The Washington Post

22 October 2023 18:43

Russian strike hits mail facility in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, killing 6

KHARKIV, Ukraine — A Russian antiaircraft missile hit a sprawling mail facility near the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv late Saturday, killing six postal workers and injuring 17 others, local officials said.

Some of the wounded suffered critical injuries, Kharkiv’s governor, Oleh Synyehubov, said on the Telegram messaging app. He said preliminary data indicated that the complex was hit by an S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile.

The blast from the strike blew out a large section of the buildings, and on Sunday morning, the sorting center managed by Ukraine’s largest private postal company, Nova Poshta, was in disarray. Debris littered the site, and a row of mail delivery trucks stood with their sides and roofs blown out. Nova Poshta is involved in helping distribute humanitarian aid across Ukraine amid the war.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

21 October 2023 18:45

Spy vs. spy: How Israelis tried to stop Russia’s information war in Africa

When Israeli businessmen Royi Burstien and Lior Chorev touched down in Burkina Faso, they had an urgent message for the country’s embattled ruler.

The Israelis — one a veteran political operative and the other a former army intelligence officer — had been hired with the mission of keeping the government of President Roch Marc Kaboré in power. Their company, Percepto International, was a pioneer in what’s known as the disinformation-for-hire business.

But as Percepto began to survey the online landscape across Burkina Faso and the surrounding region in 2021, they quickly saw that the local political adversaries and Islamic extremists they had been hired to combat were not Kaboré’s biggest adversary. The real threat came from Russia, which was running what appeared to be a wide-ranging disinformation campaign aimed at destabilizing Burkina Faso and other democratically-elected governments on its borders.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

19 October 2023 20:00

Russia detains radio journalist accused of being ‘foreign agent’

RIGA, Latvia — Russian authorities have arrested an editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, an American news outlet based in Prague and financed by the U.S. government, accusing her of collecting information about the Russia military that could damage the nation’s security.

The editor, Alsu Kurmasheva, holds dual U.S. and Russian citizenship and had traveled to Russia for family reasons. Her detention Wednesday in Kazan, southwestern Russia, follows the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, who was seized by agents of the Federal Security Service in March and charged with spying — an accusation that his newspaper and the State Department strongly deny.

Kurmasheva’s arrest highlights the continuing dangers for journalists traveling in wartime Russia and operating in an environment in which senior officials have described their work as part of an “information war” against Moscow.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

18 October 2023 13:25

Analysis: War in Gaza complicates Ukraine battle for both Zelensky and Putin

For over a year and a half, the war in Ukraine has dominated global attention due to the bloody scenes after Russia’s invasion. But last week's shocking attacks in Israel, led by the Palestinian group Hamas, and an impending war in the Gaza Strip in retaliation, look set to change the battlefield for both Kyiv and Moscow.

For Ukraine, there is a real risk that a conflict in the Middle East diverts Western attention — and with that, the military and economic support needed to continue its fight against Russia. And while Russia may welcome that diversion, a broader conflict in the Middle East could sever its already frosty relations with Israel, a former economic partner and a potential high-tech military supplier for Ukraine.

Read the full analysis here.

The Washington Post

17 October 2023 18:07

Ukraine strikes Russian depot in Berdyansk with long-range ATACMS

KYIV — Ukraine’s military used a version of U.S.-provided ATACMS long-range missiles early Tuesday to strike Russian military aircraft and ammunition depots in occupied Ukraine, according to a senior Ukrainian military official, marking the first-known use of the munitions.

Ukraine had pleaded for more than a year for Washington to send ATACMS, which can strike targets 100 miles or more away — father than other weapons that the United States has sent to Kyiv.

The version used by Ukraine to hit targets in Berdyansk, on the Azov Sea coast, were armed with cluster bomblets, rather than a single warhead,

Ukraine’s special operations forces confirmed in a Telegram message on Tuesday that they had carried out an overnight operation called “Dragonfly” overnight in Berdyansk and the occupied Luhansk region resulting in “significant losses” on the Russian side.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

16 October 2023 17:21

North Korea may be sending arms to Russia for Ukraine war, images suggest

Russian ships linked to military transport networks have collected cargo from North Korea and delivered it to an apparent Russian military port on multiple occasions over the past two months, according to new satellite images providing the clearest evidence yet that Pyongyang may be helping Moscow’s war effort.

