Russian authorities detain lawyers for Navalny; US says North Korea delivered 1,000 containers of military equipment to Russia
Russia has detained three lawyers of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and raided their homes, aides said, a step that comes amid increasing pressure on the Kremlin’s critics. The move was an attempt to “completely isolate Navalny,” his ally Ivan Zhdanov said on social media.
The US has claimed that North Korea delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia for the war in Ukraine. The White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said the US believed Kim was seeking sophisticated Russian weapon technologies in return for the munitions to boost North Korea’s nuclear programme.
Fighting on the eastern frontline, in Avdiivka, entered a fourth day as Russia seeks to regain the initiative in its biggest offensive in months. Ukraine’s top military command said that it had repelled more than 20 attacks over the past day around the town, while there were claims Ukrainian reservists were being sent in to shore up defences after initial Russian breakthroughs.
Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea that Russia damaged a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia and suggested such claims were made up to divert attention from what he said was a western attack on Nord Stream.
EU leaders meeting later in October will demand “decisive progress” on using Russian assets frozen by sanctions to help Ukraine, according to their draft statement.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, visiting the Black Sea port of Odesa, vowed on Friday to improve Ukraine’s air defences and to increase the security of a “humanitarian corridor” for grain exports.
Former Olympic champions Yelena Isinbayeva and Shamil Tarpischev – Russia’s two International Olympic Committee members – have no contractual links to the country’s military and have not supported the invasion of Ukraine, the IOC president, Thomas Bach, said.
No final communique is expected to be released at the end of the International Monetary Fund’s meetings in Marrakech because of a disagreement on how to refer to Russia’s war in Ukraine, a European official said on Friday.
