The Washington Post

13 September 2024 21:15

Russian state media outlet runs intelligence operations, U.S. says

Russian state media company RT, formerly known as Russia Today, was now being deployed by the Kremlin to conduct cyber intelligence and covert influence operations targeting countries in Europe, Africa and North and South America. It was also being used to procure weapons for Russia’s war against Ukraine, expanding RT’s remit far beyond that of a media outlet, officials said.

The U.S. warned Friday that the exposure of a covert Russian disinformation operation to influence public opinion in the United States represents only a small fraction of Moscow’s efforts to undermine democracies globally through its state propaganda arm RT.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

13 September 2024 13:40

Russia expels U.K. diplomats as Putin warns over Ukraine’s Western weapons

Russia on Friday stripped six British diplomats of accreditation, accusing them of spying, ahead of a crucial White House meeting between President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that is expected to discuss whether to allow Ukraine to strike military targets deep inside Russia using some long-range Western weapons.

On the eve of the meeting, President Vladimir Putin also issued a tough warning that if Ukraine did fire Western missiles deep into Russia, it would mean that Russia was at war with NATO, and Moscow would respond accordingly.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that Britain’s Foreign Office was coordinating “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine to ensure Russia’s defeat in the war and the diplomats were “threatening the security of the Russian Federation.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

10 September 2024 13:36

Ukraine launches largest drone attack yet on Moscow, killing 1, Russia says

A major Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and eight other Russian regions on Tuesday killed a resident of the capital for the first time, after a drone hit a residential apartment building.

Three of Moscow’s airports, the Zhukovsky, Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports, were temporarily closed as a result of the attacks. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 14 drones were shot down in and around Moscow.

A 46-year-old woman was killed in the strike on an apartment block around 18 miles from the capital. Twelve people were injured, one of them seriously.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

07 September 2024 13:31

How a Russian airstrike ripped through people’s lives in Ukraine’s Poltava

Two days earlier, Maksym Havryliuk had been a student at a military institute in Poltava, in central Ukraine. Here — more than 100 miles from the front lines north of Kharkiv — his mom thought he would be safe. But then, on Tuesday, two ballistic missiles slammed into the campus less than a minute apart, killing 55 people and injuring 328.

By Thursday, the horror in Poltava had sharpened into rage. The search for survivors was over. Doctors at seven hospitals struggled to keep critically injured patients alive. Families sat on benches in front of the morgue, waiting to retrieve the bodies of their sons and daughters — some receiving only blown-apart remains.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

06 September 2024 13:54

Ukraine’s Zelensky sharpens appeal to end restrictions on weapons

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western nations on Friday to lift restrictions on the use of donated weapons against Russian territory, telling military and defense leaders gathered in Germany that it was “wrong” to tie his country’s hands in battling Russia’s forces.

Zelensky, in his first in-person appearance at a U.S.-led forum of nations providing arms to Ukraine, expressed gratitude for ongoing military support but said more is needed to help end the protracted conflict with Russia.

Zelensky’s appeal, delivered at a U.S. military base in Germany hosting the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, underscores the stakes of the current battlefield moment for Kyiv. Ukraine is struggling to contain Russian progress in the east while its forces also advance deeper into Russia itself.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

04 September 2024 13:25

Ukraine’s foreign minister resigns in largest shake-up since war began

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has submitted his resignation, the country’s parliamentary speaker announced Wednesday, marking the latest major change in Kyiv’s leadership amid the largest government shake-up since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The reorganization of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime administration comes at a critical moment for Ukraine, as Russian forces push forward in the east and unleash a new wave of attacks on cities. Overnight into Wednesday, seven people were killed by strikes in the western city of Lviv, which is normally far from the fighting and attacked less frequently than others.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

01 September 2024 17:32

Ukraine launches massive drone attack on Russian energy infrastructure

Russia shot down 158 drones overnight, including 11 over Moscow and the surrounding region, its Defense Ministry said Sunday, as officials across the country scrambled to respond to what appeared to be one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia yet.