The two ships had no record of running this route between North Korea and Russia until August, when high-level meetings between North Korean and Russian officials began.

White House officials named one Russian vessel Friday, alleging that North Korea has transported as many as 1,000 containers with “equipment and munitions” from North Korea to Russia “in recent weeks.”

But new satellite images, analyzed by the London-based Royal United Services Institute and provided first to The Washington Post, suggest this operation is more regular, extensive and ongoing than the White House revealed.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

16 October 2023 08:18

Russia releases four Ukrainian children after mediation by Qatar

KYIV — Russia has agreed to free four Ukrainian children — ranging in age from 2 to 17 — and allow them to return to their families in Ukraine after Qatar intervened as a mediator, according to a government official briefed on the matter.

Two of the children are now back with relatives and two others are expected to be reunited with their families in the coming days, the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic negotiations, said.

Qatar’s role in the negotiations, which lasted several months, came at the request of the Ukrainian government.

The Ukrainian children passed through Qatar’s Embassy in Moscow and took different routes home. Some traveled or were scheduled to travel from Russia to Ukraine via Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Others went through Belarus.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

15 October 2023 16:47

After facing death, injured Ukrainian soldiers relearn intimacy

KYIV — The two Russian Lancet drones hovered briefly over a small house-turned-military base in northeast Ukraine, then exploded. Inside, shrapnel pierced through the pelvis and thigh of a Ukrainian combat medic who goes by the call sign Alaska.

As the house burned and she was evacuated to safety, Alaska texted her boyfriend, who is in a different Ukrainian unit, using the military code for wounded: “I’m 300.”

That short message marked the start of a new chapter in their emotional — and physical — relationship, an experience now confronting many couples in Ukraine. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been severely wounded since Russia invaded in early 2022. Many soldiers return from the front in wheelchairs or needing prostheses. Often, the injuries — including amputations, facial damage and severe concussions — are life-altering.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

14 October 2023 15:15

Poland faces a pivotal election. Observers say it isn’t a fair vote.

Poland will vote Sunday to determine whether a political party accused of whittling away the country’s democracy can stay in power, but an election billed as the most important in a generation has been clouded by concerns it will be only partially free and far from fair.

The outcome will be closely watched across Europe, where diplomatic clashes with Poland have become an enduring source of division and angst, as well as in the United States, which has grown closer with Poland since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

But officials and analysts say what Polish voters really want is being distorted by state-controlled media, new electoral rules and a controversial referendum that’s been tacked on to the vote.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

13 October 2023 13:15

U.S. intensifies push to use Moscow’s $300 billion war chest for Kyiv

Senior U.S. officials have stepped up their efforts to lead Western governments to use hundreds of billions of dollars of frozen Russian central bank reserves to help Ukraine, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.

The intensifying push to use the assets for Ukraine comes as U.S. and European governments that support Kyiv encounter new domestic political roadblocks for their plans to send taxpayer money to the war effort, although officials insist the matters are unrelated. The Kremlin has an estimated $300 billion frozen in various bank accounts throughout Western countries, but experts have warned that simply taking that money would face legal challenges and pose major financial risks.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

12 October 2023 19:15

In eastern Ukraine, small assault teams quietly advance against Russia

DONETSK REGION, Ukraine — While big, complex maneuvers unfold in Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive, and long-range artillery duels thunder along the front lines, such small-team tactics are less visible.

But these stealthy assaults of a handful of soldiers storming enemy positions have been quietly instrumental in recent gains in the eastern Donetsk region outside Bakhmut, Ukrainian fighters and commanders said.

Outnumbered and outgunned, Ukrainian teams numbering four to a dozen can attack on foot far less conspicuously than with vehicles, surprising complacent enemies and triggering chaos along the front.

The strategy, soldiers said, helped Ukrainian forces retake Andriivka and another village, Klishchiivka — important steps to increase pressure on Russians resupplying forces in and around Bakhmut.

This intense fighting has come with steep costs, troops and medical personnel said.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

12 October 2023 10:56

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- In his first known international trip this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived on Thursday in Kyrgyzstan, where he will meet with leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan.

