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Morning Headlines
AP News: Dwindling ammunition threatens Ukraine’s hold on the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line under withering assault by Russian artillery. Defensive lines are in jeopardy.
Reuters: Japan hosted Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Monday in Tokyo to discuss the reconstruction of Ukraine, pledging a new bilateral tax treaty and other support for Japanese businesses as the Ukraine war rages on.
ISW: Ukrainian forces will likely be able to establish new defensive lines not far beyond Avdiivka, which will likely prompt the culmination of the Russian offensive in this area.
WSJ: Alexei Navalny taught a generation of young activists to push for change, starting at the local level. That movement has steadily been extinguished (archive).
Reuters: More than 400 people have been detained at events across 32 Russian cities since the death of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most formidable opponent, according to rights group OVD-Info, as Russians continued to gather and lay flowers.
18.02.2024
The Guardian: Alexei Navalny’s allies have accused the Kremlin of “covering their tracks” as, two days after the imprisoned opposition leader’s death in custody, uncertainty continued to surround the whereabouts of his body and what it may reveal about how he died.
AFP: Russian troops launched multiple attacks to the west of the recently captured Avdiivka in a bid to force more gains on the battlefield, a Ukrainian army spokesperson Sunday.
POLITICO: Sen. Lindsey Graham wants to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism after the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
CBC: Defence Minister Bill Blair says NATO countries like Canada must ramp up their aid to Ukraine as support from the United States languishes in a legislative quagmire.
POLITICO: The death of Russia's opposition leader Alexei Navalny should push German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to send Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, the chair of the Bundestag's defense committee said Sunday.
Euromaidan Press: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that Denmark would transfer all of its artillery to Ukraine and called on European states to provide ammunition and air defense systems to the Ukrainian armed forces, as “they need them more now.”
Reuters: Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday they had opened an investigation into alleged shootings by Russian forces of six unarmed Ukrainian soldiers in the city of Avdiivka, and two at a village in the same region, after Russia claimed full control of the city.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian forces defeated a Russian offensive in Zaporizhzhia Oblast on Feb. 17, killing 70 troops and injuring 80, the Operational Command West reported. The offensive involved 30 pieces of equipment and a “fairly large” number of enemy troops. Ukraine destroyed 18 pieces of Russian equipment, including three tanks, according to the report.
Euromaidan Press: Ukraine destroyed Russian fighter bomber Su-34, 12 shahed drones, and one guided missile Kh-59 over Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, Kirovohrad, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts, Ukraine’s Air Forces reported on 18 February.
Reuters: Britain will give an additional 18-month extension for Ukrainian visa holders who are eligible to stay in the United Kingdom, the Home Office said on Sunday.
17.02.2024
The Kyiv Independent: Czechia identified around 800,000 artillery shells abroad that could be sent to Ukraine within weeks if provided funding from other partners, Czech President Petr Pavel said on Feb. 17.
POLITICO: The U.S. will transfer confiscated Russian funds to Estonia to be used in support of Ukraine, the Justice Department announced Saturday.
Reuters: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged allies at a global security conference on Saturday to plug an "artificial" shortage of weapons that is giving Russian forces the upper hand on the battlefield and said stalled U.S. aid was imperative.
POLITICO: The worst-case scenario of a nuclear weapon detonation in orbit by Russia would be catastrophic, the commander of Germany's military Space Command, Major General Michael Traut, said late Friday.
Reuters: German defence company Rheinmetall plans to open an ammunition factory in Ukraine as part of a joint venture with a Ukrainian partner, it said on Saturday.
Radio Prague International: The Czech government has rejected Russia's objection to freezing almost all Russian assets in Czechia, Czech Television reported citing foreign ministry sources.
Reuters: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said that U.S. President Joe Biden's administration stood ready to support Ukraine in its war with Russia for "as long as it takes" and would push for Russia to pay damages to Ukraine following the end of the war.
Bloomberg: The UK is working with nations including the US to provide Ukraine with thousands of new AI-enabled drones that could swarm Russian targets simultaneously, according to people familiar with the matter (archive).
Reuters: Ukrainian forces shot down two Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers and one Su-35 fighter in the skies over eastern Ukraine on Saturday, the country's air force chief said.
CNN: Russia is trying to develop a nuclear space weapon that would destroy satellites by creating a massive energy wave when detonated, potentially crippling a vast swath of the commercial and government satellites that the world below depends on to talk on cell phones, pay bills, and surf the internet, according to three sources familiar with US intelligence about the weapon.
16.02.2024
Reuters: Oreo cookie-maker Mondelez put new management in place at its profitable Russian business this week, according to two internal company memos seen by Reuters that reveal fresh details of a corporate overhaul in Europe.
WaPo: A covert Kremlin disinformation campaign targeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with the aim of dividing Ukrainian society, documents show (archive).
Reuters: Russia has probably spent up to $211 billion in equipping, deploying and maintaining its troops for operations in Ukraine and Moscow has lost more than $10 billion in canceled or postponed arms sales, a senior U.S. defense official said on Friday.
Sky News: Over his more than two decades at the top of the Kremlin, a number of Putin's opponents have suffered unfortunate fates - including being jailed, shot dead in the street, or poisoned with tea spiked with polonium-210.
Reuters: As part of a security agreement signed between Germany and Ukraine, Berlin has prepared a further military support package worth 1.13 billion euros that is focused on air defence and artillery, the German defence ministry said.
AP News: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement with France hours after he officialized a similar one with Germany. The agreements send a strong signal of long-term backing as Kyiv works to shore up Western support nearly two years after Russia launched its full-scale war.
Reuters: Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that several "saboteurs", including Ukrainian and Belarusian nationals, had been detained earlier on Friday on the border of the two countries in a "counter-terrorist operation".
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