Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow condemned over ‘barbaric’ Navalny plot as civilians killed in drone strikes

A top European Union official on Sunday rejected the notion that Europe faces “civilisational erasure,” pushing back at criticism of the continent by the Trump administration.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas addressed the Munich Security Conference a day after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a somewhat reassuring message to European allies.

He struck a less aggressive tone than Vice President JD Vance did in lecturing them at the same gathering last year but maintained a firm tone on Washington’s intent to reshape the trans-Atlantic alliance and push its policy priorities.

Ms Kallas alluded to criticism in the U.S. national security strategy released in December, which asserted that economic stagnation in Europe “is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilisational erasure.”

It suggested that Europe is being enfeebled by its immigration policies, declining birth rates, “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition” and a “loss of national identities and self-confidence.”

“Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilisational erasure,” Ms Kallas told the conference.

“In fact, people still want to join our club and not just fellow Europeans,” she added, saying she was told when visiting Canada last year that many people there have an interest in joining the EU.

Navalny, a fierce critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, died while serving a 19-year jail term in a penal colony around 40 miles of the Arctic Circle in charges widely thought to be politically motivated.

The political agitator has been behind bars since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

Before his arrest, he campaigned against official corruption, organized major anti-Kremlin protests and ran for public office.

A Ukrainian drone strike ignited fires at one of Russia’s Black Sea ports, officials said on Sunday, ahead of fresh talks aimed at ending the nearly four-year-old war.

Two people were injured in the attack on the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region, which damaged an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals, according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

Meanwhile, falling debris from Russian drones damaged civilian and transport infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, officials said, causing disruption to the power and water supply.

The latest attacks came ahead of another round of US-brokered talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva, just before the fourth anniversary of the all-out Russian invasion of its neighbour on February 22.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested there are still questions remaining over future security guarantees for his country.

He also questioned how the concept of a free trade zone – proposed by the US – would work in the Donbas region, which Russia insists Kyiv must give up for peace.

New sanctions against the Russian regime could follow from Britain and its allies blaming the Kremlin for poisoning opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Foreign Secretary has suggested.

Asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme what the consequences of the accusation would be, Yvette Cooper said: “We continue to look at co-ordinated action, including increasing sanctions on the Russian regime.

“As you know, we have been pursuing this as part of our response to the brutal invasion of Ukraine, where we are also coming up to the fourth anniversary of that invasion as well.

“We believe that it is the partnerships that we build abroad that make us stronger at home. It is by acting alongside our European allies, alongside allies across the world, that we do maintain that pressure on the Russian regime.”

She added: “The other thing that I would say specifically about Alexei Navalny is one of the things he said was ‘tell the truth, spread the truth’, because that is the most dangerous weapon of all.

“That was his comment about the Russian regime. He is no longer able to do that, but that is why we are continuing to do that for him, and for his widow as well.”

Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said some sanctions on Russia are being “busted and circumvented”.

The Witham MP told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “We need to do much more, I think, when it comes to action against Russia.

“Sanctions are actually being busted and circumvented by some of the Russian state-sponsored individuals; we know that when it comes to the war in Ukraine.

“We’ve actually got to start cutting off their financial funds that are fuelling the war in Ukraine.

“We really need to take direct action against some of the individuals in the UK. The ambassador, again, needs to be called in.

“We need to see the Government really step up in terms of its own actions when it comes to Russia.”

Dame Priti added: “There are oil refineries around the world white-labelling Russian oil. We’ve got to target those businesses and go after them.

“Those refineries are in China, they are in Turkey and they are in India. Those businesses and refineries that are taking Russian oil, white-labelling them and re-exporting them around the world, they need to be shut down.”

After the findings were announced by Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya, the foreign secretary pinned the blame squarely on the Kremlin and said only Russia had the “means, motive and opportunity” to carry out such an attack.

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About the UK and its Allies blaming the Kremlin for poisoning opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Yvette Cooper told Sky News this morning: “Only the Russian regime had the motive, the means and the opportunity to administer this lethal poison while he was in prison in Russia.

“They wanted to silence him because he was a critic of their regime and that is why we have exposed this barbaric Kremlin plot to do so and made sure that we have done so with evidence as well.

“The reason as well that we have done this is was one of the things that Alexei Navalny himself said that. He said ‘tell the truth, spread the truth, that is the most dangerous weapon of all’.

“The Russian regime tried to stop him doing so, so we have done so instead.”