Russia-Ukraine war: Jailed British-Russian dissident’s wife speaks out- live

Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed reports that he fired Ukraine army chief Valery Zaluzhny – a popular figure in the country’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

Mr Zaluzhny and the Ukrainian president have reportedly been at loggerheads over the results of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which began last-spring last year but has so far failed to achieve major territorial gains.

A Ukrainian UN ambassador confronted his Russian counterpart moments after Moscow launched its invasion, footage from an emergency Security Council meeting shows.

Resurfaced footage from February 2022, featured in the new BBC documentary Putin vs the West, shows Sergiy Kyslytsya pleading with Vasily Nebenzya to call Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

“Say on the record that at this very moment your troops do not shell and bomb Ukrainian cities, that your troops do not move in the territory of Ukraine,” Mr Kyslytsya said.

Lawyers for prominent Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., who is serving a 25-year sentence for treason, said Tuesday that he has been transferred to another prison in Siberia and placed in solitary confinement again, for at least four months, over an alleged minor infraction.

The move comes amid unrelenting pressure on Russian dissidents at home and abroad that has intensified significantly since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine almost two years ago.

Kara-Murza, 42, was held in a prison in the Omsk region, but his supporters said on Monday he apparently was no longer there.

Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed reports that he fired Ukraine army chief Valery Zaluzhny – a popular figure in the country’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

Mr Zaluzhny and the Ukrainian president have reportedly been at loggerheads over the results of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which began last-spring last year but has so far failed to achieve major territorial gains.

On Monday, reports started emerging in Ukrainian news outlets, including Ukrainska Pravda, Ukrinform and The Kyiv Independent, as well as several leading Telegram channels, that the army chief was summoned by Mr Zelensky.

In November, Mr Zelensky had rebuked the commander for suggesting the vast frontline with Russian troops was at stalemate, while last month Mr Zaluzhny expressed frustration with the performance of military draft offices, in remarks suggesting they should mobilise more troops for the war against Russia.

Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza has been transferred to a new penal colony in the Omsk region of Siberia and placed in a punishment block, his lawyer was quoted as saying on Tuesday, after he disappeared on Monday.

The newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe said Kara-Murza had written to his lawyer Maria Eismont that the move was punishment for not standing up at the right time, which he said the authorities had deemed a “malicious violation”.

Kara-Murza said he had been sent to a type of punishment cell known by its Russian initials as an EPKT, the strictest form of isolation from other inmates.

The newspaper quoted him as commenting ironically that the point of the punishment was “so that life doesn’t seem like honey”.

Kara-Murza, who had lobbied for Western sanctions against Russia, was sentenced to 25 years last April on treason and other charges that he denied, comparing the case against him to a Stalinist show trial.

His wife said on Monday that he had been moved from his previous prison in Omsk and his whereabouts were unknown.

European Union leaders will restate their determination to continue to provide “timely, predictable and sustainable military support” to Ukraine at a summit on Thursday, according to draft conclusions of the meeting.

“The European Council also reiterates the urgent need to accelerate the delivery of ammunition and missiles,” the draft text, seen by Reuters, also says.

The draft summit conclusions leave open whether the leaders will also pledge to put another 5 billion euros for Ukraine aid into a fund called the European Peace Facility, which has been used to bankroll donations of weapons to Kyiv.

EU members have been wrangling for months over the future of the fund’s role in military aid to Ukraine, with Germany suggesting the focus should now be on bilateral aid from individual EU countries.

The idea of pledging a further 5 billion euros is included in the draft text in square brackets – indicating it is still a matter of discussion.

The main topic of Thursday’s summit in Brussels is an effort to reach agreement on a financial aid package for Ukraine worth 50 billion euros over four years, which was blocked by Hungary at a previous summit in December.

Below are some of the latest photos from Ukraine.

Russian air defence systems destroyed or intercepted 21 Ukraine-launched drones over the Crimean Peninsula and several Russian regions, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday, citing Moscow’s defence ministry.

Russia’s systems downed 11 of the drones over Crimea, RIA state news agency reported. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in a move condemned by Kyiv’s Western allies as an illegal land grab.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol in Crimea, said on the Telegram messaging app there was no damage from the attack on Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city and a major Black Sea port.

Ukraine-launched drones were also downed over the Belgorod. Bryansk, Kaluga and Tula regions, Russian agencies reported.

Drone debris fell on the roof of a non-residential building on the outskirts of the city of Kaluga, the administrative centre of the Kaluga region, but there was no major damage or injuries, the region’s governor Vladislav Shapsha said on Telegram.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv has intensified its air attacks in recent months, in what it says are strikes targeting Russian military infrastructure to undermine Moscow’s war efforts.

Foreign secretary David Cameron said he was “deeply concerned” by the disappearance of British-Russian journalist and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is reportedly missing from a jail in a Siberian city where he is serving a 25-year sentence.

The 42-year-old Kremlin critic was lodged in a prison in the Omsk region where he being held in solitary confinement. Efforts by his wife and lawyers to reach him in person and through letters failed, and jail authorities have now said Mr Kara-Murza is no longer present in the facility.

Russia launched a total of 35 attack drones and two guided missiles targeting energy and military infrastructure near the frontline and other Ukrainian regions, Ukraine‘s Air Force said on Tuesday.

Ukraine‘s air defence systems destroyed 15 of the 35 drones, the Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app.

It was not immediately clear what happened to the drones that were not destroyed or the two missiles the Air Force said that Russia had launched from S-300 long-range, surface-to-air missile systems.