Christopher Miller
@ChristopherJM · Europe
Christopher Miller is followed by Storyz World for journalism and current affairs coverage connected to Ukraine in the Europe chapter.
Nabu has taken down officials close to Zelenskyy and put more than 60 lawmakers under investigation, Oleksandr Abakumov, head of one of its detective units, told the FT. Political elites regularly speculate with bated breath over who might come next. They also wonder just how long Nabu can survive while taking on the country’s most powerful interests at a time of war. via @fabrice_deprez https://t.co/U21GWpLt1h
The incident on Tuesday prompted heightened security around Chișinău airport. Zelenskyy also offered the use of a Ukrainian F-16 fighter jet to intercept the drone, according to Ukrainian officials. https://t.co/4dnjAoeqOw
Moldovan air traffic and Ukrainian military tracking records viewed by the @FT indicate that a jet-powered attack drone crossed Ukraine’s state border at about 16.20 local time, travelling west towards Moldova. https://t.co/4dnjAoeqOw
NEW—Ukraine blames Russia for drone incident over Moldova: A Russian jet-powered Shahed attack drone nearly collided with Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s aeroplane on Tuesday, a Ukrainian official flying with the president told @FT. https://t.co/4dnjAoeqOw
The holes in Trump’s Golden Dome Donald Trump says a missile shield stretching from Earth into space can be built for $185bn. But formidable engineering, financial and political obstacles stand in the way. Great reporting and visuals by my @FT colleagues: https://t.co/JIBx2y7LUK
More from our @FT story today: We learned there is a tug of war under way between the CIA director Ratcliffe and the special envoy Witkoff about who leads on what. https://t.co/1E4Khj7te2
NEW @FT: CIA director John Ratcliffe is preparing to take a bigger role in US negotiations with Russia and Ukraine, US officials have told their European counterparts, in a bid to jump-start moribund diplomatic efforts to end the war. https://t.co/5LxVWQes3A
“The core Kushner-Witkoff tactic is to seduce their interlocutors with the lure of postwar bonanzas. Why should Ukrainians and Russians keep killing each other when they could be partnering with the US to dig up critical minerals and build AI data centres? This misreads both men. Though estimates vary, Putin is worth a lot more than either of Trump’s envoys, as well as Trump himself. Putin wants something that imagined post-ceasefire deals cannot buy, which is to reabsorb Ukraine into his cherished Russian motherland, in full or in part. Dessert is also not at the forefront of Zelenskyy’s mind. His job is to defend Ukraine from Russia. In practice, business prospects keep Trump and his envoys in the game, not the other way round. Fixation on downstream benefits pushes them further from El Dorado.” https://t.co/TImRfA22QK
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said he was aware of the call between Trump and Putin and that the Ukrainian and US leaders would speak when both presidents were “ready . . . and when it is needed”. Kyiv and Washington are working on plans for Zelenskyy and Trump to potentially meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly later this month, according to people familiar with the matter. https://t.co/IIzUMF49rn
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump that Russia did not have “aggressive plans” against Europe and praised US peacemaking efforts to end his war in Ukraine in a phone call on Tuesday, the Kremlin said. via @maxseddon https://t.co/OCixO1ief3
Russia is escalating strikes on Ukraine’s railway including passenger trains. The state railway company says some passengers suffered shrapnel wounds in the latest attack. Trains have been the most reliable form of public and mass transport — and crucial to evacuations — throughout Russia’s war but are no longer so because of the intensifying drone attacks targeting them.
The latest Russian air strikes on Kyiv – which came as soon as Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner left the Ukrainian capital – badly damaged a Ukrainian TV channel and injured several journalists.
