Ukraine today: A fresh poll shows Ukrainians’ interest in negotiations; and Zelensky tells Ukrainian reporters he’s “not afraid” of Trump 2.0, and signals more govt shakeups likely ahead. (Rumors of PM Shmyhal’s departure, etc. have swirled for months.) 🧵 A new poll by @RazumkovC for @zn_ua found that 44% of Ukrainians believe it’s time for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia (35% say not yet; 21% undecided). That's a big shift compared to last year, when 64% of Ukrainians opposed talks with Moscow.
zn.ua/ukr/UKRAINE/44…

NEW: Our @FT team identified and located four Ukrainian children who were abducted and taken to Russia and are now advertised as up for adoption on a Russian government-linked adoption website, including one child under a false Russian identity. on.ft.com/3KLKm85 .@FT confirmed the children’s IDs with help of Ukrainian Child Rights Protection Centre. We are awaiting further confirmation on two more children located by the FT who we strongly believe are Ukrainian. The children’s guardians and Ukraine’s authorities had previously been unaware of their whereabouts.

NEW: US is close to signing new security pact with Ukraine in signal of support to assuage Kyiv after “tense” relations that some officials say have hit their lowest ebb since Russia’s full-scale invasion. Story w/ @JamesPoliti @HenryJFoy. More in 🧵below.
ft.com/content/966970… Zelensky’s frustration with Biden was laid bare when the Ukrainian prez rebuked his US counterpart in blunt terms, saying Biden’s plan to attend a Democratic fundraiser rather than Ukraine’s peace summit on June 15-16 was “not a strong decision”. ft.com/content/966970…

Russia’s occupying forces in Bakhmut just published on one of their Telegram channels new video footage and photos of the eastern Ukrainian city almost a year after it was destroyed and captured. The photos are stomach-churning and I admit they fill me with rage. I’ll post them below beside my own photos from when I lived in Bakhmut in 2010-2012, when it was a vibrant, peaceful city that 80,000 called home.

These images show the central square fountain and city hall — or where city hall stood before it was blown up. The first two were taken under Russian occupation. The other two are mine from 14 years ago.


This was the Bakhmut Ferris wheel in the city’s upper central park. It usually operated on holidays and was a meeting place for families. Left: under Russian occupation this month. Right: my photo from 2011.

The Russian air force is stepping up its use of Soviet-era weapons that have been retrofitted for 21st-century warfare and are pounding Ukrainian forces, pulverising towns and giving Moscow an advantage on the battlefield.

My piece for @FT on the Russian "glide bombs" targeting Ukrainian towns and troops positions on the frontline: ft.com/content/0d6612… Russian glide bombs are wreaking havoc on Ukrainian positions.

“For [Russia], it is much cheaper than using hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, when one of these bombs will demolish several buildings,” said Vlad, a 27-year-old soldier serving in the eastern Donetsk region.

“They are very scary, very lethal,” said Bohdan, another soldier in Donetsk region. “Even a kilometre away, the blast rips the doors of buildings off their hinges.”

ft.com/content/0d6612…

Hidden cameras in hotel rooms. Months-long surveillance. Leaked footage on a murky black PR website. Highly disturbing incidents targeting Ukraine’s top investigative journalists in recent days has many in Kyiv concerned about a re-emergence of bad-old-days-type antics.

https://twitter.com/mattia_n/status/1747376208470323336

Unsurprisingly, supposed chief editor of "Narodna Pravda," bogus black PR website that has gone after Ukraine's top investigative journalists who've been critical of govt, has no publicly available social accounts and her image appears to be AI-generated.

https://x.com/tweetsNV/status/1747363095469830198?s=20

“Ukraine is not alone, and Ukraine will never be alone,” Sunak told reporters inside the Mariinsky Palace, vowing that the UK would “provide the support Ukraine needs” if Russia “attacks again”.

Our report on Sunak's big Kyiv visit, w/ @LOS_Fisher.
v @FTft.com/content/8d55de… "If Russia attacks [Ukraine] again," Sunak said, meaning with another large-scale invasion, the UK "will provide the support Ukraine needs, fast and reliable security support, modern weapons on land, sea and air, economic support, and sanctions that will have a price on Russia."

Another horrific Russian attack on a busy hotel in Kharkiv tonight. Video here shows the moment of impact in the strike on Park Hotel that injured 11 people, hospitalizing 9, according the head of the regional administration and Suspilne Kharkiv public broadcaster. The aftermath of the attack on Park Hotel in Kharkiv, via Shapkina public broadcaster.

🧵An end-of-year thread. Since Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine began, many books have been written & more will be soon. I wrote one myself: The War Came To Us: Life And Death In Ukraine, which I hope you'll read. It provides a unique view of Ukraine & war going back to pre-2014.

https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1681278741144633344

Here’s what reviewers have said about The War Came To Us. And links to find the book here, in case you're in need of a last-minute Xmas or New Year gift: linktr.ee/thewarcametous

At UNGA Biden called Russia's war on Ukraine "an illegal war of conquest brought without provocation." Zelensky listened closely; Russia rep stared at his phone.