The assault targeted energy infrastructure, including power plants and oil refineries, and fires broke out at several facilities, including in Moscow. Officials said dozens of the drones were shot down over the Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a surprise incursion on Aug. 6. Russia still controls part of the region.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

30 August 2024 16:33

Opinion | Life in Putin’s gulag: “A long ‘Groundhog Day,’” says Vladimir Kara-Murza

Post contributing columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza was convicted of treason and sentenced to 25 years by Vladimir Putin’s regime. The verdict was ostensibly for his criticism of the war in Ukraine. But his case was really meant as a general warning to others who might stand up to Russia’s authoritarian system.

Earlier this month, our dear friend and colleague was part of the largest international prisoner exchange since the Cold War. He recently joined Opinion Editor David Shipley to talk about his ordeal, how it feels to be free at last — and why he thinks the Putin regime’s days are numbered.

Read or listen to the opinion here.

The Washington Post

29 August 2024 20:01

Opinion | Vladimir Kara-Murza: “My first thought was that I was going to be led out to be executed”

“Welcome to freedom,” were the first words from Jens Plötner, the German chancellor’s national security adviser, who greeted us in the terminal. And just when I thought things couldn’t get any more surreal, a diplomat from the U.S. Embassy approached me with a cellphone and told me that the president of the United States was on the line. Alongside him, I heard the voices of my wife and children whom I had been forbidden from calling from prison for more than two years.

I don’t have the words, in any language, to describe the feeling.

The exchange in Ankara was historic in many ways.

Read the full opinion here.

The Washington Post

29 August 2024 14:16

Russia-Ukraine energy war roars back into action after mediation fails

Ukrainian forces struck two oil depots within Russia overnight, while Moscow on Thursday launched the third major aerial attack on Ukraine this week — the latest in strikes by the two sides on each other’s energy infrastructure, causing electricity cutoffs throughout Ukraine and raising the prospect increased international energy prices.

The attacks take place just weeks after Kyiv and Moscow were believed to be on the verge of an agreement to halt infrastructure attacks, diplomats and officials said. Instead, the two sides have resumed bombarding each other’s power plants and fuel refineries, in an escalatory struggle that in addition to its international effects could lead to a bleak winter for Ukraine.

The attacks also come as Ukraine has been pushing for a lifting of the restrictions on the long-range weapons it has received from its Western partners so it can hit more targets inside Russia.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

27 August 2024 17:14

Ukraine’s Zelensky says incursion into Russia part of plan to end war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that this month’s lightning-fast incursion into Russia — where almost 600 Russian soldiers have been captured so far — is part of a larger plan to end the war in his country.

Speaking at a news conference of top officials, Zelensky said he had no plans to permanently annex the region and will present his plan to President Joe Biden — along with presidential candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump — this fall.

“The main point … is forcing Russia to end the war,” Zelensky said. “We really want justice for Ukraine. And if this plan is accepted — and second, if it is executed — we believe that the main goal will be reached.”

He declined to provide details of his plan.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

25 August 2024 21:13

Telegram founder Pavel Durov detained in France

Russian-born tech mogul Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the popular platform Telegram, has been detained in France, French authorities confirmed Sunday. According to French media, his detention is related to alleged offenses regarding the social media app.

The Russian Embassy in Paris said early Sunday that it had requested consular access to Durov and demanded that French authorities “ensure the protection of his rights.”

“As of today, the French side has so far avoided cooperation on this issue,” the embassy said in a statement posted on Telegram, adding that officials are in touch with Durov’s lawyer.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

24 August 2024 16:13

Ukraine keeps crossing Russia’s red lines. Putin keeps blinking.

Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion keeps crossing President Vladimir Putin’s red lines.

