weeks yacht yard force 5

Force 5 Class Rules - 2015

2015 Class Rules

Article I. BASIC RULE:

Section 1.01 All racing sailboats entered in Force 5 Class Association ("FFCA") events shall have been built and equipped by an authorized manufacturer. For purposes of these Class Rules, "authorized manufacturer" includes only Alcort Sailboats, AMF-Alcort Sailboats and Weeks Yacht Yard. [For sails and the Force 5 “Short Rig”, Robert J. Cullen also is an authorized manufacturer.] No additions, subtractions or alterations to authorized manufacturer-supplied boats or equipment are allowed, except in conformance with the "One-Design Guideline Principles", "Personal Modifications or Adjustments”, or “Appendices” specified in these Class Rules. All Force 5 Class-sanctioned events shall be governed by the Racing Rules of Sailing and US Sailing Prescriptions, as modified by these Class Rules and any applicable sailing instructions.

Article II. FUNDAMENTAL FAIRNESS:

Section 2.01 The rules governing sailboat racing constitute one of the most intriguing aspects of our sport because they serve dual purposes. The rules affirmatively encourage actions which promote fair and vigorous competition and, at the same time, affirmatively discourage actions which undermine such competition. The rules, moreover, are in many respects ambiguous—this ambiguity encouraging creative, good-faith interpretation and application which contributes to the appeal of sailboat racing. In contrast, a sailor who does something s/he knows is against the rules is cheating. Cheating always constitutes grounds for disqualification.

Article III. ONE-DESIGN GUIDELINE PRINCIPLES:

Section 3.01 These Class Rules are based on two (2) guidelines which are intended to maintain the Force 5 as a truly one-design racing sailboat:

(a) It is recognized that Force 5 sailors will make certain modifications to personalize their boats/equipment, and to maintain them in seaworthy and good operational condition. Such modifications shall be limited to those that do not enhance boat speed by any means that is definable, understandable or measurable.

(b) Nothing in these One-Design Guideline Principles shall be construed as authorization to repair, restore or rebuild any of the boat's standard components to competitive advantage. Any modification(s) not clearly within the letter or spirit of these guidelines or any other Class Rule shall be presumed prohibited.

Article IV. PERMISSIBLE MODIFICATIONS AND ADJUSTMENTS:

Section 4.01 Any authorized part or equipment that is not manufactured by or exclusively for an authorized manufacturer (e.g., Harken traveler system, blocks, tiller extensions, hiking straps) may be obtained from any source.  Except for those items explicitly specified in the Appendices to these Class Rules, all spars, sails and blades, as well as any other standard parts or equipment manufactured by or for an authorized manufacturer, must be obtained from or through the authorized manufacturer.

Section 4.02 Mainsheets may be of any length, diameter or material.

Section 4.03 Quick- release hardware may be substituted or added to facilitate rigging (example: quick release on Outhaul, Vang block pin, etc.). A quick release mechanism for the sail clew is mandatory.

Section 4.04 Cunningham, Outhaul, Vang and Traveler control lines may be of any length, diameter or material, provided they are continuous and are used for their express purposes. The addition of knobs, knots or loops to facilitate grasping is permitted. Increasing Cunningham and outhaul purchase up to a 4:1 ratio is permitted.  Blocks may be added/used for these purposes.  Vang purchase may not be increased beyond 12:1

Section 4.05 Outhaul and Cunningham cleats may be of any type, and must be mounted to the wood coaming cap on the deck. Vang cleat(s) may be of any type, and must either be attached to the Vang block(s) or mounted to the wood coaming cap on the deck.

Section 4.06 Tiller length may not exceed 42" and must be of sufficient length to be captured by a preventer line running through the standard holes in rear deck lip.  When the Rudder is mounted to the boat, the Tiller must pass under the preventer line, which shall not permit the tiller/rudder to rotate more than 70 degrees from centerline.  Tiller Extensions may be of any length, diameter or size, and may be attached in any manner, provided they function solely as a tiller extension. Tiller Extensions may be adjustable in length.

Section 4.07 A maximum of two (2) compasses and one (1) count-down/count-up Timer may be mounted to the boat, provided such mountings are watertight. Dial card compasses may be of any type (e.g., 360 degree card, tactical card).  Digital (electronic) bearing display compasses are permitted.  Digital bearing display compasses also may incorporate a count-down/count-up timer, but may not have the capacity to compile bearing information (i.e. bearing memory) or to display lift/header information.  No GPS-capable device of any kind (including cell/smart phones) may be carried aboard a boat that is either racing or intending to race.    Electronic speed measuring devices are prohibited. Except in an emergency situation, no electronic communications may be sent or received once a skipper has launched his/her boat.

Section 4.08 Single blocks may be attached to the Traveler carriage rings (port and starboard) to reduce traveler control line friction. The manufacturer-supplied Traveler track may be replaced with an alternate design of similar function.

Section 4.09 (a)    Inspection ports may be installed, but must be watertight and remain closed while racing. Foam flotation may be removed for the installation of inspection ports only as incidental and absolutely necessary. For each such installation it is recommended that a one gallon cubitainer be installed and inflated inside the hull to restore the lost buoyancy.

Section 4.10 Except as noted in 4.09, no flotation/foam may be permanently removed from inside the hull for any reason.  Any internal flotation that must be detached (or temporarily removed) to make interior hull repairs must be replaced (i.e. securely re-bonded to the interior hull/deck in its original location) after the repair is completed.

Section 4.11 There are no restrictions on the type, quality or smoothness of finishes applied to the Daggerboard or Rudder. Daggerboard and Rudder blades may be covered/finished with any type of paint, coating, resin or resin/cloth combination so long as the finished blade(s) conform(s) to the specifications in Article V.  Reinforced foam core Daggerboards and Rudder blades manufactured by Weeks Yacht Yard are presumed to conform to Article V specifications, as are composite mahogany core Daggerboards and Rudder blades manufactured by Weeks Yacht Yard.

Section 4.12 There are no restrictions on the type or number of wind indicators or telltales.  Window telltales are permitted.

Section 4.13 Block(s) may be attached to the tack grommet to minimize wear on the Cunningham control line and/or increase purchase.  This(ese) block(s) may be located either above or below the boom, but it may not be used to increase Cunningham purchase beyond the 4:1 ratio permitted in Section 4.04.

Section 4.14 The Daggerboard Trunk may be sanded, filled and smoothed. The Daggerboard Trunk may be modified to protect the board from wear/reduce water splash, provided that the material used does not project below the hull and that such modification cannot be used to create a jibing board.

