Steve Witkoff meets Vladimir Putin, who greets him in English, in the Kremlin. Putin is flanked by his top foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund.

My piece on Ildar Dadin, an extraordinary Putin critic who spent a decade protesting inside Russia and then traveled to Ukraine to fight his own country in war. His battlefield death in October is a symbol of the challenge Russia's divided opposition faces wsj.com/world/russia/a…

⁦Michael Kofman⁩ and I joined ⁦War on the Rocks⁩ for a wide ranging conversation on ceasefire negotiations, battlefield outlook, and next steps for the Ukrainian and Russian militaries. warontherocks.com/2025/05/will-r…

Among the war veterans who stood on Red Square today was Amyr Argamakov, part of a crop of Russian soldiers whom Putin is elevating to government positions to pacify dissent. He told me how he rose from service in Chechnya to a seat in Russia's parliament wsj.com/world/russia/r…

Drinks flowing in Moscow, judging by Kremlin mouthpiece Simonyan’s post. But I’m told Russian negotiators def talked about taking another 2, not 4 regions: they threatened to annex Kharkiv and Sumy if Ukraine doesn’t withdraw fm 4 provinces Russia claims — but doesn’t fully

“If you don’t engage in good faith we’ll have to abandon our support for your adversary” is quite a negotiating position.

One can observe two opposing attitudes towards what Putin wants in the context of the war in Ukraine, and both are, unfortunately, biased—whether deliberately or not. The first assumes that Putin does not wish to end the war, that time is on his side, and that he has no interest

I spoke to fresh recruits to the Ukrainian army’s 18-24 program, which targets Gen Z with perks including an interest-free mortgage, trips abroad & a $24,000 sign-on bonus that exceeds many soldiers’ yearly pay. “Who is going to fight, if not us?” wsj.com/world/ukraine-…

Ukraine's air force says Russia's drone attack overnight Sunday to Monday was the single largest drone attack since the start of the war. Russian forces launched 355 explosive suicide and decoy drones along with 9 cruise missiles, according to the air force. It said all cruise

The ground on some parts of the front line is completely covered with fiber optics

Chilling photos from Pokrovsk, the latest Ukrainian city reduced to rubble by Russian forces reuters.com/pictures/ukrai…

VERY excited for this

Returning to my notes. The trip was illuminating, as it helped me to reconnect with people there and test some of my assumptions about the country, its society, the war, and the potential for negotiations. A thread with general and not scientific observations. 1/10

My interview with Vladimir Medinsky, Putin's chief negotiator on Ukraine and a man who has spent decades cementing a Kremlin narrative on history that paved the way for the invasion of Ukraine. He said Russia is willing to fight as long as necessary to win wsj.com/world/russia/r…

I just fucking can't this morning 😭 Watching two parents in Kyiv waiting for their son's body to be retrieved from beneath the rubble 😞💔

Russia continues to doggedly deny it strikes anything other than military sites

My husband Siarhei is free! It’s hard to describe the joy in my heart. Thank you, 🇺🇸 President Donald J. Trump, Gen. Keith Kellogg, @JohnPCoale, DAS Christopher W. Smith, Department of State & our 🇪🇺 allies, for all your efforts. We’re not done. 1150 political prisoners remain behind bars. All must be released.

For the first time in this war, I wrote in the first person. Here is what it's like to experience an air raid in Kyiv, to negotiate between bombs and normality, and to come out of shelter into the smoky aftermath. Free to read: wsj.com/world/gaming-t…

Here's the letter NYT lead newsroom attorney David McCraw sent to Trump. The paper said: "No retraction is needed. No apology will be forthcoming. We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so."

Last night, during a massive enemy air attack, First Class Pilot Lieutenant Colonel Maksym Ustymenko, born in 1993, was killed in action flying an F-16. Maksym did everything he could to steer the aircraft away from a populated area. He didn’t have time to eject… Our deepest