- Ukraine’s allies “won’t be distracted” by the crisis in Israel and the Gaza Strip, and will continue to focus on Kyiv’s war with Russia, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said early Thursday.

- A coalition co-led by the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands will aim to establish F-16 fighter jet capacity in Ukraine and, later, oversee a full-scale Ukrainian air force built.

- Three people, including a child, were killed in the Russian city of Belgorod when a Ukrainian drone was downed, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Thursday.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

11 October 2023 13:32

In Ukraine, Russia’s winter attacks on infrastructure have started

KYIV — After an initially balmy fall, temperatures are dropping in Ukraine — and Russia has already begun pummeling Ukraine’s energy system, in a reprise of its brutal attempt last autumn and winter to demoralize Ukrainians by plunging them into darkness and cold.

Last winter, there were “a lot of difficult nights” when Russian forces sent waves of missiles and drones in a bid to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, said Fox, one of three soldiers manning a German-made Gepard Flakpanzer mobile antiaircraft system at a position not far from Kyiv.

“One time, they sent 20 drones together at a position,” said Fox, who is being identified only by call sign in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol. “But this winter will be a lot worse,” he said.

Fox appears to know what he is talking about.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

10 October 2023 21:02

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- Ukrainians in the village of Hroza held funerals for those killed in a deadly Russian missile strike last week.

- The White House is considering attaching a request for Congress to approve additional funding for Ukraine to a separate request for urgent aid to Israel, The Washington Post reported.

- Russian President Vladimir Putin, making his first comments Tuesday on the war between Israel and Hamas, blamed Washington. “Many will agree with me that this is a vivid example of the failure of U.S. policy,” he said.

- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Romania on Tuesday.

- Zelensky replaced the commander of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

10 October 2023 13:45

Russia cites ‘concern’ but does not condemn Hamas attack on Israel

Russia has labeled opposition figures such as Alexei Navalny as “terrorists” and, since invading its neighbor, the Kremlin routinely denounces defensive Ukrainian strikes as “terrorist attacks.”

But after Hamas militants carried out a brutal surprise attack in which hundreds of Israeli civilians were killed or kidnapped, Russia stopped short of condemning the Palestinian militant group, referring instead to what happened as “a spiral of violence” and pointing fingers at the West.

Russia’s carefully worded reaction reflected decades of nuanced — at times contradictory — diplomacy in which the Kremlin has sought strong ties with Israel while also supporting the Palestinian cause and courting groups such as Hamas that are committed to Israel’s destruction.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

22 October 2023 16:21

Russia, shifting tactics, fans doubt in election integrity, U.S. says

Russia’s long-running efforts to weaken the world’s democracies have expanded in recent years to sow public doubt in election integrity, according to a declassified State Department cable disclosed Friday.

Between 2020 and 2022, the intelligence community also found that, in 17 additional countries, there was “a less pronounced level” of Russian social media activity and other “messaging” aimed at amplifying preexisting domestic narratives questioning election integrity.

The U.S. intelligence community has routinely highlighted what it portrays as Moscow’s ongoing scheme to subvert elections and destabilize democratic countries, but the State Department cable said that such tactics appear to be evolving with a specific goal of eroding trust in the basic administration of elections.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

20 October 2023 17:06

Putin, flexing U.N. veto, takes aim at global rules

RIGA, Latvia — At a recent public policy forum, President Vladimir Putin extolled his “new world” and rejected a global rules-based order as “some kind of nonsense.”

“What rules?” Putin snapped at a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Russia’s Black Sea coast. He dismissed the rules-based international order as Washington’s “openly boorish way” of telling Russia how to behave. The era of global rules “is long over and will never return,” Putin said. “Never!”

Moscow’s rejection of a rules-based international order is evident in its war in Ukraine — where it has violated borders, killed civilians and targeted infrastructure, and where there is evidence its forces committed torture and abducted children. It is also evident in international diplomacy, most strikingly at the United Nations, where Russia has used its veto in the Security Council to defy calls for its withdrawal from Ukraine.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

18 October 2023 16:45

Putin meets Viktor Orban in China, in a boost for the Kremlin

RIGA, Latvia — Russian President Vladimir Putin, increasingly isolated over the war against Ukraine, met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in China on Tuesday.

The meeting was Putin’s first with a European Union leader since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in March, accusing him of war crimes in the forced deportations of Ukrainian children.