Section 4.15 Mainsheet blocks may be of any type or configuration, provided overall system purchase of 4:1 is not increased. Mainsheet blocks may be moved to any location within the track on the boom.

Section 4.16 Mainsheet and Traveler cleats of any type may be mounted on wooden backing plates on either side of the cockpit in addition to the manufacturer-supplied traveler cam cleats.

Section 4.17 A "JC" preventer (boom control shock cord) may be installed with a block attached to the bow handle. The addition of cleats for this preventer is prohibited.

Section 4.18 A plug or stopper may be substituted for the manufacturer-supplied Automatic Bailer cap.

Section 4.19 Port and starboard hiking straps are permitted in lieu of the standard single center-mounted strap.  Dual hiking straps must utilize the existing thwart attachment, but an additional eyestrap (no cleat) may be installed on the rear cockpit wall to facilitate dual hiking strap attachment or hiking strap adjustment, provided the installation is watertight and is at least 4" below the cockpit lip. Hiking straps may be held up with shock cord, and a third eyestrap may be installed above the manufacturer-installed eyestrap for this purpose, provided the installation is watertight and is at least 4" below the cockpit lip. Hiking straps may be covered with padding.

Section 4.20 The Rudder may be attached to the Gudgeon Bracket with a bolt or pin in lieu of the manufacturer-supplied spring/pin device.  Spacers may be added to the Tiller attachment bolt between the Rudder head and the Tiller straps.

Section 4.21 Reinforcing hose clamps/safety lines may be attached to the Traveler car, gooseneck fitting and Outhaul track.

Section 4.22 Hiking pants of any type are permitted.

Section 4.23 Equipment may be substituted in conformance with Class-approved manufacturer updates.

Section 4.24 A skipper may race with a crew in any event, provided the skipper sails with crew in each race of the event.

Article V. SPECIFICATIONS:

Section 5.01 DAGGERBOARD:

(a) The Daggerboard must be a manufacturer-supplied foil, the base construction of which shall be either a single solid piece of mahogany or reinforced foam core epoxy.

(b) The Daggerboard shall conform to the following dimensions:

(I) LENGTH:           44'/4" +'/2" (1 12.4CM _+ 1.25CM)

(II) WIDTH:            113/4" +'/4" (29.8CM + .64CM)

(III) THICKNESS: I AND 1/16" + 1/16" (2.7CM + .16CM) AT THE LINE OF MAXIMUM CHORD. THE LINE OF MAXIMUM CHORD SHALL BE 4 AND 3/8" (11.1CM) FROM THE LEADING EDGE.

(c) 3. The following radii shall be considered standard:

(I) BOARD TOP:      18" (45.7CM)

(II) TOP FORWARD CORNER:    1" (2.5 4CM) BOTTOM FORWARD CORNER: 6" (15.24CM)

(III) BOTTOM AFT CORNER:      I" (2.54CM)

(IV) TOP AFT CORNER:            3" (7.62CM)

(V) HAND HOLE:      4" (10.2CM)

(d) The Daggerboard stopper pin location may not be changed, and shall be on a line parallel to the bottom edge, 39" + 1/4" from the bottom edge and 4" + 1/4" aft of the leading edge.

(e) Fairing of the leading and trailing edges is permitted. The leading edge may be faired within 1/2" (1.25cm) of the forward edge; the trailing edge may be faired within 2" (5cm) of the rear edge. The trailing edge must have a minimum thickness of 1/8" (.32cm).

(f) The bottom edge shall make a 20 degree angle to a line drawn perpendicular to the leading and trailing edges, and shall not be rounded side-to-side.

(g) Reinforced foam core Daggerboards and composite mahogany core Daggerboards manufactured by Weeks Yacht Yard are presumed compliant with Section 5.01.

Section 5.02 RUDDER:

(a) The Rudder must be a manufacturer-supplied blade, the base construction of which shall be either a single solid piece of mahogany or reinforced foam core epoxy.

(b) The Rudder shall conform to the following dimensions:

(I) LENGTH:           35'/2" + 1/2" (90.2CM + 1.25CM)

(II) WIDTH:            9'/2" + 1/4" (24.1CM + .64CM)

(III) THICKNESS:      7/8" + 1/16" (2.2CM + .16CM)

(c) The following radii shall be considered standard:

(I) BOTTOM FORWARD CORNER: 5" (12.7CM) BOTTOM AFT CORNER: 1/4" (1.9CM)

(d) The sides shall be flat and parallel, and may be tapered in the outer 13/4" (3.2cm)

(e) Reinforced foam core and composite mahogany core Rudder blades manufactured by Weeks Yacht Yard are presumed compliant with Section 5.01.

Section 5.03 SAILS

(a) Sails shall be manufactured only by an authorized manufacturer, and shall bear the Class insignia.

(b) Sails shall not be re-cut or re-sized. Defective sails must be corrected by an authorized manufacturer. Damaged sails may be repaired by any sailmaker, provided the repair does not re-shape or re-size the sail.

(c) Tapered battens are permitted.

(d) Sail numbers assigned by the Force 5 Class Association must appear on the sail at all times while racing. Sail numbers must be at least ten (10) inches (25.4cm) in height and must contrast with the sail color. Outline-only numbers are prohibited.

(e) Sail numbers shall be located as follows: the starboard numbers shall be applied one (1) inch (2.5cm) above the seam between the two lower battens and the first number shall be two inches (5cm) from the leech; the port numbers shall be applied two (2) inches (5cm) below, and directly in line with, the starboard numbers. Sail numbers applied in accordance with pre-1989 Class Rules are allowed, but all numbers applied after January 1, 1989 must conform to Section 5.03 (e) specifications.

(f) Sail Windows are permitted and encouraged, subject to the following restrictions: (1) the window must be either rectangular or trapezoidal in shape; (2) the total viewing area may not exceed 202 square inches (1303 sq. cm); (3) no window edge may exceed 50 inches (127cm) in length; and (5) no part of any window seam may be less than one (1) inch (2.5cm) from a foot seam, batten pocket, the tack patch or luff sleeve seam.

(g) Diagram (recommended sail window shape/dimensions):

Article VI. SPECIFIC PROHIBITIONS:

Section 6.01 Any sail alteration except for the specific purposes of repair or adding a window or window telltales in accordance with these Class Rules.

Section 6.02 "Magic Boxes" or equivalent; lever Vangs.

Section 6.03 Use of more than one (1) hull or two (2) sails per regatta without special permission from the Race Committee.  Significant hull or sail damage constitutes sufficient grounds to receive such permission.