Kyiv’s lightning incursion into Kursk in western Russia this month slashed through the reddest line of all — a direct ground assault on Russia — yet Putin’s response has so far been strikingly passive and muted, in sharp contrast to his rhetoric earlier in the war.

On day one of the invasion in February 2022, Putin warned that any country that stood in Russia’s way would face consequences “such as you have never seen in your entire history,” a threat that seemed directed at countries that might arm Ukraine.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

19 August 2024 20:15

In Ukraine-controlled Sudzha, stranded Russian civilians question what’s next

The blue and yellow lines painted on two signposts at the entrance to this Russian town offered unmistakable evidence that some citizens of Russia are living under Kyiv’s control and Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine is really not going as planned.

On Saturday afternoon, 11 days after Ukrainian forces crossed into this Russian border region, soldiers patrolled Sudzha’s damaged streets with bright blue tape on their arms, scanning the sky for incoming drones. Graffiti covered the front of a store, renaming it “ATB,” a popular Ukrainian grocery chain. Russian flags had been removed from administration buildings, but blue-and-yellow Ukrainian ones were not flying.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

18 August 2024 16:09

Analysis: Kremlin response to Kursk incursion shows how Putin freezes in a crisis

Faced with crisis, Vladimir Putin tends to freeze.

Moscow’s slow, fumbling military response to Ukraine’s surprise occupation of parts of the western Kursk region is the latest example of the Kremlin chief failing to respond with quick, decisive action to match his bellicose rhetoric.

The Kursk incursion is the fourth major blow to Putin’s authority since his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and highlights the weaknesses of a top-down autocracy that operates largely on fear and punishment.

In each case — after Russia’s failure to topple the Ukrainian government at the start of the invasion, after the Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin led a rebellion against the regular Russia military command and after Islamist extremists struck the popular Crocus City Hall concert venue — the Kremlin’s response has been halting, with Putin waiting 24 hours or more to offer any public comment.

Read the full analysis here.

The Washington Post

13 September 2024 17:24

Kyiv’s bombed children’s hospital rebuilds, and one boy heads home

Dmytro Dorontsov — everyone calls him Dima — had gone into remission and was leaving Ukraine’s premier children’s hospital, Okhmatdyt. This was his goodbye party.

For two years, Dima had been more concerned with the war inside his body than the one outside it — until July, when a long-range Russian missile zipped more than 1,500 precise miles and slammed into the place he called home, threatening the lives of 627 sick children and bringing the war to their hospital doorways.

Two people died, and 300 were injured, including eight children. There was worldwide condemnation of the attack, considered a war crime. But left unreported was how the strike displaced hundreds of vulnerable children with severe medical needs and traumatized hospital staffers, who lost a colleague in the attack.

Dima had twice survived the impossible: cancer, a missile strike.

And now he was going home.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

12 September 2024 15:45

Zelensky confirms Russian counteroffensive in Ukrainian-controlled Kursk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Thursday that Russia had begun fighting to take back the parts of its Kursk region occupied by Ukrainian forces last month.

Speaking at a news conference, Zelensky said that the Russian “counteroffensive actions were according to our Ukrainian plan.”

He declined to say anything more about the region, which Ukraine overtook during a surprise incursion in early August. Zelensky has stated before that Kursk — where Ukraine grabbed about 500 square miles, including 100 settlements and nearly 600 prisoners of war — was part of his plan to end the conflict.

In the past two days, though, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that Russian troops had reclaimed 10 settlements in the region, amid worries by Ukraine’s allies over whether Kursk was worth the gamble and whether it can be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

09 September 2024 17:18

In Ukraine’s Poltava, soldier buries a father he thought safe from war

It was the son fighting on the front lines that everyone worried about — but then his father died first, blown apart in a missile attack 100 miles from the battlefield.

