With no peace deal in sight, MT spoke to a leading researcher of regional and ethnic disparities in Russia’s war losses to understand how and where Moscow will search for fresh manpower in 2026.

The Kremlin presents the country as strong, united and on an inevitable path to victory, but as peace negotiations drag on, Russian society is deteriorating. Important and insightful piece by @francescaebel.bsky.social: www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

🗞️ My final 2025 story from #Russia for @washingtonpost.com is on A1 today. The Kremlin is working hard to present Russia as strong, united & on an inevitable path to victory. But as peace negotiations drag on, Russian society is corroding from within. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

🗞️ My final 2025 story from #Russia for @washingtonpost.com is on A1 today. The Kremlin is working hard to present Russia as strong, united & on an inevitable path to victory. But as peace negotiations drag on, Russian society is corroding from within. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

Inside Russia, fatigue and resentment are festering beneath the suppression of dissent. The Kremlin presents the country as strong, united and on an inevitable path to victory, but as peace negotiations drag on, Russian society is deteriorating.

Statement from Post Guild Leadership: The Washington Post Guild condemns the unjust firing of columnist Karen Attiah

Israel, which does not allow foreign journalists into Gaza…has killed 237 journalists since the war started, according to Gaza’s government media office. The Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 186 journalists have been killed in the Gaza conflict. apple.news/At7CSM72NQWe...

Putin gets his first U.S. visit since the Bush administration, offers nothing in return Catherine Belton and @francescaebel.bsky.social report He's wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and continues to attack Ukraine www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Derk Sauer, a Dutch journalist, publisher & entrepreneur who became an independent force in Russian media, founding the English-language Moscow Times and owning the Russian editions of major magazines including Cosmopolitan, Esquire & Playboy, died July 31 www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

On a purely transactional level, the lesson from Armenia, Syria and now Iran is surely that being a Russian ally is a really bad thing to be.

Our beloved colleague Hajar Harb has been the beating heart of our Gaza coverage. Devastatingly, she has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. We are raising money to help her family with medical bills for a truly special person. All money goes to them directly. www.justgiving.com/team/hajarharb

In Russian schools, the war on Ukraine is a noble mission inherited from WWII to rescue historically Russian lands from fascist invaders. Francesca Ebel visits the children Putin is training to fly drones, launch RPGs and storm enemy positions to restore the nation to its Soviet-era greatness

Today marks three years since an Israeli soldier shot and killed US citizen and journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while she was wearing her press vest and covering the news. The IDF has continued to target journalists with impunity. No one has been held accountable for Shireen's killing.

Our courageous and beloved Gaza colleague Hajar Harb is fighting stage four cancer. Our excellent colleague @reemakkad.bsky.social has organized this fundraiser to help Hajar and her family with expenses. Please read and consider. Just sharing helps. www.justgiving.com/page/hajarharb

Set out to report this story & truly didn’t expect Kremlin’s militarization of education to be as intense as reported. But it was quite shocking to see it first-hand My latest fr @washingtonpost.com on how classrooms & libraries are becoming training grounds www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Set out to report this story & truly didn’t expect Kremlin’s militarization of education to be as intense as reported. But it was quite shocking to see it first-hand My latest fr @washingtonpost.com on how classrooms & libraries are becoming training grounds www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

⚡⚡ At least nine people have been killed and dozens wounded in a Russian missile strike on Kyiv, one of the deadliest attacks on the Ukrainian capital since Russia launched its invasion more than three years ago. Read more: www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/04/24/r...

Big feature from Politico on how Russia is using chess to further its occupation of Ukraine “FIDE has turned a blind eye,” @phchess.bsky.social added. “This is not about children playing chess; it’s about Russia institutionalizing occupation through sport.” www.politico.eu/article/how-...

An American citizen jailed in Russia, Ksenia Karelina, is returning home to the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. Karelina, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen, was sentenced to 12 years in a Russian prison colony for treason after she donated about $50 to a U.S.-based Ukrainian charity.

Ahead of my book on the history of Russia's Illegals programme coming out next week, here's a taste in Guardian Longread form. ‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ap...

“When the middle brother fights with his older brother, as younger brothers, we naturally do everything possible to ensure that the family is in order and that there is no discord” Dispatch from a recent rare assignment to Belarus — www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

A senior Kremlin official admitted that there will “definitely be those who are unhappy” with Russia’s normalization of a bilateral dialogue with the US. “This is a very, very convinced part of the society.” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

A U.S. greencard holder of Palestinian origin, active in Columbia's student encampment, was arrested by ICE yesterday from his home, separated from his 8-month pregnant wife, told his greencard would be revoked, and taken into custody. America today. apnews.com/article/colu...

Spoke with @theguardian.com Today in Focus about Trump's embrace of Russia and the cutoff in aid to Ukraine. “Trump is such a singular political force right now that he’s managing to repaint many aspects of the argument over Ukraine in American political life." www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2...

