February 2024
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More European leaders are reacting this morning to Emmanuel Macron refusing to rule out the idea that Western troops could be sent to Ukraine. Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said Budapest was not willing to send Kyiv weapons or troops and that its stance on the matter was “rock solid”. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz…
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The Kremlin has been reacting in the past few moments to Emmanuel Macron’s comments that sending Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not “ruled out” for the future. The French president told a conference in Paris yesterday that there was “no consensus at this stage” but “nothing should be excluded”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov…
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Navalny’s team repeatedly denied access to venues for farewell ceremony, says ally Multiple venues in Russia are refusing to host the farewell ceremony of Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin critic’s spokeswoman has said. Kira Yarmysh said Mr Navalny’s team has been calling “most private and public funeral agencies, commercial sites and funeral halls” since yesterday. Some…
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A Russian drone crossed the border with Moldova overnight and flew for “several tens of kilometres” before entering Ukraine’s airspace, the Ukrainian military has claimed. The route was “provocatively directed” by Russian forces “along a trajectory crossing the Ukrainian-Moldovan section of the state border in the Odesa region”, Ukraine’s southern defence forces said in a Telegram post.…
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Russian human rights campaigner jailed Prominent human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov has been sentenced by a Russian court to 30 months in prison. Mr Orlov, 70, was found guilty of “discrediting” Russia’s armed forces in a trial deemed a “sham” by Human Rights Watch, after he wrote an article criticising the invasion of Ukraine. A…
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Alexei Navalny’s plan for a Russian election day protest against Vladimir Putin will be his “last testament”, his top aide Leonid Volkov has said. The Kremlin critic, who died in a remote Arctic penal colony on 16 February, had said Russians should rally against Mr Putin by voting at a specific time on election day…
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Sweden’s accession to NATO marks a “dramatic and historical shift” of its security policy and means the alliance can “project force more effectively across Scandinavia”, a defence and security thinktank has said. Stockholm cleared the final hurdle to joining NATO yesterday as Hungary dropped its opposition after months of delays. Dr Neil Melvin, director of international security at…
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Joe Biden is meeting Congress’s top four leaders today to press for quick action on a bill that includes aid for Ukraine and avoiding a government shutdown. The White House said Mr Biden invited the leaders to an Oval Office meeting to ensure US national security interests are “put first”. The US government faces a…
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Vladimir Putin’s re-establishment of two military districts in Russia could signify he is “preparing for a potential future large-scale conventional war against NATO in the long term”, according to military analysts. The Russian president yesterday signed a decree officially reinstating the Moscow and Leningrad military districts in western Russia, which have not existed since 2010.…
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Russia will ban petrol exports for six months from 1 March, according to a spokeswoman for deputy prime minister Alexander Novak, who oversees the country’s energy sector. The move is meant to compensate for rising demand from Russian consumers and farmers and to allow for planned maintenance of refineries. Russia adopted a similar ban between…
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Macron: Placing Western troops on ground in Ukraine ‘not ruled out’ Emmanuel Macron has said there is no consensus on sending troops to Ukraine, but the prospect cannot be ruled out. Speaking at a conference of 20 European leaders in Paris today, the French president said: “There is no consensus at this stage… to send…
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Poland’s new foreign minister has urged Warsaw’s Western allies to step up aid to Ukraine to prevent the fighting from spilling over into other territories. Radoslaw Sikorski outlined three steps in a speech at the Atlantic Council thinktank in Washington – back Ukraine with ammunition, invest in security deterrence and deepen alliances to secure a…
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Russian-installed officials in Ukraine say that Moscow’s forces have destroyed a US-supplied Abrams tank on the battlefield for the first time. “From the very beginning, our soldiers said that these tanks would burn just like others,” state news agency RIA quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. Mr Peskov was referring to previous instances where…
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The White House has welcomed Hungary’s decision to ratify Sweden’s bid to join NATO. “We would like to welcome Sweden alongside Finland into the NATO alliance very, very soon,” spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said tonight. She went on to urge the Hungarian government to quickly complete the process to allow Sweden’s entry into NATO. Earlier today, Hungary’s…
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The former home of music legend Freddie Mercury is up for sale – on the market for offers in excess of £30m. The Garden Lodge in Kensington, west London, is set in a quiet enclave in the borough, and used to be described by Mercury as “his country house in central London”. Built in the Neo-Georgian style…
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‘Mistake’ for Navalny to return to Russia, ex-MI6 officer says It was “a mistake” for Alexei Navalny to return to Russia and his death will “definitely chill opposition in Russia”, a former British intelligence officer has said. Christopher Steele, who ran the Russia desk at MI6 from 2006 to 2009, said there were “some indications”…
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