February 21, 2024 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Canada said it “condemns in the strongest terms the death of opposition leader Alexey Navalny” and holds “the Kremlin entirely accountable,” Global Affairs Canada wrote on X Wednesday.

At the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ request, Ambassador Oleg Stepanov was summoned in protest over the death of Navalny in Russian custody.

The Russian Embassy responded by urging “Canada to stop interfering” with Moscow’s internal affairs in a statement on Telegram Wednesday.

“Every death is a tragedy. But the death of a Russian citizen is strictly Russia’s matter. Thus, we urge Canada to stop interfering into our internal affairs,” the statement read.

Some background: Several nations — including France, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Germany — have also summoned the Russian ambassador to their countries over Navalny’s death in the past few days. Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, accused Western countries of politicizing Navalny’s death and said the investigation into the cause of death has “not concluded yet.”

Discontent toward Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russian society is on the rise, according to Abbas Gallyamov, Putin’s former speechwriter.

Gallyamov noted that Russian success in Avdiivka will be a key factor to “suppress this discontent” and “strengthen Putin’s domestic standing” ahead of Russian elections.

If there were no victory in Avdiivka, Putin would fail to “solidify his control” over Russia, Gallyamov told CNN’s Brianna Keilar Wednesday. This military gain gave him “an additional injection of legitimacy” and is very beneficial for his presidential campaign.

Talking about people reportedly detained across Russia over vigils for opposition figure Alexey Navalny, Gallyamov said “sooner or later this will definitely backfire” because the discontent in society is growing and “at some moment it can become very strong.” 

Gallyamov said Putin is trying to get rid of all the opposition leaders to at least make discontent in Russian society be “unstructured,” “disorganized” and “leaderless” ahead of future elections.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) is trying to keep tabs on everyone with an American passport who comes to Russia, according to Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov.

He said Moscow will use it “as leverage” in any future negotiations with Russia.

Ksenia Karelina seen here in an undated social media photo.

A US-Russian dual citizen was excited to go back to her hometown in Russia to see her grandparents, but she had no idea that she would be arrested and face charges of treason for allegedly donating just $51 to a Ukrainian charity, her boyfriend said.

Chris Van Heerden, the boyfriend of Ksenia Karelina, said she never thought this would happen. The couple, who live in Los Angeles, flew to Istanbul together before Karelina continued to Russia to see her family while Van Heerden flew back to California.

Van Heerden said Karelina was detained, but released, when she entered the country. Later, on the day she was due to fly back to the United States, she told him she was relieved they were going to let her go home — but that was the last time he heard from her.

“I believe in America. I do believe that America will bring her back to me and that’s the hope I’m holding onto,” Van Heerden said, adding that she never talked about any donations and that she is “so proud to be Russian” and never “intervene with anything about the war” in Ukraine.

Chris Van Heerden, the boyfriend of Ksenia Karelina, spoke with CNN on February 21, 2024.

The boyfriend said she wrote him a letter after being arrested. In the letter, which he calls a “love story,” Karelina describes conditions and expresses her worry about her boyfriend.

He said her attitude about what is going to happen varies day by day. Some days she is strong and feels like she will get home soon, but other days, she wrote him: “It’s like I’ll just sit on my bed and stare at a wall for hours, like, knowing that I’m going to be here forever because that’s what she’s thinking.”

Van Heerden told CNN that she was a “semi-pro ballerina” for years but was a full-time esthetician before being arrested in Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on February 16.

Ukraine shot down seven Russian fighter jets within the past seven days, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russia has not publicly commented on the incidents.

Russia has lost 338 aircraft since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, the general staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported Wednesday.

CNN cannot independently verify these numbers.

Some of the men detained at vigils for Alexey Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia, were handed military draft summonses, OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights group that monitors repression in the country, said in a Telegram post on Wednesday.

Russia claimed to capture Krynky, a small, but key, riverside village situated on the left bank of the Dnipro River in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, according to Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Ukraine’s Operational Command denied Shoigu’s claim, describing it as “a manipulation and falsification of facts.” 

Here are other headlines you should know:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov talks on the phone during the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro. In the foreground, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speak to each other.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were a matter of yards from each other at the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in Rio de Janeiro Wednesday, but they did not speak or even appear to look at each other during a roughly 15-minute photo session of the ministerial meeting.

