Alexei Navalny’s whereabouts in prison system remains unknown, says spokesperson
The whereabouts of Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader, inside the prison system remains unknown and he again did not show up at a court hearing by video link, Kira Yarmysh, his spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
Yarmysh wrote on X:
Today Alexey was again not taken to court via video, but now no one is talking nonsense about the “electrical accident”.
An employee of IK-6 stated that Alexey “left their colony,” but allegedly did not know where he was transferred.
Navalny’s allies said on Monday that he had been removed from the penal colony where he had been imprisoned since the middle of last year and that his whereabouts were unknown, Reuters reports.
They had been preparing for his expected transfer to a “special regime” colony, the harshest grade in Russia’s prison system.
Navalny, the anti-corruption activist who became a leading opponent of Vladimir Putin, has been convicted of extremism and other charges and is set to remain in prison for three decades.
He has called the charges against him politically motivated and said he believes he will not be released while Putin is alive.
Key events
Moscow will “very attentively” watch a meeting between Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy planned for Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, also said that “tens of billions of dollars” already provided by Washington to Kyiv had failed to turn the tide of war and further aid would similarly fail to do so, Reuters reports.
He added that Zelenskiy’s authority was being undermined by the failures.
The meeting on Tuesday between Biden and Zelenskiy is intended “to underscore the United States’ unshakeable commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia’s brutal invasion”, the White House said in a statement on Sunday.
“As Russia ramps up its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, the leaders will discuss Ukraine’s urgent needs and the vital importance of the United States’ continued support at this critical moment.”
The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said Russian forces are highly likely continue to struggle when fighting at night.
In its latest intelligence update, the MoD said Russian military training had not focused on night exercises, but has instead prioritised building towards set-piece, daylight events “to impress visiting senior officers”.
Writing on X, the MoD said:
Russian forces highly likely continue to struggle when fighting at night. Numerous reports from combatants have highlighted this trend since the start of the war.
In late November 2023, a social media user claiming to be a Russian soldier serving in Kherson highlighted the shortage of night vision goggles (NVGs) and low-light cameras for uncrewed aerial vehicles.
NVGs have frequently featured high in the lists of equipment Russian units request from their families and supporters. Ukrainian forces have often been equipped with night vision devices from international partners.
Russian forces have ‘advanced significantly’ in southern Ukraine, says Moscow authorities
Russian forces in southern Ukraine have “advanced considerably” around the village of Novopokrovka in the Zaporizhzhia region, Moscow’s occupational authorities have said.
“Our units have advanced significantly forward north-east of Novopokrovka,” the Moscow-installed head of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, wrote on Telegram.
Novopokrovka lies about 12 miles east of Robotyne, which Kyiv said it recaptured in the summer but has since struggled to keep.
Balitsky said Russian forces are “not only holding the line but are gradually moving forward”. These claims are yet to be independently verified.
Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, said 597 shells were fired in the Kherson region over the last 24 hours, damaging a dormitory and administrative buildings. One person was killed and six others injured, he said.
Writing on X, Mamedov added that the Ukrainian air force destroyed nine out of 15 kamikaze drones that were “attacking from the south”.
These claims are yet to be independently verified.
597 shells were fired in the Kherson region over the last 24 hours, damaging a dormitory and administrative buildings. 1 person was killed and 6 others were wounded. Also, @KpsZSU destroyed 9 out of 15 kamikaze drones that were attacking from the south. A sports building was… pic.twitter.com/lKQUxsqoXa
— Гюндуз Мамедов/Gyunduz Mamedov (@MamedovGyunduz) December 12, 2023
Europeans are generally open to the idea of Ukraine joining the EU, despite the costs and risks, but lukewarm at best about the bloc’s prospective enlargement to also take in Georgia and countries in the western Balkans, according to a survey.
The European Commission recommended last month that formal accession talks begin with Ukraine and Moldova. The EU’s 27 heads of government are due to discuss the proposal at a Brussels summit this week – although Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has said repeatedly he opposes opening negotiations with Kyiv.
