03.03.2024

The Kyiv Independent: Search and rescue operations at an apartment building hit in a March 2 Russian drone attack that killed 12 civilians, including five children, concluded at around 9 p.m. local time on March 3, according to a Facebook post by the Internal Affairs Ministry.

France 24: Hundreds of Alexei Navalny supporters queued to lay flowers and pay tribute to the deceased opposition leader on Sunday, in a significant show of support for the anti-corruption campaigner, who died last month in an Arctic prison colony.

Reuters: Germany's defence minister said on Sunday Russia was conducting an "information war" aimed at creating divisions within Germany, his first reaction to the publication in Russia of an audio recording of a meeting of senior German military officials.

The Kyiv Independent: The average number of estimated Russian casualties in February was approximately 983 per day, marking an all-time high since the start of the full-scale invasion, the U.K. Defense Ministry wrote in its March 3 update.

LRT: Amid sanctions related to the war in Ukraine, Latvia has become Russia’s primary whisky supplier. This booming trade relationship has a complex web of diplomatic tightropes with economic and geopolitical nuances.

WSJ: A Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine is the latest obvious assassination, but a range of businessmen, bureaucrats and political figures have also suffered suspicious deaths since the invasion (archive).

The Kyiv Independent: U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has met privately with Republicans who support military aid to Ukraine about crafting an alternative foreign aid bill in the House, CNN reported March 3. Republicans hope to finalize their proposal and bring it to a vote by late March or April.

Bloomberg: Ukrainian authorities are worried that Russia will run an internet smear campaign against President Zelenskiy to erode his legitimacy in the eyes of the public as his five-year term comes to a close without a vote (archive).

BBC News: A series of explosions have rocked Crimea, after a reported Ukrainian drone attack on the peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Video posted online shows a blast allegedly near a fuel depot in the south-eastern city of Feodosiya. Russian officials said 38 drones had been shot down. The Kerch bridge which connects Crimea with Russia was temporarily closed.

ISW: Russian forces appear to be willing to risk continued aviation losses in pursuit of tactical gains in eastern Ukraine, likely along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line.

02.03.2024

The Kyiv Independent: The governor of Russia's Leningrad Oblast, Alexander Drozdenko, claimed on March 2 that air defense had shot down “aerial targets” over the waters and coast of the Gulf of Finland. Drozdenko’s claims came after Russian state-owned media wrote about explosions near the Bronka port in St. Petersburg.

France 24: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised Saturday a full investigation after a recording of confidential army talks on the Ukraine war was circulated on Russian social media, in a huge embarrassment for Berlin.

Reuters: Turkey's exports to Russia in February fell 33% year on year to $670 million, trade ministry data showed on Saturday. That was down from $1.1 billion in February 2023. Imports from Russia fell 36.65% to $1.3 billion from $2 billion a year earlier.

The Kyiv Independent: Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on March 2 said he was forced to make "personnel decisions" regarding some eastern front brigade commanders whose actions "threaten the life and health" of their soldiers.

Reuters: A drone crashed into a five-storey residential building in St Petersburg on Saturday and 100 people were evacuated with no casualties, Russia's Rosgvardiya national guard said.

ISW: Reported details of Russian-Ukrainian peace negotiations that occurred in Istanbul in April 2022 indicate that Russia has consistently envisioned a settlement for its illegal invasion of Ukraine wherein Ukraine would be unable to defend itself from a future Russian attack – an objective Russia continues to pursue under calls for Ukraine’s “demilitarization.”

01.03.2024

AP News: Russia is accumulating large forces around Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine as it seeks to make a breakthrough in the Donetsk region, a Ukrainian official said Friday.

Reuters: The initial stage of a European Union and G7 ban on imports of Russia-origin diamonds via third countries came into effect on Friday, the Belgian government said in a statement.

SWI: Switzerland has imposed new sanctions against Russia in response to the ongoing military aggression against Ukraine. The Alpine nation has placed a further 106 individuals and 88 companies on its sanctions list. These are mainly involved in the manufacture of missiles, drones, air defence systems and other military goods.

Bloomberg: Ukraine’s military is set to receive first of what may be hundreds of thousands of 155mm artillery shells as part of an international effort to forage allied stockpiles as US efforts to send more aid get hung up in Congress (archive).

Meduza: The Kremlin instructed Russia’s security forces to take measures to “protect the constitutional order from threats” following Alexey Navalny’s death, The Moscow Times reported on Friday, citing two high-ranking sources from the Russian government.

Yahoo News: The panic that gripped France in autumn 2023 over the alleged spread of bed bugs was amplified by disinformation on social media accounts linked to the Russian state, a French minister said Friday.

Le Monde: Putin's allies in the European Parliament rally around Le Pen's party. The far-right Rassemblement National has allied with Bulgarian and Slovakian movements that are proxies for the Kremlin. Marine Le Pen's big partners AfD and FPÖ continue to maintain close ties with Moscow.

Reuters: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte signed a security deal with Ukraine in the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Friday and said the Netherlands would help fund the supply of 800,000 artillery shells to hold back Russian forces.

The Moscow Times: Bulgaria on Friday stopped oil imports from Russia as part of the European Union’s embargo over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the Bulgarian online news outlet Novinite reported on Friday.

AP News: In recent weeks, Russian state media and online accounts tied to the Kremlin have spread and amplified misleading and incendiary content about U.S. immigration and border security.

The Insider: Fugitive Wirecard COO Jan Marsalek wasn’t just responsible for Germany’s largest financial fraud in history. He was also a decade-long Russian spy.

Bloomberg: The UK government has privately urged Germany to provide long-range Taurus missiles to the government in Kyiv as London expressed irritation over comments made by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about British activity in Ukraine (archive).

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