Between assignments in Ukraine, I’ll now be reporting for @thetimes from the Balkans, another area where societies are struggling to break free from Russia’s malign influence. In Serbia, the situation has recently taken a turn for the worse. 1/ Serbia’s president Aleksandar Vucic has thrown his country’s future in the European Union into doubt by suggesting it could hold a referendum to instead join Brics, the global economic bloc hosted in Russia this week by Vladimir Putin. 2/

I spent much of last week with the men and women of Ukraine’s equivalent of US Navy SEALs, elite divers from the 73rd Naval Special Operations Centre, on assignment with @thetimes. The 73rd conduct reconnaissance and sabotage operations deep behind Russian lines… 1/ …using stealth to infiltrate coastal defences underwater and mount surprise raids on high value targets. They have been wreaking havoc on Putin’s troops as Ukraine tries to drive Russia from its territorial waters. 2/

I spent a week for @thetimes with Ukraine’s elite 47th Mechanised Brigade, equipped with M1 Abrams, M2 Bradleys and Paladin artillery. They told me they’re in “deep shit” in the Pokrovsk sector, where the Russians have advanced 6km towards the Donbas town in just over a week. Gulf War era US Bradleys have proved perhaps the most effective fighting vehicle of the war, their armour saving hundreds, if not thousands of lives, and chewing up Russian BMPs and infantry with their Bushmaster 25mm autocannon.

In Kharkiv for @thetimes, I encountered an astonishing act of heroism by ‘Drago’ (L), a 24 yr-old special forces officer in Ukraine’s Kraken Detachment. He was awarded a medal for valour for extraordinary actions while holding the Russians for 16 hours at the village of Krasne… Elite Russian Spetznaz had crept into his unit’s rear, he told me: “You could see how professionally and well co-ordinated they were working; it was high-level stuff. They had the latest-model Kalashnikovs and night-vision devices. They covered their movement by accurate fire.”

The past week I was in Vovchansk, Lyptsi and Kharkiv for @thetimes during Putin's new assault on a city once home to 1.5 million people. I witnessed some incredible heroism by its Ukrainian defenders. First, in a foxhole with the 'Peaky Blinders' as they killed 40 Russian troops- The foxhole is only 10ft wide and 4ft deep, scant cover for the Ukrainian special forces team when death comes straight at them. Russian jets incoming!” shouts Anton, who was a businessman before the war. Five men pile on top of one another.

I had the privilege to interview @ZelenskaUA in Kyiv for @thetimes and our @Channel4 documentary @C4Dispatches: The Hunt for Ukraine's Stolen Children, out tomorrow night. Fantastically directed by @paulkenyonTV, it exposes how the Russians abduct children as young as three... ...to 'reprogram' them as 'Russian patriots', while older boys are put in uniform, then trained as soldiers to fight their own country in Vladimir Putin's senseless war on Ukraine.

I caught up Shaman battalion, an Ukrainian special forces unit, who revealed they had been crossing the Russian border to strike airbases and kill the Kremlin’s senior army commanders. “We have an increased number of targets, missions on specific people or targets, such as buildings where a general or somebody like that is located inside Russia,” said “Intelligent”, 30, a sergeant involved in planning the missions.

I spoke to a Lt. Colonel in Ukraine’s air defence command, who revealed several new facts. First, Kyiv was on the brink of evacuation in Dec due to the intensity of Russian strikes on energy infrastructure. Patriot missiles helped save the city, but are now running out. “You can’t plan a war with annual production of 160 Patriot missiles. We fired those in a month,” he said. “If we wait until autumn [to increase supply] they will hit energy infrastructure again. This is a certainty. This winter will be even more difficult than the previous one.”

I joined the Ares battalion of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army as they and the 35th Marine Brigade assaulted and then liberated Staromaiorske. It was a bruising, infantry on infantry battle after artillery had pounded the village. The only good use for western vehicles on these narrow streets was to drop off troops and collect casualties. Stay any longer and they are vulnerable to anti-tank weapons. In previous villages the Russians had been hunkered down in building that were levelled...

A much beloved Ukrainian comedian, @serhiyprytula, has been revolutionising the way Ukraine fights the Kremlin, buying its first military satellite and kamikaze drones with a range of 1000km+ that can strike into the heart of Russia. I spoke to him about it: (Thread) His crowdfunding campaigns hit their targets almost instantly. He visited the UK twice in the past year to buy 101 infantry fighting vehicles for £5.5 million, the largest purchase on record of armour by a member of the public.

EXCLUSIVE: A former Moldovan police chief living in London is recruiting a “paramilitary force” to overthrow the government and hand Moldova to the Kremlin, according to a report submitted to the Foreign Office. (Thread) The allegations were backed by the government of Maia Sandu, which said the UK had failed to act on its extradition request.

@Tobias_Ellwood, MP Chair of the Defence Committee, told me it was “baffling” the police chief had not been extradited back to Moldova.

British staff at the Khartoum American School told me of their dismay at the Foreign Office after it directed them to read its website as they desperately sought to escape Sudan. The school’s international teachers were forced to turn to the French Embassy for an airlift instead. “I did what the British government asked me to do, I phoned up, I got my name on the consulate list, I filled in their forms, but not once did I get a personalised email, the only thing you get is a link to the website that’s travel advice about Sudan,” said Elizabeth Boughey.

Weeks after the Nordstream attack, the name of a suspected Ukrainian sponsor not affiliated with the Zelensky government was already circulating in western intelligence circles. It was kept quiet to avoid risk of a public spat with Germany.

thetimes.co.uk/article/235387… Western intelligence likely knew the name of the suspected sponsor before the Ukrainian presidential office and ministry of defence, who have been blindsided by the NYT and German reports and furiously deny involvement.

NEW details on @thetimes story about China hacking Ukraine.

Providing extra details here because it’s important it is taken seriously.

1/ The intelligence memo listing targets is headed “Chinese Attacks on Ukrainian Government, Medical & Education Networks” 2/ Extract from another memo: “Chinese cyber actors have drastically increased their exploitation efforts to focus heavily on Ukrainian government, commercial and high-value infrastructure targets to obtain full access…”