And so on Saturday, as funeral after funeral began in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava — where 58 people at a military institute were killed in a strike on Sept. 3 — Oleksandr Horodnytskyi drove to the morgue to pick up the father he’d hoped to protect by going to war. Now, he had five days of leave from his assault brigade to process his grief and bury the man who raised him.

One of the deadliest single bombardments of the war left dozens of victims to be buried more than 100 miles from the front lines.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

06 September 2024 21:06

D.C. lobbyists battle over future of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine

The Ukrainian parliament passed a law in August banning religious organizations with ties to Russia. The legislation establishes a legal framework that, according to religious experts, could effectively close down the Ukrainian branch of the Orthodox Church connected to Moscow.

Leading the campaign in the United States against Kyiv’s efforts to create what it says is a Ukrainian Orthodox Church free of Moscow’s influence is Robert Amsterdam.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

05 September 2024 13:26

Ukraine set to tap former ambassador Andrii Sybiha as top diplomat

KYIV — Ukraine’s parliament voted Thursday to accept the resignation of Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and is expected to appoint Andrii Sybiha — the country’s former ambassador to Turkey and past deputy head of the presidential office — to replace him.

Kuleba served as Ukraine’s chief diplomat since 2020, and for more than two years of full-scale war, he traveled the world pleading for more weapons, air defense and support for Ukraine to counter Russia’s invasion. But he was often overshadowed by Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who oversaw many key international relationships.

Sybiha, a senior diplomat, left his role as Yermak’s deputy earlier this year to serve as deputy foreign minister. He was ambassador to Turkey from 2016 to 2021, an experience that was likely seen as an asset due to the critical role Turkey plays in the war.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

03 September 2024 14:03

Dozens killed in Russian missile strike on Ukrainian city of Poltava

More than 40 people have been killed and 180 wounded in a Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Poltava, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday.

Two ballistic missiles struck the area, targeting an educational institution and a nearby hospital, Zelensky said, adding that many people were trapped under the rubble.

“Unfortunately, there are many casualties,” Zelensky said. “As of now, we know that 41 people were killed.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

30 August 2024 20:25

Ukraine Air Force chief dismissed after F-16 crash

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday he had “decided to replace” the commander of the country’s Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk.

The shake-up came a day after Ukraine’s military announced that one of its few F-16 fighter jets crashed during an operation this week to combat a wave of Russian missiles.

Announcing the move in his evening address, Zelensky did not detail why he dismissed Oleshchuk, saying: “This is equally necessary at the command level – we must strengthen ourselves and protect our people. Protect our personnel. Protect all our warriors.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

29 August 2024 20:03

Ukrainian F-16 crashes, killing pilot, during Russian missile attack

A Ukrainian F-16 fighter jet crashed, killing its pilot, as it was fending off a barrage of Russian missiles, Ukraine’s military said Thursday.

During the operation, communication was lost with one of the jets and it later became apparent that “the plane crashed” and “the pilot died,” Ukraine’s general staff said in a Telegram post. A special commission was appointed to probe the cause of the accident, it said. Four Russian cruise missiles were shot down by the F-16, the military said.

The Ukrainian statement about the crash did not name the pilot who was killed. A separate statement published earlier Thursday by the Ukrainian air defense on Facebook announced the death of pilot Oleksiy Mes during an operation on Monday.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

29 August 2024 16:54

Reuters denies Russian claim its slain security adviser was British spy

Russia has claimed that the security adviser with the Reuters news agency who was killed when a missile struck a hotel in eastern Ukraine last week was a British spy, linking his death to Moscow’s assertion that foreign mercenaries are involved in Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk region.

At a press briefing Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed without evidence that security adviser Ryan Evans, who was killed in a strike Saturday on the Sapphire Hotel in the city of Kramatorsk, was registered as a former employee of MI6, an arm of the British secret services. “But we are well aware that there are not former MI6 employees,” she said.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

28 August 2024 22:31

Telegram CEO Durov indicted in France, banned from leaving country

French prosecutors indicted the chief executive of popular messaging service Telegram Wednesday on charges of complicity in the distribution of child sex abuse images, aiding organized crime and refusing lawful orders to give information to law enforcement.

