Six months of war. My new book Invasion, published in November by
@VintageAnchor
in US and
@FaberBooks
in UK, tells the story. The personal and political,
#Russia
's bloody assault and
#Ukraine
's heroic fightback, the thumps of battle, Putin and Zelenskyy. First draft of history
After midnight in
#Kyiv
. The mood grim, friends calling each other, the city still up and drinking tea. The rumour - from officials, foreign contacts, journalists - is that Russian action will began at 4am local time.
#Ukraine
is bracing, joking, hugging, loving. We wait
Exclusive: Leaked Putin papers appear to show
#Russia
’s plot to put a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump into the White House – my story with
@julianborger
in Washington and
@dansabbagh
in London
Breaking: Christopher Steele has won a case in D.C. against three
#Russian
oligarchs who sued him over his dossier. Judge Epstein dismissed their defamation suit and ruled the
#Trump
dossier is protected by first amendment and public interest. My story:
Here's Matthew Elliott - chief executive of Vote Leave, given a peerage today by Liz Truss - in Moscow, on a trip organised in 2012 by a Russian spy. Elliott was a leading figure in the Conservative Friends of Russia, and is pictured right.
@RhonddaBryant
Deputy mayor of
#Mariupol
Sergiy Orlov has just been speaking. Says city under "continuous Russian shelling", genocide taking place, 1170 people killed, 47 buried today in a mass grave. No water, heat, power, gas, with residents drinking snow and burning firewood. "It's medieval"
Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klichko has put out statement. Says Ukraine is under attack from aggressor: "In Kyiv we can hear noise of shelling. The worst enemy now is panic. Keep calm. Everyone not involved in critical city functions, stay home. We have to prevail"
The situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station - behind me yesterday - is alarming. Kyiv says the Russians have placed explosives today on top of reactors three and four ahead of a possible false flag operation. Rus Telegram channels report an imminent “Ukrainian attack”
Grim news from
#Belarus
this morning: masked men kidnap the opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova from a street in Minsk. Her team is also missing. The
#Kremlin
-backed Lukashenko regime appears determined to crush the protest movement
Boris
#Johnson
makes Evgeny
#Lebedev
- son of a
#KGB
spy - a lord. An astonishing act of cronyism and weakness. For background on
#Russian
influence on UK politics read my book Shadow State and the chapter '
#Moscow
Gold'.
Zelenskiy speaking now. He says he's spoken with Joe Biden, tells Ukrainians to stay home and to stay calm: "The army works. I will be with you all the time. Stay strong. We will win because we are Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine"
My latest dispatch from
#Odesa
with
@dansabbagh
on Ukraine's unexpected progress in the Black Sea. Russia's fleet has left Sevastopol, a new "grain corridor" is working, and Kyiv has been striking occupied Crimea with drones and storm shadows.
Defiant address by President Zelenskiy from outside his office in Kyiv this morning: "Always remember
#Ukraine
existed before this enemy appeared, and will exist after it"
The document discusses the damage western sanctions have inflicted on the Russian economy. It concludes the
#Kremlin
can best destabilise the US by backing the “impulsive” and “mentally unstable” Trump, a person with conservative views and an “inferiority complex”
Saint Sophia cathedral in Kyiv, symbol of Ukrainian nationhood. Still standing 8am local time, a few people on streets, queues for cash machines, one cafe amazingly open, mood of fear, shock & quiet defiance
The expert report appears to confirm the Kremlin possesses kompromat on Donald
#Trump
, secretly collected during his many visits to Moscow. It refers to “certain events” that happened during his stay "on Russian Federation territory". No dates or locations are given
More shocking revelations 10pm tonight from unmissable
@C4Dispatches
film on Boris Johnson and
#Russia
. Evgeny Lebedev- we learn - was the owner of hotels in occupied Crimea *after* Putin annexed the peninsula in 2014. Johnson then made him a peer.
@campbellclaret
@PippaCrerar
Amazing scenes today from liberated Kherson. I'm just back from Mylove, on the Dnipro River. The Ukrainian army is pounding the retreating Russians with Grad missiles and heavy artillery. Lots of booms, black smoke on the horizon, and a tank column trundling past sunflower fields
The day after winning the 2019 election Boris Johnson went to Alexander Lebedev’s 60th birthday party in London. Canada sanctions Lebedev today for his links with Kremlin. Johnson makes Lebedev’s son Evgeny a peer, overruling MI5 advice. A scandal
Here’s the brush off I got from Downing Street when I asked about Johnson’s private meeting in March 2020 with Evgeny
#Lebedev
, after MI5 vetoed Lebedev’s peerage on security grounds: “No information is held”. A whiff of cover up.