It comes just days after the death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, which the US and its partners have blamed on Russia, and amid news that Russia has detained a dual US-Russian citizen.

Blinken last year met briefly with Lavrov on the margins of the G20 to confront him about the war in Ukraine, Russia’s suspension of cooperation in a nuclear arms reduction treaty and its detention of Americans.

It is unclear if the two will meet at this year’s G20 meeting.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates attacked Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson over not putting the $95 billion foreign aid package on the floor for a vote, accusing him of putting “his own internal politics above the safety of the American people” in a new memo Wednesday morning. 

The memo also slams Johnson for not having the House in session and includes a “Vacation Reading Packet for the House Republican Conference.”

Some context: It’s the latest example of US President Joe Biden’s administration criticizing House Republicans for not taking up the national security supplemental that would provide critical aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

So far, Johnson has resisted calls to bring the Senate-passed aid package up for a quick vote – a move that would require Democratic support and almost certainly spark a revolt from his right flank. The speaker has said the legislation, which includes over $60 billion in assistance for Ukraine, would not pass in its current form, and privately told Republicans during a closed-door meeting last week there is “no rush” to address the issue.

As he comes under increasing pressure, Johnson released a statement over the weekend in response to Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny’s death. In it, he called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “vicious dictator” who must be “met with opposition,” though he did not outline any plans for doing so.

A pro-Kremlin Russian military blogger, Andrey Morozov, has reportedly died just days after he reported that Russia had suffered massive losses during its assault on the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka. Several well-informed pro-Russian military bloggers as well as Russian state news agencies and newspapers reported he had died by suicide.

What was he writing about: Morozov, known as “Murz” on Telegram, claimed Moscow had lost around 16,000 soldiers and 300 armored vehicles since it started its assault in October. CNN cannot verify Morozov’s estimates. That post drew severe criticism from several Russian propagandists and has since been deleted from his Telegram account. 

Here’s what he said in his last few posts:

Why this matters: Pro-Russian military bloggers have enjoyed some freedom to criticize the Russian military and the way the Ministry of Defense was prosecuting the war in Ukraine. After the failed uprising by former Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, Moscow began to crack down on dissent among ultra-nationalist writers, most notably arresting former soldier and also military blogger Igor Girkin. 

In the wake of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny’s death, his wife Yulia Navalnaya has been hurtled into the limelight as a Russian opposition figure. While she may prove unifying among Russia’s disparate opposition voices, there are now fewer forces to unite. 

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, both Ilya Yashin — a close ally of Navalny and once-rising star in opposition circles — and Vladimir Kara-Murza — a dual Russian-British citizen and opposition politician — have been given long prison terms.

Additionally, Russia’s central election commission recently barred the only remaining anti-war candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, from running in upcoming presidential elections in March.

Watch more about what Navalny’s death may mean for the Russian opposition:

Polish farmers drive tractors in a convoy in Minsk Mazowiecki, Poland, on February 20, as they intensify a nationwide protest against the import of Ukrainian foods and European Union environmental policies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has invited Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Andrzej Duda to meet with him at the Polish-Ukrainian border to settle the grain dispute that has led to several blockades by farmers.

He also called on the European Commission to send a representative to attend the meeting. “We have had enough of Moscow’s presence in our lands. We have had enough of misunderstandings. We should not humiliate each other, we should not humiliate either Ukrainian or Polish farmers. We need unity,” he said. 

What’s happening: Farmers in Poland have been blocking access routes to border crossings with Ukraine. They have vowed to continue their demonstrations, which started on February 9, for 30 days. Similar action has been taking place in a host of countries, including France, Italy, Spain, Romania, Greece, Germany and the Netherlands.

Why farmers are protesting: According to farmers, cheap Ukrainian grain imports have undercut domestic prices and hit the sales of local producers. European farmers cannot compete with the price of Ukrainian grain, they say, and have demanded compensation from the European Commission.