"Like every nation in this world the US wants this war to end. No nation wants this war to end more than Ukraine."



Biden: "And we strongly support in its efforts to bring about diplomatic resolution that delivers justice and last peace. But Russia alone -- Russia alone has the power to end this war immediately. And it's Russia alone that stands in the way of peace..."

Ukrainians in flooded areas under Russian control and people trying to save them told me and @NastyaStognei that Moscow-installed authorities have left them stranded and blocked rescue efforts.

"Many people have drowned. Bodies have started to emerge."

ft.com/content/7e6d36… People in flooded areas under Russian control publish desperate pleas for help on social media. Volunteers collect them on an interactive map that now has more than 650 color-coded requests. Blue pins show those who can afford to wait for help, red denotes the most urgent cases.

Ukraine's counteroffensive has begun.

Kyiv has committed German-made tanks into battle against Russian positions in south-eastern Ukraine, launching the first heavily armoured assaults of its long-anticipated counter-offensive.

ft.com/content/9b282d… via @FT 2 UA military personnel, 2 western officials & analysts say it is now clear that Ukraine’s summer push is on.

“Based on the action yesterday, and the western systems employed, it appears that the Ukrainian offensive is under way,” @KofmanMichael said.

ft.com/content/9b282d…

New satellite images showing the consequences Russia's destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power facility in southern Ukraine.

Before and after close-up views of the dam and power facility, June 5 and June 7. (location: 46.776, 33.371) 📸: @Maxar Before and after close-up views of flooded Nibulon granary in Kozatske, a village on the Ukrainian controlled right/west bank of the Dnipro river. June 5 and June 7. (location: 46.779, 33.326)
📸: @Maxar

I wrote about how the destruction of the Kakhovka dam & power plant that unleashed floodwater across southern Ukraine is likely to limit Kyiv’s options in its incipient counter-offensive, according to military officials & analysts.

Story with @maxseddon.

ft.com/content/7ea522… @maxseddon “Russia benefits from the frontline being smaller because it is easier to concentrate forces to prevent a breakthrough,” said @RALee85. “So if a Ukrainian operation in Kherson is less likely now, they might be able to move more forces east.”
ft.com/content/7ea522…

Big news: Zelensky talks to Xi.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1651184756623802368

This is Zelensky and Xi's first phone direct conversation since Putin launched his full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022. China has signaled that it wants to play a role as mediator, but its proposed "peace plan" favors Russia.

Stories from the Battle of Bakhmut are something else. "We were shelled by mortars, tanks & planes. Drones dropped bombs on us. I had to evacuate a severely wounded guy & a dead body from the trenches." Of a 21-man platoon, 18 WIA/KIA in 24 hours.
ft.com/content/2f9663… 'Senior Lieutenant Kuzin took his position at the machine gun... Everyone else in his troop lay dead or injured. Suffering from shell-shock and with one arm bandaged, [he] fired at the waves of Russian soldiers trying to storm his position.' via @abdujalil bbc.com/news/world-eur…

Terrible news. @evangershkovich of the Wall Street journal has been detained on bogus spying charges in Russia. Journalism is not a crime.

@FT live blog. More tk: ft.com/content/9232fa… @evangershkovich @FT “It looks like they took a hostage,” said Tatiana @Stanovaya, a senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She said the Kremlin had a list of Russians held in the west who it would like to see released. ft.com/content/b774ca…

⚡️New: International Criminal Court judges issue arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights. “…there are reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.”

Mariinka was once a quiet bedroom community of 10,000 residents and tree-lined streets just west of Donetsk. We’ll now have to refer to it in past tense because the Russian army has wiped it off the face of the earth. These images show an apocalyptic scene incompatible with life. I was there with @Kiehart on February 18, 2022, less than a week before Putin’s full-scale invasion. The fighting was heating up but the city remained intact.

This whole Bryansk incident is truly bizarre. It's definitely far-right Russian Denis Nikitin and his Russian Volunteer Corps involved and in the video. I've covered him for years. Here's out story with what we know so far: ft.com/content/55a701… Denis Nikitin's group in Ukraine, which was founded in August, said that it “came to Bryansk region to show their compatriots that there is hope, that free Russian people with weapons in their hands can fight the regime”. ft.com/content/55a701…

At press conference in Kyiv, Zelensky doesn't dismiss China's plan, says involvement is welcomed. But the plan will depend on details and implementation.

"China talking about Ukraine I think is a good thing. But it begs the question, what will these words be followed with?" Zelensky asked, who has disappointed him most: "All those who left on February 24, all those who left Kyiv, all those who left cities and towns and were meant to fight and secure them." Clear he means Kherson officials among others.