Avdiivka (Ukraine)

Russia Cracks Down on Navalny Mourners, and U.N. Court Focuses on Israeli Occupation

Plus, $400 gold sneakers from Trump.

After the capture of Avdiivka, Ukrainian forces will need a new defensive line in unforgiving terrain, while Russia tries to press its advantage.

As a $60.1 billion military aid bill languishes in the House, a spokeswoman pointed to Avdiivka’s fate as “the cost of congressional inaction.”

Outmanned and outgunned, Ukrainian ground forces are in perhaps their most precarious position since the opening months of the war.

Russia’s capture of a city that had been a stronghold of Ukrainian defenses in the Donetsk region is a strategic and symbolic blow.