February 21, 2024 - Russia-Ukraine news

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.