Fighting on the eastern front in Avdiivka continues for a fourth day as Russia tries to regain the initiative in its biggest offensive in months. Ukraine says it has repelled more than 20 attacks around the city in the past 24 hours, and Ukrainian reservists have reportedly been deployed to bolster defenses.

Summarizing the latest events of the Russian-Ukrainian war

• Russia has detained three lawyers of opposition leader Oleksii Navalny amid increasing pressure on Kremlin critics. This move was an attempt to “completely isolate Navalny,” his close friend Ivan Zhdanov said on social media.

• The US has said that North Korea has supplied Russia with more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and ammunition for the war in Ukraine.

• Vladimir Putin rejected the idea that Russia had attacked the gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia and suggested that the claims were made to divert attention from what he said would be a Western attack on Nord Stream.

• United EU leaders will demand “decisive progress” on using frozen Russian assets as sanctions for aid to Ukraine.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte promised on Friday to improve Ukraine’s air defenses and strengthen the security of the “humanitarian corridor” for grain exports.