The polling, of six EU member states for the European Council on Foreign Relations, found considerable support for the candidacies of Ukraine and, to a lesser extent, Moldova and Montenegro, but also deep economic and security concerns.
You can read the full story by the Guardian’s Europe correspondent, Jon Henley, here:
Alexei Navalny’s whereabouts in prison system remains unknown, says spokesperson
The whereabouts of Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader, inside the prison system remains unknown and he again did not show up at a court hearing by video link, Kira Yarmysh, his spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
Yarmysh wrote on X:
Today Alexey was again not taken to court via video, but now no one is talking nonsense about the “electrical accident”.
An employee of IK-6 stated that Alexey “left their colony,” but allegedly did not know where he was transferred.
Navalny’s allies said on Monday that he had been removed from the penal colony where he had been imprisoned since the middle of last year and that his whereabouts were unknown, Reuters reports.
They had been preparing for his expected transfer to a “special regime” colony, the harshest grade in Russia’s prison system.
Navalny, the anti-corruption activist who became a leading opponent of Vladimir Putin, has been convicted of extremism and other charges and is set to remain in prison for three decades.
He has called the charges against him politically motivated and said he believes he will not be released while Putin is alive.
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is in Washington today, where later he will meet Joe Biden as well as US senators and the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, at a time when Congress is holding up future American financial support for Kyiv’s war effort.
Here are the latest developments:
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has flown to Washington DC, in an attempt to rescue a critical $61bn military aid package, while separately the UK hinted that it may increase the value of the arms, ammunition and training that it donates to Kyiv.
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Zelenskiy is due to meet the US president, Joe Biden, on Tuesday, as well as US senators and the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, at a time when Congress is holding up future US financial support for Kyiv’s war effort.
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Shortly after arriving in the US capital, Zelenskiy said Ukraine was counting on the US, and that delays to future rounds of military aid were “dreams come true” for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. “Putin must lose,” Zelenskiy said in a speech at the National Defense University. “You can count on Ukraine, and we hope just as much to be able to count on you.”
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Defence secretary Lloyd Austin, who introduced the Ukrainian president, said America’s commitment to Ukraine was unshakeable and supporting the war was critical to ensuring the security of the US and its allies.
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Russia’s air defence systems destroyed a Tochka-U tactical ballistic missile over the Belgorod region that was launched from Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry, in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, said the attack took place at about 5am (0200 GMT). It did not say whether there was any damage as a result.
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The International Monetary Fund’s executive board (IMF) on Monday approved a $900m disbursement for Ukraine from its $15.6bn loan programme, hours before the IMF chief, Kristalina Georgieva, met Zelenskiy.
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Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader, has not been heard from for nearly a week and his lawyers have been unable to contact him, his supporters have said. On Monday, Navalny’s supporters said he again failed to appear by videoconference for a court hearing, with prison officials blaming a power outage. Later that day, Navalny’s lawyers were told he was no longer listed as a prisoner at IK-6, the penal colony where he has been incarcerated in the Vladimir region near Moscow.
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A decision to start talks on Ukraine’s EU accession is on a knife-edge after Hungary said it would not bow to mounting pressure to give the green light. Viktor Orbán’s threat to veto the launch of negotiations is being taken seriously, with Ukraine’s foreign minister warning of “devastating consequences” for his country if the talks are blocked.
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Russia will hold its presidential election in four annexed regions of Ukraine, Interfax news agency quoted the country’s central election commission as saying.
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Russian forces have unleashed a major offensive on Avdiivka, with 610 artillery shellings reported near the eastern Ukrainian town over the past day, according to the Ukrainian military.
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Britain has said it delivered two mine-hunting ships to Ukraine. The mine hunters, originally HMS Grimsby and HMS Shoreham, were renamed Chernihiv and Cherkasy in Glasgow in June, and will help Ukraine to maintain a critical route for merchant shipping travelling across the Black Sea.