The essentials from February 19th at 6 p.m
- According to his followers, Russian authorities will keep Alexei Navalny's body for “assessment” for at least “fourteen days.”
“Investigators have informed Alexei's lawyers and his mother that they will not return his body, which will undergo a so-called 'chemical assessment' for a fortnight,” he said X the opponent's spokeswoman, Kira Iarmych.
- Alexei Navalny's widow promises to continue her fight
“Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband Alexei Navalny. [Vladimir] “Putin killed the father of my children,” his widow Yulia Navalnaïa said in a video broadcast on Monday social networks. The investigation into Alexei Navalny's death is “ongoing” and does not allow any conclusions to be drawn “at the moment,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, as relatives of the Russian opponent demanded his remains.
- Josep Borrell calls on the European Union to express its support to the Russian opposition following the death of Alexei Navalny
“As a tribute to [Alexeï] Navalny and to honor his memory, we will propose to ministers to rename our human rights sanctions regime in his name. The main responsible is [Vladimir] “Putin himself,” he emphasized before a meeting of the Union's foreign ministers, to which the wife of the Russian opponent, Yulia Navalnaïa, was invited.
- The Russian army is taking advantage of the slowdown in Western aid to Ukraine, emphasizes the ISW after the capture of Avdiivka
The Ukrainian army on Monday reported “heavy fire” from Russian forces near Robotyne, a town in the Zaporizhia region of southern Ukraine that was recaptured during their summer counteroffensive, said Dmytro Lykhoviy, spokesman for Ukrainian forces in the area. Cutting Western aid to Ukraine allows the Russian army to launch “opportunistic offensive operations” in several sectors of the front, the Institute for Study of War notes (ISW).
- The Ukrainian President visits the front
Volodymyr Zelensky went to the front in the Kupiansk region on Monday, the Ukrainian presidency said in a press release. She said that the head of state visited the command post of the battalion of the 14th mechanized brigade and took stock of the situation with Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Troubnikov.
- The ICRC is investigating the fate of 23,000 missing people since the start of the war
“In the last two years the [Comité international de la Croix-Rouge] “received more than 115,000 searches from families in Ukraine and Russia, by telephone, through its online platforms, by mail or during in-person interviews,” the institution said.
- Europe “should have turned into a war economy,” says Raphaël Glucksmann
On BFM-TV/RMC. Raphaël Glucksmann, leader of the socialist list in the European elections, believes it is “crazy” that Europe has not “switched to a war economy” two years after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
- The Ukrainian Air Force says it has shot down two Russian planes
Two Russian planes were shot down in eastern Ukraine, General Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, reported on Telegram on Monday. According to him, these are a Su-34 and a Su-35S.