As I report in my book 'Shadow State' Russia's ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, boasted after the Brexit vote to another diplomat: “We have crushed the British to the ground. They are on their knees, and they will not rise for a very long time"
The report says: “Considering certain events that took place during his stay on Russian Federation territory (Appendix 5 – personal characteristics Donald J
#Trump
, paragraph 5), it is urgently necessary to use all means to promote his election to the post of President of the US”
The
@guardian
understands western intelligence agencies have been aware of the documents for some months and have closely studied them. The papers appear to represent a serious and highly unusual leak from within
#Putin
’s Kremlin
The papers from inside the
#Russian
presidential administration suggest Vladimir
#Putin
ordered a wide-ranging spy agency operation after a closed meeting of his national security council on January 22, 2016
At the time Donald
#Trump
was the frontrunner in the Republication Party's nomination race. A classified report by Putin’s expert department – No 32-04\ vd – recommended
#Moscow
use “all possible force” to support Trump's bid to become US president
This documentary to be screened tonight on German TV is worth watching. Reporter Peter Kreysler travels undercover to London and talks to the shadowy PR firms behind Brexit. They are willing to influence
#Germany
's election for a fee. I appear towards end
Orlov: "Putin is intent on having Ukraine without Ukrainians. It's pure genocide. The attack being waged by Russia isn't simply treacherous. It's a war crime. They are attacking us with aviation, shells, multiple rocket launchers."
Here's my exclusive interview with Igor Danchenko, the
#Russian
analyst behind the Steele dossier. He says he "stands by" his work, including allegations that Trump was compromised in
#Moscow
's Ritz-Carlton hotel. "I got it right," he says
Exclusive: MPs who drew up the
#Russia
report were told the
#Kremlin
has a "likely hold" over Donald
#Trump
and there were "indications"
#Moscow
interfered in and may have covertly funded the 2016
#Brexit
vote - my new book Shadow State reveals
Russia hits
#Kharkiv
with missiles. Kharkiv answers … with a concert this evening in an underground car park. Singer is Serhiy Zhadan - novelist, poet, rock star - with his band, Zhadan i Sobaki. Unbreakable nation
Russia’s biggest offensive in months - an attempt to encircle
#Avdiivka
, involving tanks, armoured vehicles & thousands of soldiers - has failed, a top Ukrainian commander tells me. “Given the scale of their losses it’s a very obvious defeat,” he says
Breaking: key paragraphs in
#Russia
report paragraphs 39-45: UK government of Theresa May and Boris Johnson did not "seek evidence" of Russian interference in British politics including during the 2016 EU referendum; MI6 sent cursory "six-line" note when asked about it
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov today dismissed the report as “a great pulp fiction”. Independent experts say the documents accurately reflect Kremlin security thinking and chain of command. The security council - or Sovbez in Russian - is analogous to the Politburo
Elliott should now explain why he decided to go to Moscow and what contact he had with Nalobin? As the Russia report points out, the government refuses to investigate alleged Rus interference in the 2016 vote. As one MP put it: "They didn't want to know"
Christopher
#Steele
gave evidence to UK security and intelligence committee on
#Russia
interference in British politics. Boris Johnson is sitting on committee's report. my
@guardian
latest with
@dansabbagh
Elliott says his trip to Moscow was "a mistake" and he had no further contact with Russians. But it's worth remembering that Brexit was a Kremlin foreign policy objective - supported by an extensive social media campaign in 2015-2016 and other covert measures
Lviv's mayor tells me Boris Johnson should seize the mansions of Russian
#oligarchs
in London and use them to house Ukrainian refugees. "There's been too much blah blah," he says. "
#Putin
will go down in history with Hitler and other war criminals"
A mysterious Scottish company owned by two Russians helped keep the far-right website 8kun online, used to plot last week's Capitol attacks. The Russians' other clients include the ministry of defence in Moscow. Story by
@kari_paul
, me and
@severincarrell
Two grim stories from
#Ukraine
. Here's my interview with Anna Vorosheva who spent 100 days in
#Olenivka
, the Donetsk prison where dozens of Ukrainian fighters burned to death last month. A place of "absolute Russian evil’, she says
Ukraine's armed forces raising the blue and yellow flag above the
#Lyman
entrance sign on the outskirts of the city. "Stabilisation measures" are being carried out, eastern command says, amid reports that around 5000 Russian soldiers remain trapped inside
The former
#KGB
officer Yuri Shvets today corroborates my Collusion account, saying the spy agency cultivated
#Trump
as an asset for 40 years. Per my sources he was classified as 'doveritelnaya svyaz' - a confidential contact
The UK- based Russian spy who organised Elliott's Moscow trip was Sergei Nalobin. The goal was to improve relations with the Conservative party after the murder of Alexander Litvinenko & to identify a new generation of Eurosceptic "influencers" who might be useful to the Kremlin
Downing Street confirms it is blocking intelligence committee report on
#Russia
,
#Brexit
and
#Tory
party funding. No prospect of it appearing before December election. Unless, of course, it leaks...
