Ukraine war: Putin’s troops capture village near Avdiivka

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s funeral will be held in Moscow on Friday, his wife Yulia announced, but she said she was unsure if it would pass off peacefully and that plans for a civil memorial service had been blocked.

Navalny’s allies accused the Kremlin of thwarting their attempts to organise a separate civil memorial service in a hall which could have accommodated more people, and of blocking plans to bury Navalny a day earlier. The Kremlin has said it has nothing to do with such arrangements.

“Two people – Vladimir Putin and (Moscow Mayor) Sergei Sobyanin – are to blame for the fact that we have no place for a civil memorial service and farewell to Alexei,” Yulia, his wife, wrote on X.

“People in the Kremlin killed him, then mocked Alexei’s body, then mocked his mother, now they are mocking his memory.”

The Kremlin denies any involvement in Navalny’s Feb. 16 death at age 47 in an Arctic penal colony and his death certificate – according to his supporters – says he died of natural causes.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen underscored the urgency of moving forward together with Western allies to unlock the value of frozen Russian sovereign assets to help Ukraine, but said the U.S. had no “preferred strategy” for how to do so.

Yellen, speaking at a news conference ahead of meetings with her G7 and G20 counterparts, said the U.S. and its allies were evaluating different options for some $285 billion in Russian assets immobilized in 2022 and the associated risks.

G7 leaders have asked for solutions to be presented in June.

Yellen acknowledged there were risks involved, but downplayed concerns raised by some in Europe that confiscating Russian assets would undermine the role of the U.S. dollar, euro or Japanese yen as important global reserve currencies.

“I believe the G7 should work together to explore the number of approaches that have been suggested for unlocking their economic values. One would be, of course, seizing the assets themselves, but there are other ideas, such as using them as collateral to borrow from global markets,” Yellen said.

Turkey supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, stands for a just and lasting solution to the war in Ukraine, and is ready to host “peace talks” between Russia and Ukraine again.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

“Türkiye’s support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity is well known to all. We are also making every effort to protect the rights and interests of our Crimean Tatar compatriots,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

According to him, diplomacy and dialogue should be given a chance for a “just and lasting solution” to the war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

“I’m of the opinion that joint efforts should be initiated, at least on determining general parameters of peace,” he added.

President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to drum up Balkan support for his vision of peace in Ukraine and promoted the idea of joint arms production at a two-day summit of southeastern European countries on Wednesday.

The summit in the Albanian capital Tirana comes as Kyiv is trying to improve its defensive capabilities to beat back Russian forces at a time of faltering U.S. support more than two years into Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“We are interested in co-production with you and all our partners,” Zelensky told top delegations from Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, Moldova and Romania in his opening remarks.

“There are about 500 defence companies operating in Ukraine, each of them adds strength but it is not enough to win (against Russian President Vladimir) Putin. We see the problems with the supply of ammunition, which affects the situation on the battlefield.”

Zelensky proposed organising a Ukrainian-Balkans defence forum in Kyiv or a Balkan capital to nurture arms cooperation, repeating similar initiatives conducted last year with British and U.S. weapons companies.

Just over 288,000 Russians and nearly 20,000 Ukrainians have traveled to Sri Lanka in the last two years since the war began, according to official data.

Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Ukrinform reported explosions during an air raid alert.

“The sounds of explosions were heard in the Myrhorod district of Poltava region,” reads the report, referring to local eyewitnesses.

Before that, an air raid alert was declared in Kyiv and a number of region, while the Air Force warned of an incoming missile flying toward Poltava region.

During the air alert in Poltava region, a number of explosions were reported.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday he would meet protesting farmers’ leaders on Thursday, as demonstrations continued across the country.

Farmers across Europe have been protesting for weeks against constraints placed on them by EU regulations meant to tackle climate change, as well as rising costs and what they say is unfair competition from outside the EU, particularly Ukraine.

“I have convened an agricultural summit in Warsaw for tomorrow … I will meet with the leaders of all protesting groups,” he said during a press conference.

“We have a very important problem. We are the most pro-Ukrainian nation when it comes to aid, but we have the biggest problems in Europe resulting from the war.”

The committee awarding the Nobel Peace Prize said it was “appalled” by the jail sentence imposed on Russian activist Oleg Orlov, a leader of the disbanded human rights centre Memorial who shared the prize in 2022.

“The sentence against Mr Orlov is politically motivated and provides another proof of the increasing disrespect for human rights and freedom of speech in today’s Russia,” Joergen Watne Frydnes, head of the committee, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Orlov was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Tuesday for “discrediting the armed forces” by protesting against the war in Ukraine and accusing President Vladimir Putin of leading a descent into fascism.

“The Putin regime has for many years tried to silence the leadership of Memorial and other important civil society organizations in Russia, and they are now using the war on Ukraine as a pretext to finish the job,” said Watne Frydnes.

“It is important that they won’t succeed.”

Armenia is set to boycott meetings of a Russian-led alliance after a “de facto freeze” of its membership, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

Armenia is a member of the CSTO, which also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Belarus.

“The freezing of relations with the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation) means Armenia does not have a permanent representative to the CSTO and does not participate in events at the high and top levels,” TASS quoted Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as saying during a parliament session.

Pashinyan has skipped several recent meetings of the bloc, amid a sharp downturn in relations with the alliance’s leading member, Russia.

Since coming to power in a 2018 revolution, Pashinyan has deepened Armenia’s ties with Europe and the United States, repeatedly drawing the ire of traditional ally Russia.