Russia Ukraine latest news today: Putin’s troops capture village near Avdiivka

Ukraine has downed another Russian fighter jet, the head of the Ukrainian Air Force has claimed.

“Today, February 29, is a date that occurs once every four years, but it is already a familiar day for Russians with the loss of another plane,” said Mykola Oleshchuk.

He said Ukraine shot down a Su-34 fighter jet in the eastern direction, without providing further details.

At half a dozen Su-43s have been shot down in the past fortnight, according to claims made by Mr Oleshchuk.

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.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament and a close Putin ally, said Macron appeared to see himself as Napoleon and warned him against following in the footsteps of the French emperor.

“To maintain his personal power, Macron could not think of anything better than to ignite a third world war. His initiatives are becoming dangerous for the citizens of France,” Volodin said on his official social media feed.

“Before making such statements, it would be right for Macron to remember how it ended for Napoleon and his soldiers, more than 600,000 of whom were left lying in the damp earth.”

Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia made rapid progress initially and captured Moscow. But Russian tactics forced his Grande Armee into a long retreat and hundreds of thousands of his men died as a result of disease, starvation and cold.

A Moscow court on sentenced a veteran human rights advocate who spoke out against the war in Ukraine to two years and six months in prison. He was taken directly into custody from the courtroom.

Oleg Orlov, 70, was convicted of “repeatedly discrediting” the Russian army in an article he wrote denouncing the invasion of Ukraine. He has rejected the case against him as politically motivated.

The prosecution demanded that he be sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison.

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s funeral will be held in Moscow on Friday, his wife Yulia announced, but she said she was unsure if it would pass off peacefully and that plans for a civil memorial service had been blocked.

Navalny’s allies accused the Kremlin of thwarting their attempts to organise a separate civil memorial service in a hall which could have accommodated more people, and of blocking plans to bury Navalny a day earlier. The Kremlin has said it has nothing to do with such arrangements.

“Two people – Vladimir Putin and (Moscow Mayor) Sergei Sobyanin – are to blame for the fact that we have no place for a civil memorial service and farewell to Alexei,” Yulia, his wife, wrote on X.

“People in the Kremlin killed him, then mocked Alexei’s body, then mocked his mother, now they are mocking his memory.”

The Kremlin denies any involvement in Navalny’s Feb. 16 death at age 47 in an Arctic penal colony and his death certificate – according to his supporters – says he died of natural causes.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen underscored the urgency of moving forward together with Western allies to unlock the value of frozen Russian sovereign assets to help Ukraine, but said the U.S. had no “preferred strategy” for how to do so.

Yellen, speaking at a news conference ahead of meetings with her G7 and G20 counterparts, said the U.S. and its allies were evaluating different options for some $285 billion in Russian assets immobilized in 2022 and the associated risks.

G7 leaders have asked for solutions to be presented in June.

Yellen acknowledged there were risks involved, but downplayed concerns raised by some in Europe that confiscating Russian assets would undermine the role of the U.S. dollar, euro or Japanese yen as important global reserve currencies.

“I believe the G7 should work together to explore the number of approaches that have been suggested for unlocking their economic values. One would be, of course, seizing the assets themselves, but there are other ideas, such as using them as collateral to borrow from global markets,” Yellen said.

Turkey supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, stands for a just and lasting solution to the war in Ukraine, and is ready to host “peace talks” between Russia and Ukraine again.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

“Türkiye’s support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity is well known to all. We are also making every effort to protect the rights and interests of our Crimean Tatar compatriots,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

According to him, diplomacy and dialogue should be given a chance for a “just and lasting solution” to the war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

“I’m of the opinion that joint efforts should be initiated, at least on determining general parameters of peace,” he added.

President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to drum up Balkan support for his vision of peace in Ukraine and promoted the idea of joint arms production at a two-day summit of southeastern European countries on Wednesday.

The summit in the Albanian capital Tirana comes as Kyiv is trying to improve its defensive capabilities to beat back Russian forces at a time of faltering U.S. support more than two years into Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“We are interested in co-production with you and all our partners,” Zelensky told top delegations from Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, Moldova and Romania in his opening remarks.

“There are about 500 defence companies operating in Ukraine, each of them adds strength but it is not enough to win (against Russian President Vladimir) Putin. We see the problems with the supply of ammunition, which affects the situation on the battlefield.”

Zelensky proposed organising a Ukrainian-Balkans defence forum in Kyiv or a Balkan capital to nurture arms cooperation, repeating similar initiatives conducted last year with British and U.S. weapons companies.

Just over 288,000 Russians and nearly 20,000 Ukrainians have traveled to Sri Lanka in the last two years since the war began, according to official data.