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• A Russian court has sentenced Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison for treason, among other charges. Kara-Murza, 41, a father of three and former journalist who holds Russian and British passports, spent years as a politician opposing President Vladimir Putin and lobbied foreign governments and institutions to impose sanctions on Russia and individuals for purported human rights violations. READ MORE BELOW

• The British government has summoned the Russian ambassador to make clear its condemnation of what it described as the "politically motivated" conviction and sentencing of Kara-Murza, a British dual national.

• Kyiv will aim to secure the re-opening of food and grain transit via Poland as a "first step" at talks in Warsaw on Monday, Ukraine's agriculture minister said, after Poland and Hungary announced bans on some imports from Ukraine.

• Slovakia has also temporarily halted imports of grains and other selected products from Ukraine, a government spokesman said on Monday.

• Hungary's farm minister said the government will use "all possible means" to protect Hungarian farmers from market disruptions caused by huge grain imports from Ukraine.

• Slovakia has handed over all 13 MiG-29 fighter jets it had pledged to Ukraine, the Slovak Defence Ministry said on Monday. Slovakia joined Poland in promising the planes in March and had delivered the first four planes last month.

• Vladimir Putin met Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu in Moscow on Sunday and both men hailed military cooperation between the two nations, which have declared a "no limits" partnership.

• Ukraine resumed electricity exports to Slovakia on Monday, taking advantage of sufficient generating capacity, Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenergo said. Ukraine suspended power exports to European countries in October after Russia carried out missile and drone strikes on power stations and distribution facilities.

• Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin about drills conducted by the Pacific Fleet. In footage broadcast on state television, Shoigu was shown saying that the drills included "imitation strikes on enemy navy groups" in the Pacific.

IN DETAIL

Putin opponent receives steep prison sentence after treason conviction

Outspoken Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza was jailed for a quarter of a century by a Moscow court on Monday, the harshest sentence of its kind since Russia's recent conflict with Ukraine, after it found him guilty of treason and other offences he denied.

Kara-Murza, 41, a father-of-three and an opposition politician who holds Russian and British passports, spent years speaking out against President Vladimir Putin and lobbied Western governments to impose sanctions on Russia and individual Russians for purported human rights violations.

State prosecutors, who had requested the court jail him for 25 years, had accused him of treason and of discrediting the Russian military after he criticised what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

In a CNN interview broadcast hours before he was arrested, Kara-Murza had alleged that Russia was being run by a "regime of murderers." He had also used speeches in the United States and across Europe to accuse Moscow of bombing civilian targets in Ukraine, a charge it has rejected.

In his final speech to the court last week, Kara-Murza had compared his own trial, which was held behind closed doors, to Josef Stalin's show trials in the 1930s and had declined to ask the court to acquit him, saying he stood by and was proud of everything he had said.

"Criminals are supposed to repent of what they have done. I, on the other hand, am in prison for my political views. I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate," he had said.

Shortly after sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February last year, Russia introduced sweeping censorship laws which have been used to silence dissenting voices across society.

"Discrediting" the army can currently be punished by up to five years in prison, while spreading deliberately false information about it can attract a 15-year jail sentence.

At a time of what they have cast as an existential struggle with the West, pro-government politicians say unity across society is vital and have described Russian citizens questioning Moscow's actions in Ukraine as part of a pro-Western fifth column trying to undermine the military campaign.

Twice, in 2015 and 2017, Kara-Murza fell suddenly ill in what he said were poisonings by the Russian security services, on both occasions falling into a coma before eventually recovering.

Russian authorities denied involvement in the incidents. Kara-Murza's lawyers say that as a result, he suffers from a serious nerve disorder called polyneuropathy.

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