Ukraine is often called the “breadbasket of Europe” due to the vast quantities of grain it produces. When Russia blocked Ukrainian Black Sea ports, it sparked fears about global food supplies and prompted the European Commission to set up what it called “solidarity lanes” in May 2022 to facilitate exports. The commission also temporarily eliminated all duties and quotas on Ukraine’s exports, allowing a glut of cheap grain to flow into Europe.

Anger grew after the European Commission announced a draft decision to extend duty-free and quota-free imports of Ukrainian grain until June 2024.

CNN’s Christian Edwards, Alex Hardie and Antonia Mortensen contributed reporting.

Ksenia Karelina seen here in an undated social media photo.

Dual US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina, a 33-year-old Los Angeles resident, is being detained in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg because she donated money to a Ukrainian charity while she was in the United States, according to her employer.

Russia accused Karelina of “providing financial assistance to a foreign state in activities directed against the security of our country.”

Karelina entered Russia on January 2, and the United States learned on February 8 that she had been arrested, a US official told CNN. Consular access still has not been granted, according to the official.

Before her arrest, she worked as an esthetician at Ciel Spa at SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, according to the spa. She was visiting family members, including her 90-year-old grandmother, at the time of her arrest, the spa said.

Karelina is being wrongly “accused of treason for allegedly donating $51.80 to a Ukrainian charity in the US,” according to her employer’s statement. 

What social media tells us about her: Karelina posted often about her life on the Russian social media platform VK. In November 2021, she posted photos standing between American flags holding a piece of paper and an American flag. In the post, she said she received her US citizenship. The US official confirmed that she became a US citizen in 2021 and said the United States government is tracking her detention.

In another post on July 2017, Karelina posted many pictures appearing to be of her wearing a ballerina costume, including pointe shoes, a leotard, and a tutu in New York City.

Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded medals to Russian soldiers on Wednesday as the military continues to celebrate its victory in capturing the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka after Ukrainian forces withdrew. 

Putin traveled to the Chkalovskiy airfield outside Moscow to award state honors to the soldiers from the Air and Space Forces, according to a Kremlin statement on Wednesday. 

Addressing the soldiers, Putin thanked them for their “courage and bravery” in displaying “the highest skill in accomplishing their tasks.” 

The Russian leader was met by his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, who presented a brief report, according to the statement.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russia’s army chief, Army Gen. Valery Gerasimov, visited troops near the front line in eastern Ukraine and presented awards to soldiers who participated in the assault of Avdiivka, the Russian Ministry of Defense said. 

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday claimed that Krynky, a small riverside village situated on the left bank of the Dnipro River in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, is “completely” under Russian control at the moment.

Shoigu called Krynky “a stronghold” for his troops “for further advancement and deployment of forces.”

Ukraine’s Operational Command denied Shoigu’s claim, describing it as “a manipulation and falsification of facts.” 

“The defense forces of southern Ukraine continue to hold their positions, inflicting significant losses on the enemy,” the command said.

Video shared by pro-Ukrainian bloggers shows Russian soldiers hoisting a flag in the area, but then fleeing, which seemingly contradicts Shoigu’s claim. CNN was not able to geolocate the footage and independently verify the battlefield status.

In the fall, Russian officials expressed concern about Ukraine establishing a foothold in Krynky.

Elsewhere on the battlefield: In eastern Ukraine, footage geolocated by CNN Wednesday, showed Russian forces hoisting their flag over the Donetsk village of Pobieda, near Mariinka. Russian military bloggers said Ukrainian forces had “retreated” and were regrouping in positions to the south.

In southern Ukraine along the Zaporizhzhia front, Moscow has for weeks been pushing east and north toward Robotyne, as well as west, toward Mala Tokmachka.

Russia claimed Wednesday it inflicted heavy losses on Ukrainian forces in the area, but refrained from saying it had made visible gains. Ukraine also claimed it inflicted heavy losses on Russian units. 

CNN could not independently verify either Ukrainian or Russian claims.

This post was updated with more details from the battlefields in Ukraine.

An exterior view of the IK-3 penal colony in Russia on April 20, 2021.

The UK is sanctioning six individuals who were in charge of the “Polar Wolf” penal colony, where Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny died last week. 

They will be banned from the UK and have their assets frozen, the UK Foreign Office said in a statement Wednesday.

