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Matthew Luxmoore

Sep 1 • 9 tweets • 3 min read

Exclusive: We spoke to soldiers wounded in Ukraine’s counter-offensive at a hospital behind the frontlines, where they spoke of significant advances but an extremely brutal fight. “Our orders were ‘Go in, fuck them up, retake what’s ours.’” wsj.com/articles/ukrai…

Interviews with eight soldiers who took part in the fighting offer the most detailed on-the-ground picture yet from an offensive that Ukraine hopes will help it seize the initiative & prove that its military can take on Moscow’s army and win. wsj.com/articles/ukrai…

One Ukrainian soldier said his unit was so riled up to fight that a teammate fired a rocket launcher a few steps from where he stood and he ended up in hospital with a concussion. “The guys are in a fighting mood,” he said. “They’re moving forward.”

Russian soldiers seemed well equipped and were putting up stiff resistance, the Ukrainians said. “They’re throwing everything against us,” one said.

But some Russian troops are fleeing their positions, another soldier said, abandoning equipment and booby-trapping the bodies of dead comrades they leave behind. He showed footage appearing to show dead Russian soldiers in a village that he said was seized by Ukrainian forces.

“We’re advancing in some areas and being battered in others,” said Pavlo, a 22-year-old soldier who was concussed in a battle on Tuesday and says he now hears a sound akin to a broken television in his head.

One Ukrainian soldier lay in the intensive care unit clutching the Russian 5.45mm bullet that had just been plucked from his body after traveling through his left shoulder and exiting through his pelvis. Three of his comrades lay near him in a coma

The head of the intensive care unit is sleeping in his office and said he felt on the verge of a breakdown dealing with more soldiers than at any time since the first weeks of the war. But he is hopeful that the military’s successes may bring the war to a swifter end.

He said he was struck by the injured soldiers’ desire to keep fighting as soon as physically able. “I want to get back to our guys,” said one concussed soldier, downplaying his injuries despite struggling to hear. “I wanted to return the moment I left.” wsj.com/articles/ukrai…

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Matthew Luxmoore

@mjluxmoore

Aug 15

This article about a Russian soldier who died in Ukraine has been widely shared in Russia as it describes life circumstances that seem so typical to many of the poor, provincial men fighting Putin's war. A short translated excerpt I think is worth sharing: baikal-journal.ru/2022/08/08/ya-…

(It tells the story of 19-year-old Russian private Alexey Udaltsev, who died under artillery fire and was buried on July 22 in a village in Kemerovо region. His parents later received a death report printed in 1974, entitling them to compensation “in line with laws of the USSR.”)

From the article:
“He was a decent guy, happy, well-meaning,” Alexey's father Arkady says. Three years ago a drunk Arkady attacked his son with a knife, shouting “I’ll kill you!” After this Alexey left his college studies and went to the army…

Read 7 tweets

Matthew Luxmoore

@mjluxmoore

Aug 9

Моя стаття про українську мову викликала значний резонанс в Україні (твіти WSJ я не пишу). Нижче я додаю ті мої абзаци, які не увійшли до статті. wsj.com/articles/mosco…

Russian nationalists have peddled the false theory that Old East Slavic - a language spoken on the territory of modern-day Ukraine, Belarus & European Russia in the 10th-15th centuries - was merely a precursor to modern Russian instead of a foundation for modern-day Ukrainian too

“Russia's argument is that this was all one, single condominium, linguistically, religiously,” said Roman Koropeckyj, a Ukrainian-American professor of Slavic Languages at UCLA. “It's a relatively recent invention and part of its propaganda and justification for what it's doing”

Read 12 tweets

Matthew Luxmoore

@mjluxmoore

Jul 22

@zelenskyua

A ceasefire with Russia “means a pause giving Russia a break for rest,” @zelenskyua tells us in a wide-ranging interview at his fortified compound in Kyiv.

“It is a whale that has swallowed two regions and now says: freeze the conflict.” W/@yarotrof wsj.com/articles/ukrai…

Western weapons have helped Ukraine swing the balance against Russia, Zelensky says.

Russia used to fire 12,000 artillery shells daily against Ukraine’s 1,000-2,000. Now he said Kyiv can fire 6,000 a day as Russia suffers a shortage of ammunition & troops wsj.com/articles/ukrai…

At the peak of fighting in May and June, Ukraine was losing between 100 and 200 troops a day, Zelensky said. Now it’s down to some 30 a day, and 250 wounded.

“I can tell you exactly because I live with this every day,” he said, pulling out his phone to check the latest figures.

Read 4 tweets

Matthew Luxmoore

@mjluxmoore

May 5

I tried to reconstruct life in the Azovstal steel plant of Mariupol through interviews with those who made it out this week after months under relentless Russian bombardment. The picture they painted was even more harrowing than I’d imagined wsj.com/articles/insid…

As the Russian army turned Mariupol into rubble, leaving thousands dead and depriving the city of food, water, electricity and phone signal, the steel plant became the final holdout and a symbol of resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

But for the civilians who sought shelter inside, it was hell. “Most days passed like a blur, with that constant ‘boom, boom, boom’ sound of bombs above us,” one said. “We laughed, cried and organized concerts. If we’d just sat there we would have plunged into depression.”

Read 6 tweets

Matthew Luxmoore

@mjluxmoore

May 2

7-year-old Angelina, just arrived from Russian-occupied territory

Her was one of dozens of cars that pulled up today at a parking lot outside Zaporizhzhia that processes new arrivals. Her family traveled from Tokmak with the family of Sonya, 8, and her three sisters and brother.

75-year-old Valentina Portyanchenko said she refused for weeks to leave besieged Mariupol or sleep in a bomb shelter but eventually left the city when her daughter persuaded her to. “Everything in the city is destroyed,” she said.

Read 4 tweets

Matthew Luxmoore

@mjluxmoore

Mar 5

“Those who are fighting in Ukraine are fighting for the future of our children,” says Putin, claiming Russia’s preventing Ukraine from developing a nuclear weapons program aided by the West. He’s billed the invasion from start as a defensive operation, contrary to the evidence

Putin on Russia’s military operation in Ukraine: “It’s going entirely according to plan. Everything is being done the way our General Staff planned it.” But Russia has suffered huge resistance from a Ukrainian population it claims to be liberating.