Ukrainian forces have begun to withdraw from Avdiivka in. order to n ot get overrun….
The focus is mostly on the death of Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny….
US Intel estimates that Russia has lost 315,000 causalities...
The Ukraine does not revail it’s numbers…..
President Biden made a STRONG speech about supporting NATO under his administration …
And called for passage of an aid bill for Ukraine….
There have been protests and mass rally’s in memory of Navalny with arrests in Russia…
First Ukraine F-16 pilots will be combat ready hopefully by May…Others out to August….
“He bravely stood up to the corruption, the violence, all the bad things the Putin government was doing. In response, Putin had him poisoned. He had him arrested and prosecuted for fabricated crimes.
He sent him to prison, he was held in isolation. Even all that didn’t stop him from calling out the lies. Even in prison he was a powerful voice for the truth.
He could have lived safely in exile after the assassination attempt on him in 2020, which nearly killed him I might add. He was traveling outside the country at the time. Instead, he returned to Russia, knowing he might be imprisoned.
During questions following his address, Biden was asked what consequences Russia might face:
“They’ve [already] faced a hell of a lot of consequences, and lost or had wounded over 350,000 Russian soldiers [in Ukraine]. They’ve been subjected to great sanctions across the board.
And we’re contemplating what else can be done … we’re looking at a whole number of options”….
President Biden….
-
Joe Biden blamed Russian president Vladimir Putin “and his thugs” for Navalny’s death in an address from the White House. “Make no mistake, Putin is responsible. What has happened and evolving is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled, not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world, that Putin does not only target citizens of other countries … he also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people,” the US president said.
-
Biden also reiterated his support for Nato in the wake of Navalny’s death, and slammed former president Donald Trump for comments calling on Russia to attack any alliance member he felt wasn’t paying its dues. “This is an outrageous thing for a [former] president to say. I can’t fathom it. As long as I’m president, America stands by our sacred commitment to our Nato allies,” he said.
-
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesperson, said reports of his death are “most likely true”, adding that his attorneys and relatives would travel to Siberia on Saturday to the penal colony where he died. “Before [the attorney arrives] we do not have any verification, so we can not officially confirm or deny statements by all the Kremlin agencies that Alexei Navalny is dead. But really, we all understand full well that if [Russian press official Dmitri] Peskov is commenting and Putin and the rest – this cannot be an accident or a mistake. So, most likely it’s all true,” she said.
-
The European Union says it will do whatever it can to hold Russia, and Putin, accountable. Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell, the EU president and vice-president, said in a joint statement: “He was slowly murdered by President Putin and his regime, who fear nothing more than dissent from their own people. We will spare no efforts to hold the Russian political leadership and authorities to account.”
-
Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, spoke at the Munich Security Conference to call on the international community to come together and punish “this horrific regime” in Russia, and Putin, who she said was personally responsible for her husband’s death. “If this is true, I want Putin and everyone around him to know that they will be held accountable for everything they did to our country, to my family. And this day will happen very soon,” she said.
-
A wave of international outrage greeted the news, with the UK and US leading the condemnation. The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, said Russia, under Putin, “fabricated charges … poisoned him, sent him to an Arctic penal colony”. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in Munich, said reports of Navalny’s death “underscore the weakness and rot at the heart” of the Putin regime.
-
Russia’s foreign ministry said the US should show restraint before accusing the country of causing Navalny’s death. Moscow’s Tass news agency quoted the ministry as saying the US needed to wait for the results of the forensic medical examination…..
…
Feb 16, 2024 – ISW Press
Ukrainian forces have begun to withdraw from Avdiivka, and Russian forces appear to be focused on complicating or preventing a complete Ukrainian withdrawal. Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi stated early in the morning Ukrainian time on February 17 that he ordered Ukrainian forces within Avdiivka to withdraw to more favorable defensive positions in order to avoid encirclement and save the lives of Ukrainian personnel.