Section 6.04 A competitor in the Full Rig (FR) division may drop down to a Short Rig (and move back up to FR) at any time during a regatta provided both sails have the same number and that all sail changes are made ashore. A competitor so doing will be scored in the Full Rig division with no time or any other handicap adjustments; i.e., boat-for-boat.

Article VII. VARIATIONS:

Section 7.01 Any variation from "standard" not covered by these Class Rules shall be presumed prohibited unless: (1) ruled compliant by the Chief Measurer (or the Chief Measurer's duly authorized proxy), subject to appeal to the Executive Council; or (2) approved by vote of the Executive Council in accordance with the provisions of the Force 5 Class Association Constitution. Rulings of the Class measurer shall be deemed controlling during the pendency of any appeal to the Executive Council.

Article VIII. PERSONAL SAFETY:

Section 8.01 U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation devices must be carried on board at all times while racing (NOTE:  non-Coast Guard-approved “buoyancy aids” do not satisfy this requirement).  While the Force 5 Class strongly encourages sailors to wear Coast Guard-approved personal flotation devices at all times while sailing, these devices must be worn whenever the sailing instructions or the Race Committee so indicate(s).

Section 8.02 A bow line (painter) not less than 12 feet long and ¼ inch in diameter shall be attached to the bow handle at all times while racing.

Section 8.03 Weight devices of any kind are strictly prohibited.

Appendix A:

Appendix B:

Appendix C:

The following third-party parts and equipment have been approved by the FFCA Executive Council for use in all Force 5 racing events:

- boom based on the Dwyer DM2 section of the same length as the original Kenyon spar

- DIY or third-party daggerboards that conform in all respects to the requirements of Section 5.01 and Appendix A of these Rules

- gooseneck pins with maximum diameter of ½”

- mast sections that conform to the original specs and dimensions

- replacement bailers that fit in the original cockpit floor hole

- aluminum tapered mast collars

- any boom end fittings that do not alter any provisions of the Class Rules

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Cruising the Moskva River: A short guide to boat trips in Russia’s capital

There’s hardly a better way to absorb Moscow’s atmosphere than on a ship sailing up and down the Moskva River. While complicated ticketing, loud music and chilling winds might dampen the anticipated fun, this checklist will help you to enjoy the scenic views and not fall into common tourist traps.

How to find the right boat?

There are plenty of boats and selecting the right one might be challenging. The size of the boat should be your main criteria.

Plenty of small boats cruise the Moskva River, and the most vivid one is this yellow Lay’s-branded boat. Everyone who has ever visited Moscow probably has seen it.

This option might leave a passenger disembarking partially deaf as the merciless Russian pop music blasts onboard. A free spirit, however, will find partying on such a vessel to be an unforgettable and authentic experience that’s almost a metaphor for life in modern Russia: too loud, and sometimes too welcoming. Tickets start at $13 (800 rubles) per person.

Bigger boats offer smoother sailing and tend to attract foreign visitors because of their distinct Soviet aura. Indeed, many of the older vessels must have seen better days. They are still afloat, however, and getting aboard is a unique ‘cultural’ experience. Sometimes the crew might offer lunch or dinner to passengers, but this option must be purchased with the ticket. Here is one such  option  offering dinner for $24 (1,490 rubles).

If you want to travel in style, consider Flotilla Radisson. These large, modern vessels are quite posh, with a cozy restaurant and an attentive crew at your service. Even though the selection of wines and food is modest, these vessels are still much better than other boats.

Surprisingly, the luxurious boats are priced rather modestly, and a single ticket goes for $17-$32 (1,100-2,000 rubles); also expect a reasonable restaurant bill on top.

How to buy tickets?

Women holding photos of ships promise huge discounts to “the young and beautiful,” and give personal invitations for river tours. They sound and look nice, but there’s a small catch: their ticket prices are usually more than those purchased online.

“We bought tickets from street hawkers for 900 rubles each, only to later discover that the other passengers bought their tickets twice as cheap!”  wrote  (in Russian) a disappointed Rostislav on a travel company website.

Nevertheless, buying from street hawkers has one considerable advantage: they personally escort you to the vessel so that you don’t waste time looking for the boat on your own.

Prices start at $13 (800 rubles) for one ride, and for an additional $6.5 (400 rubles) you can purchase an unlimited number of tours on the same boat on any given day.

Flotilla Radisson has official ticket offices at Gorky Park and Hotel Ukraine, but they’re often sold out.

Buying online is an option that might save some cash. Websites such as  this   offer considerable discounts for tickets sold online. On a busy Friday night an online purchase might be the only chance to get a ticket on a Flotilla Radisson boat.

This  website  (in Russian) offers multiple options for short river cruises in and around the city center, including offbeat options such as ‘disco cruises’ and ‘children cruises.’ This other  website  sells tickets online, but doesn’t have an English version. The interface is intuitive, however.

Buying tickets online has its bad points, however. The most common is confusing which pier you should go to and missing your river tour.

“I once bought tickets online to save with the discount that the website offered,” said Igor Shvarkin from Moscow. “The pier was initially marked as ‘Park Kultury,’ but when I arrived it wasn’t easy to find my boat because there were too many there. My guests had to walk a considerable distance before I finally found the vessel that accepted my tickets purchased online,” said the man.

There are two main boarding piers in the city center:  Hotel Ukraine  and  Park Kultury . Always take note of your particular berth when buying tickets online.

Where to sit onboard?

Even on a warm day, the headwind might be chilly for passengers on deck. Make sure you have warm clothes, or that the crew has blankets ready upon request.

The glass-encased hold makes the tour much more comfortable, but not at the expense of having an enjoyable experience.

Getting off the boat requires preparation as well. Ideally, you should be able to disembark on any pier along the way. In reality, passengers never know where the boat’s captain will make the next stop. Street hawkers often tell passengers in advance where they’ll be able to disembark. If you buy tickets online then you’ll have to research it yourself.

There’s a chance that the captain won’t make any stops at all and will take you back to where the tour began, which is the case with Flotilla Radisson. The safest option is to automatically expect that you’ll return to the pier where you started.

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• Sailboat Guide
• Description

Seller's Description

Force 5 Year unknown, titles not required in IN, Located near Muncie, IN, $595

Length: 13’ 10” Beam: 4’ 10” Weight: 145 lbs.

91 square feet 2 sails (one like new, one serviceable) All new lines Custom boat cover Blemishes shown in photo Functional trailer

A great performance boat for an experienced skipper.