Russia has launched one of the biggest overnight missile barrages on Kyiv in weeks, ending a brief pause in attacks on the Ukrainian capital after US envoys visited the city in an effort to kick-start peace talks. @fabrice_deprez https://t.co/JkXxgA5Qml
“Russia, Ukraine, the US and Iran have all hit civilian shipping targets during conflicts this year, while the vulnerability of maritime chokepoints has been underscored by Iran’s efforts to try to establish a fee-paying regime in the strait.” “… At the same time, US, EU and UK sanctions on Russia and Iran have caused the rapid growth of a shadow fleet of oil tankers that now amounts to more than 1,500 vessels, according to https://t.co/kmL1YGAPQU, almost a fifth of the global tanker fleet. Nearly all these lack traditional insurance policies.” https://t.co/hpES13zJNl
“The [far-right AfD] party, which opposes weapons deliveries to Ukraine and wants to resume gas purchases from Moscow, also promised to expand Russian language lessons in schools to help rebuild cultural ties with the country.” via @ChassNews @laurapitel https://t.co/QSyYrSODDo
“If the war continues into the winter, we are counting heavily on the winter package, which I discussed in detail today with Steve, Jared, and our European partners. We are counting on support for air defense and the energy sector, as well as substantial volumes of American LNG and the ability to use them.”
"As its uniformed troops have waged a deadlocked war against Ukraine, Russian proxies and intelligence agencies have for the past two years been prosecuting a covert war of aggression on European soil: sowing disinformation, launching cyber attacks, firebombing warehouses, targeting politicians’ homes and cars, and cutting or damaging undersea cables." https://t.co/kA8qKNRKOz
Europe is failing to deter Russia’s “hybrid” war against the continent, defence and intelligence officials have warned, and must rapidly develop new methods to suppress Moscow’s campaign against Nato member states or risk escalation with the Kremlin. via @FT's @HenryJFoy, Sam Jones and @hallbenjamin https://t.co/kA8qKNRcZ1
Ukraine’s foreign minister: “Yes, it’s very difficult for Ukraine as well. For our warriors, frontline communities, and all of our country. We are in the fifth year of full-scale war that we didn’t choose. Every family has been scarred by it in one way or another. “But clearly, Moscow is not in a strong position either. And certainly not in a position to dictate terms.”
Steve Witkoff said the US and Ukraine sides held “substantive and important discussions” right before they started talks with German, British and French national security advisers. w/ @fabrice_deprez @FT https://t.co/5jTCzmyTXj
Latest on Ukraine talks: People familiar with the talks in Kyiv tell @FT Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner brought updated versions of earlier documents, revised to reflect the changed circumstances since peace negotiations stalled in February, at the outset of the US war with Iran. But the Trump envoys came with few new ideas, the people said, and were instead seeking to revive earlier proposals and to narrow differences between Kyiv and Moscow. A central issue is the remaining Ukrainian-held territory in the Donbas, which Russia has claimed as its own but has failed to capture despite years of fighting. The eastern region, some 75% of which is under Russian control, is a red line for Zelenskyy, who has insisted that Ukraine would never hand over that territory or any other territory that Moscow’s forces occupy. https://t.co/bt7U8XHNHF
New: The main meeting between President Zelenskyy and his team and Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have begun inside Kyiv’s historic St. Sophia Cathedral complex, the presidential office tells @FT.
Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have arrived by train in Kyiv on their first visit to the Ukrainian capital, according to the office of President Zelenskyy. More here via @FT @fabrice_deprez: https://t.co/kgJeTpYzFJ
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff tells Vladimir Putin, whose invading army has killed hundreds of thousands of people, raped and pillaged while waging the largest and bloodiest war on European soil since World War II, “when we retire, we’ll have all these incredible stories and memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all.” https://t.co/7pKIEFraOc
Zelenskyy spoke to Witkoff and Kushner in Moscow. “From the moment of this conversation, we are ready to observe a ceasefire in airstrikes against the cities involved in the negotiation process,” he says. “From now through the end of Saturday, as well as on Sunday and Monday, Ukraine is ready to refrain from strikes on Moscow, and we expect the Russians to do the same regarding Kyiv.”
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