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The US and most EU countries will boycott the Kremlin ceremony to swear in Vladimir Putin to a new six-year term as president on Tuesday, but France and some other EU countries are expected to send an envoy despite Kiev’s call. “No, we will not have a representative at his inauguration,” said Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the US State Department. “We certainly did not consider these elections to be free and fair, but he is the president of Russia and will continue to be in that capacity.”
Russia threatens to hit British military installations and ordered its military to conduct battlefield nuclear weapons drills in a move the Kremlin described as a response to comments by the French president, Emmanuel Macronand by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. Macron said he “wouldn’t rule out” sending troops to Ukraine, and Cameron said he had to Kiev how it uses British weapons, including against targets in Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pressured Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a summit in Paris on Monday to use Beijing’s influence to stop Russia’s war on Ukraine. Europe is concerned that while officially neutral on the Ukrainian conflict, China is essentially supporting Russia, which is using Chinese machinery to make weapons. “More efforts are needed to limit the supply of dual-use goods to Russia that find their way to the battlefield,” von der Leyen said after the talks, adding that “this affects EU-China relations.”
Russian forces took control of the villages of Solovyov in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and Kotlyarovka in the north in the Kharkiv region, the defense ministry said on Monday. The Ukrainian army did not mention either of the two settlements in its evening report to the General Staff.
Ukrainian weightlifter Oleksandr Pielishenko, who finished fourth in the 85kg light-heavyweight category at the 2016 Rio Olympics. is killed defending his country. The news was confirmed by Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee, which said Pielishenko had died during fighting on Sunday. He joined in the first few days of the 2022 Russian invasion.
A Russian journalist who has worked for both state-funded and independent media was detained on Monday and faces charges of justifying terrorism through posts on the Telegram messaging app, her lawyer said. Nadezhda Kevorkova is expected to appear before the court on Tuesday, her lawyer Kaloy Akhilgov reported on Telegram. If convicted, she could be sentenced to up to five years in prison. Akhilgov said the charges involved two posts, one in 2018 and the other in 2021.
American soldier is detained in Russia last week on charges of “criminal conduct,” the U.S. military said Monday. The soldier — whose name was not released — adds to the number of Americans detained in Russia amid deep tensions with Washington over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, who wrote columns as a contributor to The Washington Post from his prison cell in Russia, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. The Russian politician, writer and historian has been imprisoned in Russia since April 2022. He was convicted of treason last year for condemning the war in Ukraine.
Poland’s government said on Monday it was funding the operation of 20,000 Starlink internet devices in Ukraine, a vital network for the country’s military communications as it battles Russia’s invasion. Starlink, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is a network of satellites in low Earth orbit that can provide internet to remote locations or areas where normal communications infrastructure is disabled.
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