Can plane in moderate winds due to large sail and flat aft section. Weeks Yacht Yard manufactures Force 5’s and all replacement parts. The price of a new Force 5 is $5,950 plus tax w/o trailer. or phone 765-744-5090

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

The FORCE 5 was designed in 1972 by Fred Scott and Jack Evans of AMF Alcort. By 1974 it was their second best selling boat. Over 12,000 boats were built up until 1989 when AMF Alcort changed hands several times in a short period of time. In 1993, Weeks Yacht Yard became the new builders of the FORCE 5.

This listing is presented by SailingTexas.com . Visit their website for more information or to contact the seller.

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Russia-Ukraine War Ukrainian Drones Hit 2 Bases Deep in Russia

• Share full article
• Saratov Oblast, Russia Explosion rocks Russian military base. EYEPRESS via Reuters
• Kyiv Residents take shelter in the Metro. Laura Boushnak for The New York Times
• Irpin Winter in Ukraine. David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
• Kherson region Salvaging a refrigerator from the ruins of a home. Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times
• Borodyanka A makeshift center for those whose homes have been destroyed. Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• Kharkiv Police officers look at collected fragments of Russian rockets. Libkos/Associated Press
• Bakhmut Chopping wood in a basement shelter. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
• Donetsk An office building destroyed in shelling. Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
• Eastern Ukraine Soldiers on the front line. Yevhen Titov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Follow live news updates on the Russia-Ukraine war .

Ukraine attacks military bases hundreds of miles inside Russia.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine executed its most brazen attack into Russian territory in the nine-month-old war on Monday, targeting two military bases hundreds of miles inside the country, using drones, according to the Russian Defense Ministry and a senior Ukrainian official.

The drones were launched from Ukrainian territory, and at least one of the strikes was made with the help of special forces close to the base who helped guide the drones to the target, said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to convey sensitive information.

The strikes signaled a new willingness by Kyiv to take the fight to bases in the heart of Russia, raising the stakes in the war, and demonstrated for the first time Ukraine’s ability to attack at such long distances. Shortly after the attacks on the bases, Russia sent a barrage of missiles streaking toward Ukrainian cities.

The Kremlin said that the weapons launched by Ukraine were Soviet-era jet drones and were aimed at bases in Ryazan and Engels, about 300 miles from the Ukrainian border. It said that its forces had intercepted the drones, and that “the fall and explosion of the wreckage” had “slightly damaged” two planes, killing three servicemen and wounding four others.

The Engels airfield, on the Volga River in southern Russia, is a base for some of Russia’s long-range, nuclear-capable bombers, including the Tupolev-160 and Tupolev-95. Ukrainian officials say it is also a staging ground for Russia’s unrelenting campaign of missile attacks on infrastructure, which have left millions of Ukrainians with intermittent light, heat or water — or none at all — at the onset of winter. Security footage from an apartment complex near the base showed a fireball lighting up the sky.

The other explosion occurred at the Dyagilevo military base in the central city of Ryazan, only about 100 miles from Moscow, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry. It was there that the fatalities and injuries occurred, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Ukraine’s government declined to publicly acknowledge the strikes, in keeping with its practice with other attacks on Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea.

The Engels air base and the Ryazan military installation are between 300 and 450 miles from the Ukrainian border, which is beyond the range of any known missile in Ukraine’s arsenal.

Even before Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of sending drones to attack, the blast at the Engels airfield had prompted some of Russia’s influential pro-invasion bloggers to call for more strikes against Ukraine, and to renew criticism of the Russian armed forces. “Sometimes we feel that even if you put a bomb into these people’s pockets — they wouldn’t notice anyway,” Voenniy Osvedomitel, a popular commentator, wrote on the messaging app Telegram.

After the explosions, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, appeared to note the strikes obliquely, as Ukrainian officials have often done after unexplained explosions inside Russia.

“The Earth is round — discovery made by Galileo,” he wrote on Twitter . “If something is launched into other countries’ airspace, sooner or later unknown flying objects will return to departure point.”

Only a few hours after the explosions, Ukrainian officials said that more than a dozen Russian bombers had taken off from the Engels air base.

Ivan Nechepurenko and Helene Cooper contributed reporting.

— Andrew E. Kramer ,  Michael Schwirtz and Marc Santora

Russia fired a barrage of missiles across Ukraine on Monday.

Russia launched a volley of missiles at Ukraine’s energy grid on Monday, knocking out power in several regions, officials said, the latest in a monthslong campaign of strikes by Moscow targeting civilian infrastructure.

Ukrainian air defense systems fired into the sky in multiple areas of the country but not all missiles were intercepted. Four people were killed by the Russian strikes, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, and officials reported damage to energy infrastructure.

When air-raid warnings were issued for most of the country, Ukrainians followed a grim routine and headed for bomb shelters in Kyiv and other cities. Shortly after the all-clear was given, Mr. Zelensky addressed the nation to praise both the military and utility workers fighting to keep the lights on.

“Air defenses shot down most of the rockets, energy workers have already started to restore electricity,” he said. Ukraine’s Air Force later said that it had shot down more than 60 missiles out of more than 70 fired.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement that it had targeted power plants and other sites in Ukraine. Ukraine’s prime minister said energy facilities were hit in the Kyiv, Vinnytsia and Odesa regions, according to the Ukrinform news agency.

The strikes occurred hours after explosions were reported at two military bases deep inside Russia, including one that Ukraine said has been used as a staging ground for aircraft in previous attacks against Ukraine’s energy grid. Russia’s Ministry of Defense later accused Ukraine of using drones to attack the bases.

By midafternoon in Ukraine, multiple reports had surfaced of inbound missiles. A New York Times reporter south of Kyiv saw a cruise missile in flight traveling toward the capital. Another New York Times reporter observed what appeared to be a surface-to-air-missile launched outside of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine. The extent of damage, and of casualties, was not immediately clear.

The governor of the Kyiv region, the administrative district around the capital, said that air defense systems had fired at incoming missiles. “Stay in shelters and safe places,” the governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, wrote in a statement on Telegram.

Ukraine’s national energy company, Ukrenergo, said that the “mass missile attack” had damaged electrical facilities. In a statement posted on Facebook , it said emergency energy shutdowns would be imposed to help balance the grid.

Blackouts were reported in several regions, from Sumy in the north along the border with Russia to Odesa in the south on the Black Sea coast.

The Russian military typically launches missiles from multiple directions and in successive waves, a tactic intended to overwhelm or avoid Ukraine’s air defenses, Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, told a Ukrainian television news show.

Russia began firing missiles at Ukraine’s energy grid in October after its forces lost ground on the battlefield in two Ukrainian counteroffensive operations in the south and northeast.

