Russia Ukraine war live: Kyiv shoots down three more warplanes as Putin’s forces pushed back

David Cameron is to rachet up pressure on Vladimir Putin by meeting the wife of Russia’s most prominent opposition leader after Alexei Navalny for crunch Whitehall talks, The Independent can reveal.

In a marked escalation of political tensions between the UK and Russia, the foreign secretary will on Friday sit down with Evgenia Kara-Murza, whose Cambridge-educated husband, Vladimir Kara-Murza, is serving a 25-year sentence in a remote Siberian penal colony for spreading “false” information about the Russian army.

The high-level talks come as human rights figures warn the “heir to Navalny” is next on Putin’s hitlist.

Since Putin’s biggest critic died his team have accused the Kremlin of trying to prevent him from having a public burial, his allies said.

“What a disgrace,” said Ivan Zhdanov, an exiled ally who managed Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.

“Now the hearse drivers refuse to take Alexei from the morgue.”

Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said funeral directors had received threatening calls from “unknown people” warning them not to transport Navalny’s body anywhere, and that no one had agreed to transport his body as a result.

“Given Russia’s increasingly aggressive role in Europe, we are watching Russia’s actions in Transnistria and the broader situation there very closely,” Mr Miller said at a press briefing, using the Moldovan name for the region.

Transnistria, Moldova’s separatist region, turned to Russia on Wednesday and asked for help to aid its economy withstand Moldovan “pressure” as hundreds of officials gathered to hold a congress meeting.

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday hosted a screening of the award-winning Associated Press-PBS “Frontline” Ukraine war documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” days after Ukraine marked the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Elizabeth Allen, under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, said the film not only documented the reality of the war but counters “disinformation campaigns attempting to erase Ukraine’s sovereignty, identity and culture.” She said the State Department has plans to screen it in more than 30 countries around the world.

“I just want to reiterate here my firm belief that cultural diplomacy is an essential component of our national security strategy,” Allen told those who attended Tuesday’s screening, many of them diplomats from foreign embassies in Washington.

European states are discussing how to strengthen military support to Moldova as it faces “increasingly aggressive destabilisation” efforts by Russia, France’s deputy foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

Christophe Lemoine said that the issue would be discussed among some European foreign and defence ministers at a meeting in Paris in the coming days that would also focus on strengthening support for Ukraine.

The meeting, which European diplomats said could take place on March 7, was planned after a conference on Ukraine earlier this week.

It aims to come up with concrete ideas on cyberdefence, weapons production, defending countries threatened by Russia, notably Moldova, protecting Ukraine‘s border with Belarus and demining operations.

“Moldova is facing increasingly aggressive destabilisation attempts,” Lemoine told reporters. “And the situation in Transdniestria is being followed with great attention here.”

Moldova’s breakaway Transdniestria region asked Russia on Wednesday to help its economy withstand Moldovan “pressure”, at a meeting of hundreds of officials dismissed by the pro-European Chisinau government as a propaganda event.

Embracing at the door to Number 10, the pair turned to the cameras, held hands and waved before entering the building.

After a private meeting, the first ladies entered the Pillared Room of Number 10 for a rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem, performed by the Royal Opera House Songs for Ukraine Chorus – a choir made up of Ukrainian singers affected by the war.

The 42-year-old University of Cambridge graduate was arrested in April 2022 hours after CNN broadcast an interview in which he said Russia was being run by a “regime of murderers”.

Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska has been welcomed to Downing Street by Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty.

Embracing at the door to Number 10, the pair turned to the cameras, held hands and waved before entering the building.

After a private meeting, the first ladies entered the Pillared Room of Number 10 for a rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem, performed by the Royal Opera House Songs for Ukraine Chorus – a choir made up of Ukrainian singers affected by the war.

Introduced by Ms Murty as a “special, special moment”, Mrs Zelenska stood with hand on heart as the pair listened to the chorus, most of whom were wearing traditional embroidered shirts called vyshyvanka.

Ukraine’s first lady had tears in her eyes as she later heard a member of the choir describe the kindness of the Royal Opera House.

On Monday, he said that German soldiers could not follow the lead of their British and French allies in “the way of target control and accompanying target control”.