Orban, a self-proclaimed proponent of “illiberal” Christian democracy, has a cozy relationship with Putin and Tuesday declared his determination to maintain his ties with Moscow, despite the tensions between Europe and Russia over the nearly two-year-old war.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

17 October 2023 20:47

Navalny lawyer flees Russia, leaving opposition leader alone in court

RIGA, Latvia — Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appeared at a court hearing without legal representation Tuesday after three of his lawyers were arrested on extremism charges and two others left the country.

Navalny’s court appearance, by video link from Penal Colony No. 6 where he is being held, highlighted the dire state the Russian legal system. Barred from attending court in person, Navalny was shown by video from a small room in a prison colony, but he had no attorney. At one point his sound cut out. Later, the entire video stream was lost.

Navalny only learned of the arrest of the three lawyers Monday from journalists, and Tuesday he found out that a fourth lawyer, Alexander Fedulov, had fled the country. A fifth, Olga Mikhailova, was not in Russia when the others were arrested, but her offices were raided and a search warrant was issued.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

17 October 2023 13:56

Russia arrests lawyers for imprisoned opposition leader Navalny

Three lawyers who represent the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been arrested, Navalny’s spokeswoman said Friday — depriving the Kremlin critic of one of his few remaining channels to the outside world.

Navalny is serving sentences totaling 30 years on charges including extremism that are widely viewed as trumped up for political retribution. He is being held at a “special regime” colony in Russia, a maximum-security facility reserved for prisoners who are labeled as dangerous and are given limited communication rights.

Since Navalny’s initial detention in 2021, he has been routinely subjected to harsh treatment behind bars — regularly placed in solitary confinement and denied medical care.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

16 October 2023 14:04

Poland’s opposition jubilant, ruling party wary ahead of final election count

Poland’s centrist opposition rode a wave of jubilant optimism Monday following historic elections, as an exit poll suggested it had a better chance of forming the next government than the ruling hard right. But the country remained locked in what could be a protracted period of political uncertainty, as the governing Law and Justice party scrambled for ways to stay in power.

An opposition victory would mark a sea change in Europe, bringing a bastion of illiberalism allied with Trump Republicans and Hungary’s Viktor Orban back into line with the continent’s core democracies.

At a time when the once firmly pro-Ukrainian government in Poland had begun to waver in its support, the opposition has also promised continued military backing for Kyiv.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

15 October 2023 22:54

Here's the latest from Ukraine:

- Putin will meet with the leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, as well as representatives from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which is made up of some former Soviet nations, according to Putin’s office. This is Putin’s first known foreign trip since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in March.

- If damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline is found to be from a deliberate attack, NATO will meet it with “a determined and united response,” NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday at a news conference after the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

- Senior U.S. officials have stepped up their efforts to lead Western governments to use hundreds of billions of dollars of frozen Russian central bank reserves to help Ukraine, The Post reported.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

15 October 2023 12:30

What to know about Poland’s election, Europe’s most-watched vote of 2023

Poland’s parliamentary election Sunday is being billed as the most consequential in years, with potential ramifications for Europe, the war in Ukraine and democracy itself.

Poland has been one of Ukraine’s biggest supporters, but relations between the countries soured following disputes over grain.

When Russia sought the pressure the country with a blockade, the E.U. offered support to Kyiv by opening its market. But Polish farmers say a glut of cheap Ukrainian grain has made it hard for them to make any profit from their own stocks. Law and Justice has come to their defense, pumping out subsidies to Polish farmers, while extending an embargo on Ukrainian grain.

Some commentators say this was a way for the ruling party to better position itself among its supporters in rural areas and small towns where the economy is heavily dependent on agriculture.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

13 October 2023 17:24

Ukraine hits Russian navy ships with sea drones

KYIV — “Experimental” naval drones damaged two Russian military vessels — the Buyan mission carrier and the Pavel Derzhavin patrol boat — over the past two days, Ukrainian intelligence officials said Friday, as Kyiv continued a series of strikes against Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet.

The attacks on the Black Sea Fleet, which is based in occupied Crimea, have demonstrated Ukraine’s ability to operate in Kremlin-controlled waters but do not appear to have seriously reduced Moscow’s capabilities.

