‘My dear son’: the Ukrainian soldier who came back from the dead

In 2023, Nazar Daletskyi’s apparent remains were buried in his home village. Three years later, he spoke to his mother, Nataliia, on the phone

theguardian.com

A war foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them

Drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin’s plans ...

theguardian.com

The bleakest winter: Ukrainians face exhaustion and uncertainty as Trump demands concessions

People torn between craving for peace as conditions worsen and desire to hold strong against Russian military and US

theguardian.com

US tells Nato if Zelenskyy does not sign peace deal Ukraine will face worse in future

‘No deal is perfect, but it must be done sooner rather than later,’ says US army secretary in sombre meeting

theguardian.com

Trump may yet impose a Ukraine deal – but it threatens to be a disaster for Kyiv

Ukraine could be forced into an agreement but plan as it stands seems too bizarre for Zelenskyy to sell to his public

theguardian.com

Russian activist held in Poland admits he worked as FSB agent, court papers say

Igor Rogov, who left Russia in 2021, due to go on trial accused of informing on other Russian opposition activists

theguardian.com

General, envoy … future Ukraine president? Valerii Zaluzhnyi’s London waiting game

Refusal to take calls from JD Vance after Zelenskyy-Trump showdown reflects political tightrope ‘war hero’ has walked since being fired as army chief

theguardian.com

In wartime, demonstrations in Ukraine can never be more than a peaceful protest

Zelenskyy forced to U-turn on anti-corruption bodies but protesters know unrest only plays into Russia’s hands

theguardian.com

Russia pays young Ukrainians to be unwitting suicide bombers in shadow war

Oleh, 19, was offered $1,000 for a paint attack on a police station – but the bag he was given contained a crude bomb

theguardian.com

Banned from home for 40 years: deportations are Russia’s latest move to ‘cleanse’ Ukraine

A deal freezing frontlines would be unacceptable for Serhiy Serdiuk, who was taken to Georgia in handcuffs with his family after refusing to teach the Russian curriculum

theguardian.com

The Illegals: A Conversation With Shaun Walker on the Untold Story of Russia’s Deep-Cover Spies

For more than a century, Soviet and Russian spymasters have poured enormous resources into the training and deployment of deep-cover spies known as “illegals.” These agents live behind enemy lines for...

carnegieendowment.org

‘She lived without fear’: daughter of Chechen activist publishes book she vowed to pen after mother’s murder

Lana Estemirova promised to tell story of her mother, a renowned human rights activist. This month it is published

theguardian.com

‘Does he know anything?’: Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev on Trump’s plans to legitimise Russian annexation

Exiled Soviet-era dissident tells the Guardian that for the US to turn its back on the territory would be ‘shameful’

theguardian.com

Russia’s spies: Uncovering Russia’s secret espionage programmes

Exploding weapons factories, assassination plots and fake news: Vladimir Putin’s hybrid war campaign against the West has stepped up several notches since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

theguardian.com

Week of geopolitical poker over Ukraine ends with no endgame in sight

Path to peace looks as unclear as it was before European leaders’ meeting with Zelenskyy in Kyiv

theguardian.com

Explosive sex toys and cosmetics: the story behind the DHL parcels plot

Exclusive account reveals previously unreported details and insights into how Kremlin’s sabotage campaign played out on the ground – and the multinational effort to track down the network behind it

theguardian.com

‘These people are disposable’: how Russia is using online recruits for a campaign of sabotage in Europe

Moscow’s intelligence services have launched a new type of attack on the west, violent but piecemeal and hard to prove

theguardian.com

Inside Taganrog: beatings, electrocution and starvation at prison where Ukrainians were tortured

Russia is holding an estimated 16,000 civilians in arbitrary detention at 180 separate facilities. Taganrog was the most notorious.

theguardian.com

‘Numerous signs of torture’: a Ukrainian journalist’s detention and death in Russian prison

The Guardian, working with media partners, has tracked down first-hand accounts to reconstruct Viktoriia Roshchyna’s final months

theguardian.com

Exposing ‘the illegals’: how KGB’s fake westerners infiltrated the Prague Spring

Kremlin’s most prized spies were sent in to Czechoslovakia to whip up the 1960s reform protests in a move then replicated across the eastern bloc

theguardian.com

Book Review: ‘The Illegals,’ by Shaun Walker

In his new book, “The Illegals,” Shaun Walker studies the Russian agents who worked deep undercover as Americans for decades.

nytimes.com

https://www.waterstones.com/events/the-illegals-shaun-walker-in-conversation-with-gordon-corera/london-gower-street

t.co

‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son

The long read: For the first time, the man the KGB codenamed ‘the Inheritor’ tells his story

theguardian.com

‘They came across as muppets’: Christo Grozev on being target of Bulgarian spy ring

Investigative journalist called ‘modern-day Sherlock’ by Alexei Navalny on unsettling photos, reprisals and being exiled from Vienna

theguardian.com

Kidnapped, tortured and jailed: one woman’s quest to bring her son home from Russia

Ivan and Maryna’s story is just one of hundreds of thousands of family tragedies that have afflicted Ukrainians after three years of Russian invasion

theguardian.com

Zelenskyy: Europe cannot guarantee Ukraine’s security without America

Exclusive: In extended interview with the Guardian, Ukraine’s president says he will offer US firms lucrative reconstruction contracts to try to get Trump onside

theguardian.com

Speeches by politicians banned at 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation

Director of the memorial says he wants the focus to be on the last survivors of the Nazi concentration camp

theguardian.com