The men were named as:

The foreign office said Kalinin oversaw the “brutal prison camp” where Navalny was kept “in solitary confinement for up to two weeks at a time.”

On Tuesday, the US said it would unveil a new sanctions package against Russia on Friday in response to Navalny’s death.

At least three people have been killed, and another 18 wounded after Russian shelling struck several Ukrainian regions over the past 24 hours, authorities said Wednesday.

Here’s how different regions were affected:

Making other headlines this morning:

Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, left, presents an award to a serviceman who according to the Defence Ministry, participated in taking Avdiivka, in this still image taken from video released February 21.

Russia’s army chief has visited troops near the frontline in Eastern Ukraine and presented awards to soldiers who participated in the assault on the town of Avdiivka, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Wednesday. 

Most of the footage was recorded indoors and CNN could not independently verify where it was taken. 

According to the ministry, Army General Valery Gerasimov visited the command post for the troops that participated in the attack on the town.

Russia’s military chief added the “major task” of conquering Avdiivka had been accomplished in what he said was a “fairly short period of time.” 

Some context: Russia raised its flag in several parts of Avdiivka in Donetsk on Sunday, hours after Ukrainian forces beat a hasty retreat from a town they’ve been defending for a decade.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission speaks to the media at CDU headquarters on February 19, 2024 in Berlin, Germany.

The European Union has reached an agreement on its 13th package of sanctions on Russia, targeting the production of drones used by Moscow on the battlefield in Ukraine. 

News of this latest package comes at a pivotal time for war-torn Ukraine as the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion grows closer and concerns mount over recent battlefield failures, including the loss of the eastern town of Avdiivka. 

An EU diplomat told CNN that almost 200 individuals and companies will be listed under this new package, making it one of the largest finalized by the bloc.

The sanctions will target the procurement networks for drone components “which end up within the Russian military complex, and then on the battlefield in Ukraine,” the diplomat added. Entities based in third countries, as well as Russia, will be sanctioned.

The package was hailed by the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell, who said it will see the EU “taking more action against entities involved in circumvention, the defence and military sectors.”

EU’s lawyers will now get to work on the package’s text, in a bid to have it published by the anniversary of the Russian invasion on February 24, the diplomat said. 

Antonina and her son Sasha, 3, take part in a protest in Kyiv, Ukraine, calling for soldiers' mobilization to have a time limit.

Kyiv, Ukraine – The small group of women thought about canceling their protest when the sirens went off. But even though Kyiv was under missile attack again, it went ahead anyway. Antonina brought along her 3-year-old son Sasha.

“My dad doesn’t come home. We are waiting for him. I’m waiting for my dad to come back,” the little boy said.

Holding a sign saying, “Fair Deadlines for Demobilization,” Antonina said her husband was serving in a mortar unit near Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine. She has not seen him for five months and tries to rationalize his absence to Sasha.

Mobilization periods are currently open-ended, with no statutory cut-off. Antonina’s husband volunteered two years ago, just after Russia’s full-scale invasion. Now aged 43, he has served long enough, she told CNN.

“It is hard for my husband to endure this length of time on the ground, avoiding all the shells and doing everything he needs to do at the front line,” she said.

A short distance away from where the women were standing, lawmakers debated reforms to Ukraine’s mobilization rules, inside Kyiv’s heavily protected parliament building. A new law could be passed within a few weeks that would pave the way for a significant increase in conscription numbers.

Read more about Ukraine’s plan to expand the draft

Firefighters work at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a water purifying station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on February 20.

Three people were killed and at least 18 wounded by Russian shelling in several Ukrainian regions over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday.

Oleh Sniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region military administration, said two people had been killed and at least one wounded after about 20 areas in the region came under Russian artillery and mortar fire.

“An enemy kamikaze drone hit a civilian car in Petropavlivka village” in the Kupiansk district at around 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sniehubov said, killing two men who were farm workers.

In the Donetsk region, one person was killed in the town of Kostyantynivka, according to the head of the region’s military administration Vadym Filashkin.

Six people were wounded in the city of Kramatorsk as a result of Russian missiles, and 12 high-rise buildings were damaged, Filashkin said.

In the Kherson region, four people were wounded, said regional military head Oleksandr Prokudin.