What strikes me about Navalny's murder is its timing. Trump has said he won't defend Nato allies, Republicans in Congress have blocked vital aid to Ukraine, and the US looks divided & weak. Putin thinks he is winning: on the battlefield and in his broader war with the west
Brilliant, blistering piece by Maria
@pevchikh
on how her boss Alexey
@navalny
is slowly and surely being murdered inside a
#Russian
prison facility. First
#novichok
last summer & now this: "I shudder to write it, but Navalny is dying. Again."
Good piece on why Boris Johnson is scared of confronting Russian interference in British politics. Answer:
#Kremlin
support for
#Brexit
,
#Moscow
cash into the
#Tory
party, fear of embarrassing Donald Trump. By
@DasWoolf
Ramzan Kadyrov's bouyed up Chechen troops on their way to Rostov, shouting Allu Akhbar and Akhmat Sila - "Akhmat is our strength." A clash with Wagner looms. Another incendiary element in an already crazy day
Here's my
@GuardianUS
story on today's stunning Senate intelligence committee report. It suggests Vladimir
#Putin
's spies snooped on
#Trump
during his 2013 visit to Moscow. And that Trump's campaign fed intel to Konstantin Kilimnik, a career
#GRU
officer
Orlov says
#Russian
army has shelled evacuation corridor, mined the road and put in a check point. 200K people desperate to leave, only 2-3K able to get out daily on 21 municipal buses. The others destroyed. Russians deliberately shelling assembly points for those trying to exit
Breaking:
#Ukraine
has brought an inter-state case in the European Court of Human Rights against
#Russia
over its covert assassination programme -
#Litvinenko
,
#Skripal
,
@navalny
. Some 20+ victims on the list including Anna Politkovskaya & Boris Nemtsov
Boom! Leaked documents from
#Moscow
shed light on Vladimir Putin's shadowy cyber-warfare capabilities: hacking, disinformation, propaganda. Here's our story on the
#VulkanFiles
, supplied by a whistleblower unhappy at Ukraine war and who is now a "ghost"
I’ve been to some extraordinary press conferences. This one was surreal - a metro station, trains rumbling past - and moving. Zelenskiy asked for weapons, called Russia’s leaders “Nazis” and mourned the death of a baby killed today by Russian strike
The Kremlin will deny, of course. But the poisoning of Alexey
@navalny
with
#novichok
is the clearest statement yet by Vladimir
#Putin
of his eternal contempt for the West, his critics and the rule of law
President Zelenskiy has just arrived for a press conference. I’m in front row. Amazing moment - Ukraine stands, Kyiv stands, Volodymyr stands - a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion
Extraordinary address by Volodymyr
#Zelenskiy
this morning from snowy downtown Kyiv. He pays tribute to Ukrainian soldiers on armed forces day, greets passers-by and says: "Victory is ahead. Is there an alternative?" Much criticism of Ze recently but no other leader can do this
#Russian
soldiers also fire on private cars trying to escape the siege, Orlov says. Not at them but alongside so they are forced to return to
#Mariupol
. "They are shooting and bombing the humanitarian corridor. That's the situation," he says, calling for an immediate no-fly zone
Evgeny Lebedev is to be sworn in as a member of the House of Lords on December 17. The ceremony is going ahead despite recent revelations about Lebedev's parties (Boris
#Johnson
a guest, class-A drugs consumed) and concerns from British security services
My book Shadow State is out in paperback! It features new material on the Russia report and how the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 Brexit vote, plus Alexey
@Navalny
's poisoning and Donald Trump in Moscow.
@FaberBooks
is republishing Mafia State, my 2011 memoir, with a new preface
Just last week the
#Russia
Report warned Moscow was able to "exploit" its relationships with peers of the realm. And now courtesy of Boris Johnson we have Lord
#Lebedev
, son of
#KGB
agent
Revealed: the full "sweetheart deal" offered by
#Kremlin
to Arron Banks in the run-up to the EU referendum. Featuring gold, a
#Russian
flag, a
#Trump
-linked
#Moscow
bank and "certain opportunities not available to others"
The long-awaited
#Russia
report will be published by the UK parliament's new intelligence and security committee at 10.30am London tomorrow, Tuesday July 21. We won't get classified annexe which is likely to examine
#Moscow
-linked donations to
#Tory
party
Dramatic events in
#Belarus
this morning: state agents drive Maria Kolesnikova to the border with Ukraine, she rips up passport to stop them from forcibly deporting her. The opposition leader is now back in Belarus detention, her whereabouts unclear
This is what
#Kherson
looks like tonight. Cheering crowds outside the main administrating building, a jubilant soldier on the roof, cars tooting in celebration. All in a city Vladimir Putin said six weeks ago was Russia's "forever"
Necessary piece by
@carolecadwalla
on how the Lebedevs infiltrated British politics and media. Who did Boris Johnson take as a companion to Evgeny’s palazzo in Tuscany? And what did Johnson and Alexander discuss?