Ukrainians have responded to the wave of strikes on infrastructure by building emergency heating shelters in towns, dispatching linemen to repair the grid as swiftly as possible and powering restaurants, stores and hospitals with generators . In hard-hit areas, residents stockpile water in bottles in their homes.

And Ukrainians have adapted. In Kryvyi Rih, a central city that is a hub of the iron-mining industry, miners evacuated to the surface on Monday, lest electricity for their elevators be lost, the city’s mayor said. After past strikes, miners had been trapped underground.

Ukraine has greatly increased its capacity to shoot down incoming missiles, aided by air defense systems supplied by the United States and some European countries..

Carlotta Gall and Thomas Gibbons-Neff contributed reporting.

— Andrew E. Kramer and Matthew Mpoke Bigg

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When the air raid sirens ring out, residents of Kyiv head underground.

KYIV, Ukraine — In a city where daily routines have been wrecked by unrelenting Russian missile strikes, unpredictable power cuts and unreliable water supplies, residents of Kyiv know that, at any time, they might have to spend a few hours in an air raid shelter.

It had been 13 days since the last large-scale barrage of Russian missiles fired at targets across Ukraine, the longest stretch without blasts in and around the capital since Moscow began its assault on the nation’s energy infrastructure in early October. For days, Ukrainian officials had been warning that another attack was imminent.

So when the air raid alarms sounded across Kyiv early on Monday afternoon, many people were not surprised. The sirens were followed by warnings that missiles were inbound, and soon after the thunder of air defense systems could be heard over the capital.

“To be honest I feel relief this time,” said Olha Kotrus, 34. “For two weeks there were reports that it might happen and then you live in constant tension.”

Ms. Kotrus was sitting on the floor of a Kyiv metro station with her mom, a cat in a cage and her dog. The dog, dressed in a blue outfit to keep it warm in the winter chill, was visibly stressed. Ms. Kotrus was angry and fed up.

She joined a crowd of hundreds people deep underground at the metro station Golden Gate, named after the main fortification that served as the entrance to the city 1,000 years ago.

By evening, however, the famed gate was not illuminated, forced into darkness like much of the city. Monday’s barrage of rockets targeting sites around the country was the eighth such wave of attacks on key energy infrastructure targets, according to the national utility operator, Ukrenergo.

“Unfortunately, energy infrastructure facilities have already been hit and there have been emergency power outages related to this,” Ukrenergo said in a statement.

At least ten rockets were aimed at Kyiv on Monday, according to local officials. Nine were shot down above the capital, the officials said.

Like everyone interviewed in Kyiv, Ms. Kotrus’s anger was directed at Russia and her frustration was the result of many days filled with anxiety and long, dark nights with no power.

Anna Sokolova, 21, said she had endured cuts in power and water supplies for two weeks, ever since the last wave of missiles. Ms. Sokolova lives near a local utility headquarters that has been targeted in recent Russian strikes and said she always takes shelter when the alarms sound.

But she did not want to complain about her own hardships, saying it is nothing compared to what her friends, soldiers fighting on the front lines, are experiencing.

Lyumyla Vonifatova, 66, agreed.

“We all understand that without electricity, life becomes impossible,” she said. “Yet, we will just have to find a way to get through it.”

She was passing the time in the subway shelter by looking at a small display of photos of this war and others that came before it.

“Despite all the loss of human life and economic hardship, we will stand until the end,” she said. “Because this is a fight for our freedom.”

But Tetyana Tkachenko’s six-year-old son is too small to understand that. She said he is terrified every time the alarms sound.

“He was crying, running around,” when the alarms began to sound, Ms. Tkachenko said. He quickly put on warm clothes and begged to “go to the subway,” she said.

She grabbed two foldable chairs, previously used for the park or beach. But now they were part of the family’s new routine, for when the sirens sound and they head deep underground.

— Marc Santora and Maria Varenikova

Putin inspects a bridge linking Russia and Crimea, two months after a damaging explosion.

President Vladimir V. Putin inspected repairs to a bridge that links the country with the Crimean Peninsula on Monday, two months after an explosion partly destroyed it in an embarrassing blow to the Russian leader and Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.

The October attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge, a pet project of Mr. Putin’s that became a key supply route for Moscow’s forces in southern Ukraine, was a critical moment in the war. The Kremlin accused Ukraine of orchestrating the blast, which underscored Russia’s inability to protect a key strategic asset and prompted Moscow to unleash a wave of airstrikes on Ukraine.

Video published by the Kremlin showed Mr. Putin driving a Mercedes car over the bridge. Accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who is in charge of the repair, Mr. Putin inquired about the progress of the work and said he hoped the road and rail bridge would be fully restored by the middle of the summer vacation season.

Pointing at the still-charred railway section of the bridge, he said that “this was a big explosion.”

When the bridge opened in 2018, it was a powerful symbol of the connection the Kremlin was attempting to forge between Russia and Crimea, a Ukrainian region illegally annexed by Moscow four years earlier. Mr. Putin took personal credit for its construction, driving a truck along its 12-mile span at the head of a convoy.

On Monday, he also took credit for building two railway tracks and two traffic lanes each way, as the redundancy allowed traffic to be partially restored soon after the explosion hit in October.

While Ukraine’s government did not claim responsibility for the blast, which sent part of the bridge crashing into the sea on Oct. 8, a senior Ukrainian official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of a government ban on discussing the blast, confirmed that Ukraine’s intelligence services were behind it .

The Kerch attack came during a period of setbacks for Russian forces in Ukraine, including the loss of territory it had captured in the northeast of the country. Two days after the attack on the bridge, Russia escalated a strategy of pounding Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with waves of missiles launched at power stations and other facilities.

— Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Ivan Nechepurenko

A woman is shot and killed trying to cross into Ukrainian-held territory in Kherson.

KHERSON, Ukraine — A 65-year-old woman was shot to death on Sunday evening as she tried to escape in a boat from Russian-occupied territory in Kherson, Ukrainian officials said, illustrating the perils of Ukraine’s call for civilians to evacuate Russian-held areas in the heavily contested southern region.

Ukrainian officials blamed Russian soldiers in the killing; there was no immediate comment from the Russian side. The woman was crossing the Dnipro River, attempting to thread a gantlet of Russian and Ukrainian troops dug in on opposite banks near the city of Kherson, when she was killed in a hail of automatic gunfire, according to a statement from the City Council.

Both armies have been heavily shelling each other across the river, which has become a front line three weeks after Ukraine reclaimed Kherson city on the west bank and Russian forces withdrew to defensive positions on the eastern side. On Saturday, Ukrainian officials encouraged people to flee Russian-occupied areas on the eastern bank, warning of a “possible intensification of hostilities.”