Russian forces fired 27 shells at the city of Kherson, he said. 

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, three people were wounded in the city of Nikopol, said regional military chief Serhiy Lysak.

Alexey Navalny’s mother appealed to President Vladimir Putin in a video statement, demanding the release of her son's body.

Alexey Nalvalny’s mother has filed a lawsuit over the “inaction of the investigative committee to release Alexey’s body,” according to Ivan Zhdanov, the director of the late activist’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. 

Russian state media reported on Wednesday that the city court of Salekhard in the Arctic Circle received “a complaint” from Lyudmila Navalnaya about “illegal actions and decisions,” but didn’t specify who or what entity she accused or details about the alleged actions. 

The hearing will be closed and is scheduled for March 4, the court told Russian state news agency TASS.

Investigators had told Navalny’s mother that they moved her son’s body to a morgue in Salekhard. But when she and Navalny’s lawyer arrived at the morgue last weekend, they were told the body was not there. 

They have been denied access to the morgue at least twice, according to Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh.

On Tuesday, Navalny’s mother released a video appealing directly to Putin.

Remember: Kremlin critic Navalny died on Friday in a remote penal colony in Siberia, according to the Russian prison service, after being imprisoned upon returning to the country in February 2021. The cause of his death remains unclear. 

The Ukrainian Air Force said they downed 13 out of 19 attack drones, as well as a guided missile, launched by Russia overnight. 

The Iranian-made Shahed drones were intercepted in the Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions, the force said.

It said “some of the six” Russian drones that were not intercepted “did not reach their targets.”

The air force said that the X-59 guided missile was downed in the Poltava region of central Ukraine.

Sergei Shoigu addresses a conference in Kubinka, Moscow region, on August 15, 2023. 

Russia produces “thousands of drones a day,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in an interview with state media TASS on Tuesday.

Shoigu said Russia had made a “giant step” in making uncrewed aircraft “over the past eight to nine months.”

According to Shoigu, the significant increase in production was possible in part due to “the new generation of entrepreneurs” who got involved in drone and military equipment production.

Ukraine also plans to ramp up its drone production this year.

During a press conference in December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv plans to produce one million drones in 2024.

A resident of Ocheretyne, a village near Avdiivka, chops wood on February 19. Ukrainian forces expect Russia to continue its advance into Avdiivka.

A Ukrainian commander stationed on the outskirts of Avdiivka said Russia will continue its advance into the eastern town of Donetsk region.

Maksym Zhorin, deputy commander of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, said Ukrainian troops were “clearly aware that the Russians have enough forces in the town itself to continue their offensive.”

In Kyiv, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that Avdiivka would not have been lost if Ukraine “had received all the artillery ammunition that we needed to defend it.”

The White House has placed blame for the loss of Avdiivka squarely on Republicans in Congress, as the US faces growing pressure to act on more funding as Kyiv’s supplies run low.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Ukraine’s withdrawal from Avdiivka “an unconditional success.”

Here are the latest developments in the region:

Two men were killed and one woman was wounded after a Russian drone hit a car carrying civilians in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Kharkiv, a military official said on Telegram Wednesday.

A man with his wife and a driver were on their way home from work at a local farm when the strike hit the village of Petropavlivka, said Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration.

The woman was taken to the hospital after the strike, Syniehubov said.

Oleksandr (L), who was kept at a state boarding school in Russian-occupied Lugansk hugs his aunt Viktoria, after he crossed the border from Belarus to Ukraine, in the Volyn region, on February 20.

Eleven Ukrainian children reunited with their families after being repatriated from Russia on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said.

Oleksandr, 16, told AFP news agency: “Everything will get better. After all, with loved ones, life will be easier from now on.”

The children were repatriated from Russia through Qatari mediation and with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund. 

Some context: Ukraine has long said that thousands of Ukrainian children have been forcibly sent to Russian-controlled areas since Moscow’s invasion. 

In March last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

The Russian government doesn’t deny taking Ukrainian children and has made their adoption by Russian families a centerpiece of propaganda.

In this July 2021 photo, a US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft, assigned to the 121st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, is refueled during a mission in support of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve in the US Central Command area of responsibility.