I’ve been back & forth to Russia a fair bit the last few months, and I could never have imagined some of the convos I’ve had this week in Moscow. Even a month or two ago this rhetoric would have seemed totally far-fetched and fanciful. Things shifting fast here. wapo.st/3QGplPj

KREMLIN SAYS WASHINGTON NOW LARGELY ALIGNS WITH RUSSIA Sees tension between the United States and Ukraine, laid bare in Trump-Zelensky meeting, as an unexpected, potentially transformative "gift" @francescaebel.bsky.social reports from Moscow www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

‘We’re witnessing the self-sabotage of the United States. “America First” always meant America alone, a predatory America whose role in the world is no longer based on democratic belief.’ www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

'A senior Kremlin official told me yesterday that even Moscow is surprised by President Donald Trump; that they had expected change, but not “such tremendous change.”' www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

It’s not always clear to readers that the news and opinions sections are walled off. Hard news remains hard news, and in my 10 years at The Post, I’ve not seen any evidence of Bezos interfering with our hard news coverage. Believe me, if it happens, I will tell you about it. 1/

On the anniversary of Alexei Navalny’s death, people are coming to the Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow, where he is buried. The line stretches for hundreds of meters. Video: Mediazona

Viktoria Amelina was a Ukrainian writer who documented Russian war crimes - until she became a victim of one of them. A Russian missile killed her in 2023. Her unfinished book hits the stores today, just as the world is about to turn a blind eye to Russian war crimes and force a bad deal on Ukraine

Across the former Soviet bloc, rightwing & autocratic govts have their knives out for USAid, demanding data on grant recipients from Elon Musk & threatening employees/grant recipients with investigations & prison @rothandrew.bsky.social @pjotrsauer.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Fantastic piece by @francescaebel.bsky.social on the “frozen” people, thousands of Ukrainian civilians being held in secret in Russian prisons and the activists in Ukraine and Russia fighting to get them out. Urgent story and brilliant storytelling. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

The last time Nadezhda Yevdokimova saw her husband, he was dragged from their car by Russian soldiers at a checkpoint littered with burned-out tanks and corpses. Months later, she got a call from an unfamiliar number @francescaebel.bsky.social Natalia Abbakumova Anastacia Galouchka wapo.st/4aQxwlq

SCOOP: Elon Musk in multiple phone calls pressured USAID administrators and security to give the "Doge kids" access to personnel data and secure rooms. My insider piece on the tense meetings and chaotic standoffs at USAID as four young Musk acolytes shut it down. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Une frappe de missiles balistiques russes dévaste vendredi soir une rue du centre d'Odessa, zone protégée par l'Unesco, au pied de l'Hotel Bristol, l'hôtel emblématique de la ville #Ukraine

“These elections are like a military operation… Lukashenko wants them to be as sterile and as silent as possible.” Explainer from Minsk today, where Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko is set to get a 7th term after 31 years in power www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

I’m really excited that my book on the history of Russia’s “illegal” spies comes out soon. It’s taken me years of work and covers a century of Soviet/Russian history... Below, a short thread about the book, as well as info on how to pre-order a copy.

I wish we didn’t have to mark birthdays that might have been, were it not for imperial violence. A giant of Ukrainian literature would have turned 87 today, but he died at 47 in a Soviet camp in 1985, at a time when the world was celebrating Soviet liberalisation. Vasyl Stus 1938-1985. 1/2

Syria is now charting a new future following the fall of Assad. Our International Editor @lindseyhilsum.bsky.social reflects on the tears, hope and suffering of Syrians as their country prepares for a new phase in its history. www.channel4.com/news/tears-a...

I asked Vladimir Putin: “25 years ago Yeltsin handed you power & told you 'Take care of Russia.’ Do you think you have? In light of significant losses in Ukraine, Ukrainian troops in Kursk region, sanctions, inflation…” Here’s his reply. Producer @lizashuvalova.bsky.social @bentavener.bsky.social

My brilliant colleagues at Post Reports made this podcast based on some of my reporting from Russia this year. We looked at how young people, cultural & internet spaces have been totally reshaped by the invasion www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/pos... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/7EUI...

AP's Sarah El Deeb reports from the funeral of Mazen al-Hamadeh, a well-known anti-Assad activist murdered in captivity in the final days of Assad's regime. apnews.com/article/syri... @seldeeb.bsky.social

The joy felt by millions of Syrians at Assad’s departure has been tempered by the realization that most of the estimated 100,000 people who went missing in the gulag of his prison system will probably never return. — @lizsly.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

Unbelievably powerful writing about the fall of Assad and what it means to Syrians and Syrian-lovers around the world. Thank you @kshaheen.bsky.social for expressing so much emotion that so many are feeling right now. For @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/spotlight/da...

There was no place more feared in Assad’s Syria than Sednaya Military Prison. By Sunday, the guards had fled, its doors were flung open and this fortress of terrified silence was alive with the sounds of parents and children calling out for their missing. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

BREAKING: Assad is in Moscow and has been granted asylum, Russian state news said. wapo.st/3ZFIR3E

“I wrote a book about you. People read it and tell me it helps them cope with grief. But the frontline? Much worse. Just as you warned, the war expanded. The towns and cities you defended — gone. Either occupied or obliterated. Sometimes both. Your cemetery is full now.”

'Revenge' videos, burning buildings and willful destruction: A year of Israeli soldiers’ social media postings from Gaza provide an unvarnished view of likely war crimes there. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio... by our @washingtonpost.com team.