But even before the woman was killed, many Ukrainians had complained on social media channels that the evacuation plan, which required individuals to use private boats to cross a dangerous river, was poorly organized. The announcement on Saturday did not specify the areas people should flee from or whether the advice applied in towns still occupied by Russian troops.

One of those towns, Hola Prystan, which lies several miles downriver from Kherson, was the area that the woman who was killed tried to escape, according to a statement released by the Kherson City Council on Sunday night.

“A 65-year-old woman who was crossing the Dnipro River with her husband on a boat, leaving a country house in the Hola Prystan district, was wounded by automatic fire. Unfortunately, the woman did not survive,” the statement read.

On Monday, Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, a spokesman for the Kherson regional military administration, said that the area was not covered by the evacuation plan.

“Navigation there is not open,” he said. “It is still banned to cross river there by boats. People can move there at their own risk.”

The area around Kherson and Hola Prystan is a watery landscape of river channels and small marshy islands, some with summer homes on them. The Kherson authorities’ plan was to have evacuees come to Kherson’s main river port, which itself has come under heavy shelling in the past week. Until the evacuation was announced, the Ukrainian military had prohibited people from traveling by boat on the river. The plan was to allow daylight river crossings for three days, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

The mood in Kherson has turned grim in the three weeks since Ukrainian forces swept in, when the city throbbed with jubilation as people poured into the streets, hugged soldiers, waved flags and snapped selfies. As Russian forces continue to shell the city relentlessly, more than 18 people have been killed in the past two weeks and dozens more wounded, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukrainian forces have been eager to push the Russians farther away and get Kherson out of artillery range. Over the weekend, a Ukrainian military unit released a video purporting to show the raising of a Ukrainian flag on the eastern bank of the Dnipro. Although there was no indication that Ukraine had established a permanent military presence at the site, the video was an apparent sign of Kyiv’s intent to continue its counteroffensive in the south.

Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed reporting.

— Jeffrey Gettleman

An E.U. embargo of Russian oil and the G7’s price cap take effect.

Europe and the United States started enforcing on Monday two of the toughest measures aimed at curbing Russia’s income from oil, the principal source of cash used to fund its nearly 10-month-old war in Ukraine.

The first, a price cap initiative led by the United States, aims to increase economic pressure on the Kremlin while avoiding a global oil shock . The limit was set at $60 per barrel, and was endorsed by the Group of 7 countries, Australia, and members of the European Union.

The second is an embargo under which European nations will no longer be able to buy most Russian crude as of Monday. It was a step that the European Union had agreed to months ago but that was phased in with exceptions to prepare member nations.

Prices gyrated in the oil markets on Monday, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, up by about 2.5 percent, to $87.75 a barrel, at midday in Europe. West Texas Intermediate future were selling at $82 a barrel.

An immediate impact on oil supplies in Europe was not expected, partly because the embargo has been in the works for months, and energy companies have already begun buying more oil from the United States, Brazil, Guyana and the Middle East.

Although analysts and traders say the price cap may prove a nightmare to administer, one expert on sanctions said the lengthy negotiations had produced a deal with the potential to work.

“I suspect the compromise that was reached gives the policy the best chance it could have to succeed,” said Edward Fishman, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

Mr. Fishman, who previously led planning and implementation of sanctions on Russia at the Department of State, said there were several reasons to be optimistic. One is the recent softness of oil markets, which he interpreted as meaning that Russian oil was no longer as critical to the markets as it was a few months ago. He also said the agreed $60 price was a “Goldilocks” level, not so high as to give Russia even more revenue than it is currently receiving or so low as to discourage Moscow from producing oil.

He also said that the cap’s provision to review the price level every two months, or more frequently if needed, provided the “flexibility” that historically has helped make sanctions, like those targeting Iran’s oil sales, effective.

Still, skepticism about the likely efficacy of the measures stems in part from the United States and European countries mandating European shippers and insurers to enforce it by declining to handle cargoes priced above the $60-a-barrel level.

— Stanley Reed

Ukraine will auction a yacht seized from a Putin ally.

As Ukraine scrambles to fund its fight against Russia’s invasion, a potential new source of tens of millions of dollars has materialized — the planned sale of a superyacht seized from one of Ukraine’s most famous pro-Russian oligarchs.

Soon after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, Ukrainian authorities announced they had taken possession of properties belonging to Viktor Medvedchuk , a prominent pro-Russian politician and a close friend of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

For years, Mr. Medvedchuk was seen as the Kremlin’s primary agent of influence in Ukraine. Mr. Putin is the godfather of Mr. Medvedchuk’s daughter.

The confiscated assets included the Royal Romance, a 300-foot yacht docked in a Croatian port that is linked to Mr. Medvedchuk. According to its Dutch manufacturer, Feadship, the ship has a 40-foot swimming pool, a gym, a waterfall feature, and an estimated value of more than $200 million. The yacht and other assets were confiscated as part of a criminal investigation in which Mr. Medvedchuk is suspected of treason, according to Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation .

Last week, ARMA, Ukraine’s government agency for asset recovery and management, said that a district court in Split, Croatia, had entrusted the city’s port administration with implementing the transfer of the yacht to the agency. ARMA described the Royal Romance, which has 50 rooms, as “one of the largest yachts in the world” and said that it plans to auction the vessel to “preserve its economic value.”

Ukrainians welcomed the proposed sale, with some celebrating on social media and joking that Mr. Medvedchuk would be making a large donation to Ukraine’s armed forces.

ARMA was created in Ukraine in 2016 to seize the assets of officials in corruption cases, but since the invasion it has also turned its attention to the property of Russians and of Ukrainians who are accused of collaborating with Russia.

Mr. Medvedchuk, a prominent figure in the pro-Russian wing of Ukrainian politics and a former deputy speaker of Ukraine’s Parliament, had been under criminal investigation in Ukraine before the invasion. Ukrainian security forces captured him in April, after he fled house arrest while awaiting trial on treason charges. Ukrainian authorities handed him over to Russia in September in a prisoner exchange.

Mr. Medvedchuk was also mentioned in U.S. investigations into Russian electoral meddling, as a client of the Republican political consultant Paul Manafort. He denied wrongdoing and said Mr. Manafort had merely advised his party on electoral strategy.

The Royal Romance officially belongs to a company called Lanelia Holdings, based in the Marshall Islands, according to Equasis , a major shipping information database. The ship changed ownership in 2021, when Ukraine imposed sanctions on Mr. Medvedchuk.