The first four Ukrainian pilots are scheduled to complete training on F-16 fighter jets by summer, according to the Arizona National Guard. 

The pilots began training in mid-October with the 162nd Fighter Wing in Tucson, Arizona. The Pentagon said the training process would take several months to complete.

A second group of another four pilots began training in January, according to Capt. Erin Hannigan, a spokeswoman for the Arizona National Guard, while a third group of four is currently going through English-language training, which is required to fly the fourth-generation US fighter jet.

All of the pilots are expected to complete their training between May and August, said Hannigan, though the exact timeline depends on the progress of the program.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky requested F-16 fighters for months, believing the advanced US jets would be able to challenge Russia’s aerial power over the battlefield. 

Remember: Last summer, a coalition of nations led by Denmark began training Ukrainian pilots on the US jets. The Netherlands, Denmark and Norway have pledged to provide Ukraine with the F-16s jets after the training program. The US also committed to approving the transfer of the jets as soon as training was completed.

Estonia has detained 10 suspects for “acting on behalf of a Russian special service” in connection to influence operation on its territory, its government announced Tuesday.

The people arrested by the Estonian Internal Security Service include both Russian and Estonian nationals, officials said.

The goal was for the Russian group to “spread fear and create tension in Estonian society,” the Estonian Internal Security Service said in a statement.

Investigators suspect these people were recruited by the Russian special service to gather information and perform various actions — like vandalizing the cars of the interior minister and several monuments. Some of those arrested were recruited via social media, according to Margo Palloson, director general of the Estonian Internal Security Service.

Russia has not yet responded to these claims.

More context: With Russia’s war in Ukraine raging in the region, the arrests in Estonia come as the tension between Tallinn and Moscow has continued to rise in recent days.

Estonia joined NATO in 2004 and has been a particular target because of its substantial Russian-speaking minority — nearly 25% of the population. The Kremlin is also directly involved in shaping Russian influence operations in neighboring countries, according to Presidential Administration documents leaked last year.

CNN’s Jim Sciutto contributed reporting to this post.

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks during the Strong Ideas For The New Times Forum in Moscow, Russia on February 20.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Avdiivka “an unconditional success” during his meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in the Kremlin on Tuesday.

However, Putin said the success in Avdiivka “needs to be developed” and Russian troops have to push further, well prepared “with personnel, weapons, equipment, and ammunition.”

Putin noted that he would talk to Shoigu separately about meeting the needs of the military in this area.

Shoigu echoed Putin, agreeing that the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Avdiivka is “a great success for the mixed group of troops, units, formations, everyone without exception.”

US officials had been working on a new sanctions package for Russia ahead of last week’s death of Alexey Navalny, and are now supplementing them in the wake of the opposition leader’s death, according to a senior US official.

The package will be timed around the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and officials are coordinating with European partners on the new package, the official said.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday the new measures would be a “substantial package” that covers a wide range of elements linked to the Russian defense industrial base and sources of revenue for the Russian economy that power the country’s “war machine.”

Sullivan described the package as “another turn of the crank” after withering Western sanctions on Moscow since the start of the Ukraine war.

While those sanctions have hampered Russia’s economy, they haven’t deterred President Vladimir Putin from proceeding with the invasion.

Existing sanctions have “isolated” Russia on the world stage, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said aboard Air Force One Tuesday. American assistance has degraded the country’s military, she said.

Jean-Pierre said the White House was being careful in detailing the exact parameters of the sanctions to avoid capital flight before the punishments are in place.

President Joe Biden plans to confer with fellow G7 leaders on a conference call Friday timed around the anniversary of the start of the Ukraine war.

The White House will announce a major sanctions package against Russia on Friday, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday.

The sanctions will hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for Russia’s war in Ukraine — which hits the 2-year mark on Saturday — and for the death of opposition figure Alexey Navalny, he said. 

Kirby also repeated calls for Congress to pass the administration’s national security supplemental, directly tying the aid for Ukraine to the legislation, which remains stalled in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

President Joe Biden previewed the upcoming announcement at the White House on Tuesday, telling reporters they’d hear more from him on the subject Friday. 

“I told you we’d be announcing sanctions on Russia — we’ll have a major package announced on Friday,” Biden told reporters.