian president cannot be stopped so there’s no point in using American taxpayer dollars against him — marks a new stage in the Republican Party’s growing acceptance of Russian expansionism in the age of Donald Trump.

AFP: The Red Cross said Monday it was trying to find out what happened to 23,000 people who have disappeared in the chaos of Russia's war in Ukraine.

The Moscow Times: Major lenders in the United Arab Emirates have begun closing bank accounts belonging to Russian nationals and limiting settlements with Russia following threats of secondary sanctions from the United States.

The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine shot down two Russian fighter jets on the morning of Feb. 19, the Air Force reported. According to them, the two planes were a Su-34 and a Su-35S.

CNN: 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 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.

worth mentioning

Putin signs decree allowing HSBC to sell Russian unit to Expobank

Photos from Avdiivka, the ruined Ukrainian city now under Russia’s control

A closer look at the midnight convoy. The prison minibus and its police escort that may have carried Navalny’s body

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