Last summer, a superyacht linked to a Russian businessman under sanctions was auctioned in Gibraltar, but the profits were set to repay his creditors rather than replenish Ukraine’s accounts. In general, the process through which seized assets can be permanently confiscated and sold to benefit Ukraine is cumbersome and can take years .

— Emma Bubola and Anastasia Kuznietsova

To help Ukraine, a widow parts with a rare emerald from a 1622 shipwreck.

For years, Mitzi Perdue looked down at her hand and saw history.

The emerald stone on her ring finger told a story stretching back nearly four centuries, to the sinking of a Spanish galleon near the Florida Keys in 1622 and a decades-long effort of a colorful undersea treasure hunter named Mel Fisher to retrieve its payload of gold and silver coins, gold nuggets and jewelry.

It reminded her, too, of her late husband, the chicken magnate Frank Perdue, who received a share of the bounty in return for his investment in Mr. Fisher’s search. He donated most of it, but kept the emerald and presented it to her when he proposed marriage in 1988. She wore it until his death in 2005 , when she put it away for safekeeping.

Now, 400 years after the Nuestra Señora de Atocha sank in a hurricane, Ms. Perdue, 81, is putting the emerald up for auction on Wednesday at Sotheby’s in New York City. All proceeds from the sale of the ring, which Sotheby’s says has an estimated value of $50,000 to $70,000, will be donated to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, prompted by Ms. Perdue’s visit there this year after the Russian invasion .

“What must it be like for the people who have been there enduring, continuously with no respite, for at least half a year?” she said. “After five days, I wanted to do more. And then I started thinking, ‘What can I do to be most helpful?’ And then I thought, ‘I own something that’s of historic significance.’”

— April Rubin

Russia continues to manufacture cruise missiles despite Western sanctions, experts say.

Some of the cruise missiles that Russia launched at Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure in late November were manufactured months after the West imposed sanctions intended to deprive Moscow of the components needed to make those munitions, according to a weapons research group.

Experts examined remnants of Kh-101 cruise missiles found in Kyiv, the capital, after an attack on Nov. 23 that knocked out electricity and shut down water systems in large areas of the country. One of the missiles was made this summer, and another was completed after September, markings on the weapons show, according to a report released by the investigators on Monday .

That Russia has continued to make advanced guided missiles like the Kh-101 suggests that it has found ways to acquire semiconductors and other matériel despite the sanctions or that it had significant stockpiles of the components before the war began, one of the researchers said.

The findings are among the most recent by Conflict Armament Research , an independent group based in Britain that identifies and tracks weapons and ammunition used in wars. A small team of its researchers arrived in Kyiv just before the attack at the invitation of the Ukrainian security service.

— John Ismay

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Inside Russia’s penal colonies: A look at life for political prisoners caught in Putin’s crackdowns

FILE In this file photo made from video provided by the Moscow City Court on Feb. 3, 2021, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny makes a heart gesture standing in a cage during a hearing to a motion from the Russian prison service to convert the suspended sentence of Navalny from the 2014 criminal conviction into a real prison term in the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, has become Russia’s most famous political prisoner. He is serving a nine-year term due to end in 2030 on charges widely seen as trumped up, and is facing another trial on new charges that could keep him locked up for another two decades. (Moscow City Court via AP, File)

FILE Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny looks at photographers standing behind a glass of the cage in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 20, 2021. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, has become Russia’s most famous political prisoner. He is serving a nine-year term due to end in 2030 on charges widely seen as trumped up, and is facing another trial on new charges that could keep him locked up for another two decades. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

FILE - Detained protesters are escorted by police during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Jan. 31, 2021. Memorial, Russia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organization and a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, counted 558 political prisoners in the country as of April -- more than three times higher than in 2018, when it listed 183. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Opposition leader Alexey Navalny, speaks with riot police officers blocking the way during a protest rally against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s rule in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Feb. 25, 2012. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, has become Russia’s most famous political prisoner. He is serving a nine-year term due to end in 2030 on charges widely seen as trumped up, and is facing another trial on new charges that could keep him locked up for another two decades. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Police block a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Jan. 23, 2021. Memorial, Russia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organization and a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, counted 558 political prisoners in the country as of April -- more than three times higher than in 2018, when it listed 183. (AP Photo, file)

FILE Sasha Skochilenko, a 32-year-old artist and musician, stands in a defendant’s cage in a courtroom during a hearing in the Vasileostrovsky district court in St. Petersburg, Russia, on April 13, 2022. Skochilenko is in detention amid her ongoing trial following her April 2022 arrest in St. Petersburg on the charges of spreading false information about the army. She has spent over a year behind bars. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza is escorted to a hearing in a court in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 8, 2023. Kara-Murza, another top Russian opposition figure, was sentenced last month to 25 years on treason charges. (AP Photo, File)

FILE In this handout photo released by the Moscow City Court, Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in Moscow, on April 17, 2023. Kara-Murza, another top Russian opposition figure, was sentenced last month to 25 years on treason charges. (The Moscow City Court via AP, File)

FILE - Alexei Gorinov holds a sign “I am against the war” standing in a cage during hearing in the courtroom in Moscow, Russia, on June 21, 2022. Gorinov, a former member of a Moscow municipal council, was convicted of “spreading false information” about the army in July over antiwar remarks he made at a council session. Criticism of the invasion was criminalized a few months earlier, and Gorinov, 61, became the first Russian sent to prison for it, receiving seven years. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Andrei Pivovarov, former head of Open Russia movement stands behind the glass during a court session in Krasnodar, Russia, on June 2, 2021. Pivovarov, an opposition figure sentenced last year to four years in prison, has been in isolation at Penal Colony No. 7 in northern Russia’s Karelia region since January and is likely to stay there the rest of this year. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Andrei Pivovarov, former head of Open Russia movement, speaks with media in Moscow, Russia, on July 9, 2020. Pivovarov, an opposition figure sentenced last year to four years in prison, has been in isolation at Penal Colony No. 7 in northern Russia’s Karelia region since January and is likely to stay there the rest of this year. (AP Photo/Denis Kaminev, File)

FILE - Riot police detain two young men at a demonstration in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 21, 2022. Memorial, Russia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organization and a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, counted 558 political prisoners in the country as of April -- more than three times higher than in 2018, when it listed 183. (AP Photo, File)

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TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — When Alexei Navalny turns 47 on Sunday, he’ll wake up in a bare concrete cell with hardly any natural light.

He won’t be able to see or talk to any of his loved ones. Phone calls and visits are banned for those in “punishment isolation” cells, a 2-by-3-meter (6 1/2-by-10-foot) space. Guards usually blast patriotic songs and speeches by President Vladimir Putin at him.