Thrilled by
@NickCohen4
in Observer: "If you doubt that hostile foreign powers were happy to assist Britain into decline, I recommend Shadow State, Luke Harding's dazzling and meticulous account of
#Russian
interference in American and British politics"
Arkady was the seventh Novaya Gazeta journalists to be murdered since 2001. The roll includes Anna Politkovskaya, Yury Shchekochikhin, and Anastasia Baburova. Their deaths tell you everything you need to know about twenty-first century
#Russia
PM accused of cover-up over report on
#Russian
meddling in UK politics - my latest with
@dansabbagh
featuring new revelations about Sergey Nalobin,
#Moscow
's 'spy' in London
My interview with the other
#GRU
spy - Viktor Suvorov talks
#Putin
, novichok, Brexit, and why his old service will never forgive him. On Salisbury: “Of course it was the GRU”
Kyiv main train station, 3.30pm local time. Some trains cancelled, others leaving, concourse full but no panic. Queues for tickets and info. A vast human exodus caused by one paranoid man
Archive material in Prague reveals that the Czechoslovak secret police first began spying on
#Trump
in 1977, after he married a woman from behind the Iron Curtain, Ivana Zelníčková. The StB intelligence service shared its product with the
#KGB
Pressure is mounting on Boris Johnson to impose sanctions on Roman
#Abramovich
and Alisher
#Usmanov
. Alexey
@navalny
has called for them, with opposition MPs and Garry Kasparov today urging the British PM to act. My story with
@dansabbagh
This is outrageous: four
#Moscow
billionaires are now suing
@CatherineBelton
in London over her groundbreaking book
#Putin
's People. It's the definitive account of
#Kremlin
corruption, from
#KGB
times through to the scams and schemes of recent years
A Kremlin-co-ordinated attack on academic freedom and freedom of speech and expression in Britain. We need a public figure statute in this country, as in the US, to prevent this form of lawfare
In April 2018
#Boris
Johnson dumped his foreign office security detail and flew to the Lebedevs' Italian villa. This was soon after the
#GRU
poisoned Sergei Skripal. What did they discuss? Lord Lebedev isn't likely to tell us but
#Moscow
will know
Arkady Babchenko, a prominent Russian liberal journalist assassinated in his apartment in Kiev while his wife was in the bathroom. The assassination looks like brazen and demonstrative.
Our profile of Moscow-connected Lubov Chernukhin, who on Tuesday paid £45,000 to play tennis with Boris
#Johnson
. Chernukhin has given £1.6m to the Conservatives and is the wife of ...
#Putin
's former deputy economics minister and the ex-head of VEB bank
Interesting plea today by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch in
@Guardian
: Britain needs its own
#Mueller
report and "full, independent" accounting of
#Russian
interference in our elections
🧵My translation of the analysis of the current situation in Russia by an active FSB analyst. Buckle up for a long thread and definitely please share far & wide. The full text is over 2000 words. This is a highly insightful look behind the curtain - covers many subjects.
This is huge and with obvious
#Moscow
dimension. National crime agency says Arron Banks was not the "true source" of £8m which bankrolled Brexit campaign. Agency investigating numerous criminal offences
Boris Johnson's decision to make Evgeny Lebedev a Lord has gone down well in
#Moscow
. Here's a piece from Komsomolskya Pravda. It describes Evgeny's KGB father Alexander as a "former Soviet diplomat" and says Evgeny is "the first Russian" to become a peer
How
#Czechoslovakia
spied on Donald and Ivana
#Trump
during the Cold War, seeking access to 'highest echelons of US power' - my exclusive report with
@RESPEKT_CZ
, featuring new archive docs and previously unknown secret agents
Orlov says Russian army has destroyed
#Mariupol
's maternity hospital number nine, a 600-bed hospital. "It's been annihilated," he says. Moscow has also flattened the Azovstal metallurgical factory, which employed 11k people, as well as main admin building
Lukashenko’s brutal efforts to crush the protest movement in
#Belarus
haven’t worked: 100,000 rally against him in Minsk, demos in other cities, opposition continues
Kyiv is under attack again: air raid siren 6am followed by a series of rolling explosions just now. My building shook. Damage unclear. This is not - should not - be normal in a city in
#Europe
in our century
This is from Chris Steele - author of the Trump dossier - feeling pretty vindicated five years on. We now know Konstantin
#Kilimnik
fed everything he got from Trump's 2016 campaign to Russia's spy agencies, via a direct covert channel between
#Trump
Tower and
#Moscow