Prosecutors charged Pavel Durov with multiple offenses after four days of questioning following his arrest at an airport near Paris, ordering him to put up a 5 million euro bond and barring him from leaving France.

The billionaire founder’s case is an unprecedented test of the power of governments over multinational tech companies operating under widely varying laws around the world. Durov’s Telegram is unusual for being run from a nonaligned Middle Eastern country, the United Arab Emirates, and for declaring that it shares nothing with authorities anywhere.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

26 August 2024 13:35

Russia hits targets across Ukraine, including Kyiv, causing power outages

Russia launched a major missile attack across Ukraine early Monday morning, hammering locations in the country’s east and west, killing at least four and injuring scores, and putting massive strains on Ukraine’s energy grid.

Ukraine celebrated independence from the Soviet Union on Saturday, and some form of Russian attack around the date had been widely expected, including in warnings from the U.S. Embassy.

The bombardment, which hit at least 15 regions across the country, followed an overnight drone attack against Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as missiles attacks over the weekend that killed a security adviser working for the Reuters news agency and injured two others in eastern Ukraine.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

25 August 2024 18:57

Ukraine has captured scores of Russian soldiers in Kursk offensive, videos show

Ukrainian forces have captured more than 240 Russian soldiers since their surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk region this month, according to an analysis of visual evidence that includes mass detentions of young troops appearing to surrender without resistance.

The Washington Post reviewed more than 130 photos and videos taken since the incursion began Aug. 6, most of which appear to have been filmed by Ukrainian soldiers and shared on social media. The analysis also included photos taken by a Post photographer at a prison housing captured Russian soldiers in Ukraine. The verified visuals depict at least 247 Russian prisoners and support Ukrainian officials’ claims to have captured hundreds of Russians during the incursion.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

22 August 2024 22:01

Ukrainians cheer push into Russia but fear it comes at the cost of the east

As Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia stretches into its third week and increasingly looks like a prolonged operation, ordinary Ukrainians are becoming conflicted over the possible cost of the cross-border offensive.

On the one hand, the assault has brought the war to Russian territory, turning the tables more than two years after Russia invaded Ukraine — displacing millions, destroying towns and forcing many people to live under an oppressive occupation. But as Moscow’s forces continue to gain ground in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region around the strategic town of Pokrovsk, some are questioning why Kyiv is devoting so many resources to taking Russian land rather than defending its own.

It’s a dilemma President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing as he and his military command have committed precious personnel and weaponry.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

19 August 2024 15:16

Russia closes in on Donetsk city despite Ukraine’s successes elsewhere

The successes Ukraine has announced in its two-week old incursion into Russia have not stopped the steady drive of Moscow’s forces into the eastern part of the country, forcing the evacuation of a key logistical hub Monday.

Officials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk say that they are evacuating the population in case it falls to the Russian advance, which is now less than six miles from the city limits.

“[Russian forces] are moving toward the outskirts of Pokrovsk. We see — it is no secret,” said Katerina Yanzhula, head of information policy in the Pokrovsk military administration, by telephone, adding that it was unclear how much longer the city could hold out. “Maybe the situation there will somehow change — we hope that the enemy will stop somewhere on the approaches to Pokrovsk, that our troops will repel them.”

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The Washington Post

17 August 2024 16:03

Exclusive: Ukraine’s offensive derails secret efforts for partial cease-fire with Russia, officials say

KYIV — Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Doha this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both sides, diplomats and officials familiar with the discussions said, in what would have amounted to a partial cease-fire and offered a reprieve for both countries.

But the indirect talks, with the Qataris serving as mediators and meeting separately with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations, were derailed by Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region last week, according to the officials. The possible agreement and planned summit have not been previously reported.

Read the full story here.