“Guess who is the champion of listening to Putin’s speeches? Who listens to them for hours and falls asleep to them?” Navalny said recently in a typically sardonic social media post via his attorneys from Penal Colony No. 6 in the Vladimir region east of Moscow.

He is serving a nine-year term due to end in 2030 on charges widely seen as trumped up, and is facing another trial on new charges that could keep him locked up for another two decades. Rallies have been called for Sunday in Russia to support him.

Navalny has become Russia’s most famous political prisoner — and not just because of his prominence as Putin’s fiercest political foe, his poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin, and his being the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary.

He has chronicled his arbitrary placement in isolation, where he has spent almost six months. He’s on a meager prison diet, restricted on how much time he can spend writing letters and forced at times to live with a cellmate with poor personal hygiene, making life even more miserable.

Most of the attention goes to Navalny and other high-profile figures like Vladimir Kara-Murza , who was sentenced last month to 25 years on treason charges. But there’s a growing number of less-famous prisoners who are serving time in similarly harsh conditions.

Memorial, Russia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organization and a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, counted 558 political prisoners in the country as of April — more than three times the figure than in 2018, when it listed 183.

The Soviet Union’s far-flung gulag system of prison camps provided inmate labor to develop industries such as mining and logging. While conditions vary among modern-day penal colonies , Russian law still permits prisoners to work on jobs like sewing uniforms for soldiers.

In a 2021 report, the U.S. State Department said conditions in Russian prisons and detention centers “were often harsh and life threatening. Overcrowding, abuse by guards and inmates, limited access to health care, food shortages and inadequate sanitation were common in prisons, penal colonies, and other detention facilities.”

Andrei Pivovarov , an opposition figure sentenced last year to four years in prison, has been in isolation at Penal Colony No. 7 in northern Russia’s Karelia region since January and is likely to stay there the rest of this year, said his partner, Tatyana Usmanova. The institution is notorious for its harsh conditions and reports of torture.

The 41-year-old former head of the pro-democracy group Open Russia spends his days alone in a small cell in a “strict detention” unit, and is not allowed any calls or visits from anyone but his lawyers, Usmanova told The Associated Press. He can get one book from the prison library, can write letters for several hours a day and is permitted 90 minutes outdoors, she said.

Other inmates are prohibited from making eye contact with Pivovarov in the corridors, contributing to his “maximum isolation,” she said.

“It wasn’t enough to sentence him to a real prison term. They are also trying to ruin his life there,” Usmanova added.

Pivovarov was pulled off a Warsaw-bound flight just before takeoff from St. Petersburg in May 2021 and taken to the southern city of Krasnodar. Authorities accused him of engaging with an “undesirable” organization -– a crime since 2015.

Several days before his arrest, Open Russia had disbanded after getting the “undesirable” label.

After his trial in Krasnodar, the St. Petersburg native was convicted and sentenced in July, when Russia’s war in Ukraine and Putin’s sweeping crackdown on dissent were in full swing.

He told AP in a letter from Krasnodar in December that authorities moved him there “to hide me farther away” from his hometown and Moscow. That interview was one of the last Pivovarov was able to give, describing prison life there as “boring and depressing,” with his only diversion being an hour-long walk in a small yard. “Lucky” inmates with cash in their accounts can shop at a prison store once a week for 10 minutes but otherwise must stay in their cells, he wrote.

Letters from supporters lift his spirits, he said. Many people wrote that they used to be uninterested in Russian politics, according to Pivovarov, and “only now are starting to see clearly.”

Now, any letters take weeks to arrive, Usmanova said.

Conditions are easier for some less-famous political prisoners like Alexei Gorinov , a former member of a Moscow municipal council. He was was convicted of “spreading false information” about the army in July over antiwar remarks he made at a council session.

Criticism of the invasion was criminalized a few months earlier, and Gorinov, 61, became the first Russian sent to prison for it, receiving seven years.

He is housed in barracks with about 50 others in his unit at Penal Colony No. 2 in the Vladimir region, Gorinov said in written answers passed to AP in March.

The long sentence for a low-profile activist shocked many, and Gorinov said “authorities needed an example they could showcase to others (of) an ordinary person, rather than a public figure.”

Inmates in his unit can watch TV, and play chess, backgammon or table tennis. There’s a small kitchen to brew tea or coffee between meals, and they can have food from personal supplies.

But Gorinov said prison officials still carry out “enhanced control” of the unit, and he and two other inmates get special checks every two hours, since they’ve been labeled “prone to escape.”

There is little medical help, he said.

“Right now, I’m not feeling all that well, as I can’t recover from bronchitis,” he said, adding that he needed treatment for pneumonia last winter at another prison’s hospital ward, because at Penal Colony No. 2, the most they can do is “break a fever.”

Also suffering health problems is artist and musician Sasha Skochilenko, who is detained amid her ongoing trial following her April 2022 arrest in St. Petersburg, also on charges of spreading false information about the army. Her crime was replacing supermarket price tags with antiwar slogans in protest.

Skochilenko has a congenital heart defect and celiac disease, requiring a gluten-free diet. She gets food parcels weekly, but there is a weight limit, and the 32-year-old can’t eat “half the things they give her there,” said her partner, Sophia Subbotina.

There’s a stark difference between detention facilities for women and men, and Skochilenko has it easier in some ways than male prisoners, Subbotina said.

“Oddly enough, the staff are mostly nice. Mostly they are women, they are quite friendly, they will give helpful tips and they have a very good attitude toward Sasha,” Subbotina told AP by phone.

“Often they support Sasha, they tell her: ‘You will definitely get out of here soon, this is so unfair here.’ They know about our relationship and they are fine with it. They’re very humane,” she said.

There’s no political propaganda in the jail and dance music blares from a radio. Cooking shows play on TV. Skochilenko “wouldn’t watch them in normal life, but in jail, it’s a distraction,” Subbotina said.

She recently arranged for an outside cardiologist to examine Skochilneko and since March has been allowed to visit her twice a month.

Subbotina gets emotional when she recalled their first visit.

“It is a complex and weird feeling when you’ve been living with a person. Sasha and I have been together for over six years — waking up with them, falling asleep with them — then not being able to see them for a year,” she said. “I was nervous when I went to visit her. I didn’t know what I would say to Sasha, but in the end, it went really well.”

Still, Subbotina said a year behind bars has been hard on Skochilenko. The trial is moving slowly, unlike usually swift proceedings for high-profile political activists, with guilty verdicts almost a certainty.

Skochilenko faces up to 10 years if convicted.