An official with Ukraine’s State Security Service, the SBU, said a joint operation with Ukraine’s navy had damaged the Buyan missile carrier on Friday in the port of Sevastopol. The Pavel Derzhavin patrol boat was hit two days earlier. The Russian submarine Alrosa came under attack on Thursday but escaped damage, the official said.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

12 October 2023 20:59

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- If damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline is found to be from a deliberate attack, NATO will meet it with “a determined and united response,” NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday at a news conference after the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

- Senior U.S. officials have stepped up their efforts to lead Western governments to use hundreds of billions of dollars of frozen Russian central bank reserves to help Ukraine, The Post reported.

- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “we are holding our ground” in Avdiivka, as Russian forces advanced toward the town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region after launching an offensive Tuesday, the Institute for the Study of War said.

- Three people, including a child, were killed in the Russian city of Belgorod when a Ukrainian drone was downed, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Thursday on Telegram.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

12 October 2023 15:31

Russia mounts major attack on key city in eastern Ukraine

KYIV — Intense fighting raged around the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka for a third day, local officials said Thursday, after Russian forces launched a major attack on the city, mobilizing thousands of troops and columns of armored vehicles.

“The battles around the city do not abate; the shelling does not abate both on the positions and on the city itself,” the head of the local military administration, Vitaliy Barabash, said on Ukrainian television.

Barabash said that “two dozen missiles” hit the area Wednesday. “There are dead, wounded, people under the rubble,” he said.

Avdiivka, which sits in a geographically strategic pocket close to the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, has been a target of Moscow’s military aggression since 2014 — but so far the Kremlin’s forces have failed in repeated attempts to capture it.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

11 October 2023 21:12

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia is preparing “again to use winter as a weapon for war,” adding in a tweet that the alliance is “committed to stepping up & sustaining our support for Ukraine.”

- Russia failed in its bid to rejoin the U.N. Human Rights Council. It lost out to Bulgaria and Albania, but did receive 83 votes in its favor from the General Assembly member nations.

- Russia launched an offensive toward the town of Avdiivka, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

- Ukraine’s state security service said it identified two Ukrainian “traitors” who gave intelligence to Russian forces to direct a missile attack on a funeral reception in the village of Hroza last week.

- Russia struck a school in the southern Ukrainian city of Nikopol, destroying a gymnasium and killing four people on Wednesday, Ukrainian Internal Affairs Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

11 October 2023 09:37

Zelensky visits NATO headquarters for allied meeting to support Ukraine

BRUSSELS — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday to join a gathering of allies in support of his nation’s 20-month fight against Russian invaders — elevating the profile of the meeting as global attention has turned to the outbreak of a new war in Israel.

Zelensky, appearing in his trademark army colors, arrived at NATO headquarters just ahead of a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a cadre of dozens of nations organized by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. It marked Zelensky’s first visit to NATO headquarters, though he has addressed the allies remotely from Kyiv before.

Follow today's live updates.

The Washington Post

10 October 2023 16:30

White House considers adding Ukraine to Israel aid package

The White House is considering a move to attach Ukraine funding to a request for urgent aid to Israel, according to several people familiar with the deliberations, in the hopes that such a pairing would increase the chance that Congress would approve aid to Kyiv despite growing opposition from House Republicans.

No final decisions have been made on whether to link the requests, said two senior administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. One of the officials said such a move could make sense because it “jams the far right,” which is firmly opposed to more Ukraine aid but strongly supportive of aid to Israel.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

10 October 2023 12:13

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- The White House is considering attaching a request for Congress to approve additional funding for Ukraine to a separate request asking for urgent aid to Israel, the Post reported, citing several people familiar with the deliberations. Follow our live updates on the Israel-Hamas war.

- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Romania Tuesday. Zelensky tweeted that he would be focusing on “developing aviation and other coalitions, strengthening Ukraine’s air defense, the Black Sea security architecture,” in meetings with his Romanian counterpart.

- Russia is seeking to rejoin the U.N. Human Rights Council, after being suspended last year, following its invasion of Ukraine. The vote to regain its seat will take place later Tuesday in the General Assembly as 193-members vote to elect 15 members to the council.

- Russia expressed concern after the Hamas attack against Israel, stopping short of condemning the violence, the Post reported.

More live updates here.