February 21, 2024 - Russia-Ukraine news

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.

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:

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.

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. 

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

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 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.