Matthew Luxmoore
@mjluxmoore
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@WSJ reporter covering Russia and Ukraine. Alum @DCRES_Harvard. Messages/tips/stories to: [email protected]
Joined June 2013
We often hear Ukraine’s side of this war. But we rarely hear from Russian soldiers. I spent months on this piece about one Russian who left a good life in St. Petersburg to join Moscow’s brutal war machine. His story is hard to believe - but it’s true. https://t.co/Fx62t0MiQ4
wsj.com
Mikhail Simdyankin was lured into the military by a generous sign-on bonus and was stunned by what he found in Ukraine. ‘If I could, I would rewind and give all that money back.’
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As a result of these tactics, in some parts of the front, Ukrainian combat support and service units have been sustaining heavier casualties than the infantry. Sure, this is partly due to the limited number of infantry personnel on the Ukrainian side, but the shift towards
A Ukrainian NCO fighting in NE Ukraine tells @ukr_witness about current Russian tactics: The Russians use FPV drones to degrade Ukrainian logistics while also destroying/suppressing Ukrainian FPV & Mavic drone crews. Meanwhile, they identify the best routes to infiltrate
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My two cents on what I see going on in Ukraine, after reading and speaking with countless friends, acquaintances, and sources, and watching what is unfolding. What’s happening in Ukraine domestically is remarkable in many ways. The most recent anti-corruption investigation in
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Interesting perspective worth reading from a former high-ranking Ukrainian officer
A few days ago I was at an event organized by MITS in Kyiv, where the topic was the “drone wall” and whether Russian UAVs could shift Europe’s front line. Ironic question — can you shift what doesn’t exist. I tried to unpack the core problem: Europe’s lack of preparation for the
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The Slow Death of Russian Oil "But the attacks on refineries could—if they can be sustained at the current pace—have far-reaching effects over the longer term. As Russian resilience is relentlessly tested, it is gradually being worn out. Although the units used to distill crude
foreignaffairs.com
Why Ukraine’s campaign against Moscow’s energy sector is working.
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Rare frontline dispatch from Ukraine
A very good piece by @NeilPHauer. 👇 https://t.co/5BBRWyxHqI
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We were plunged into darkness twice, during my interview with @ZelenskyyUa, after the power failed in the presidential palace in Kyiv. The lights came on when a generator kicked in. Russia has targeted #Ukraine's grid, with widespread and worsening blackouts across the country
⚡️Blackout hit during Zelenskyy’s interview with The Guardian at Kyiv’s Mariinskyi Palace. On November 8, Russia launched 458 drones and 45 missiles, disabling all state power generation in central and eastern Ukraine.
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A famed Soviet composer got a call from Putin while she was performing at a concert hall this weekend. “We love you,” she tells him. “We are sure that everything is going just the way it should.” Fascinating insight into how he harnesses popular culture to rally public support.
Путин поговорил по телефону с Александрой Пахмутовой. Во время концерта. Сегодня ей исполнилось 96 лет
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🚨Read how German detectives cracked the NordStream case If the suspected Ukrainian commander of the sabotage team is extradited from Italy to Germany to stand trial, Ukraine will be in the dock. My story via @WSJ
https://t.co/rYVujKa3ez
wsj.com
German detectives have spent three years building their case. A Ukrainian veteran could soon be in the dock.
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Our piece with @milanczerny on a pervasive Russian scam where women marry servicemen ahead of their dispatch to Ukraine - and claim the death money owed to their husbands after they are killed on the frontlines. “It’s a business plan," one woman said
wsj.com
Authorities say women are marrying servicemen in an attempt to get the death payouts that go to their families.
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A fascinating series of maps from @clement_molin illustrating the state of the war from a variety of perspectives
Seen from Kyiv 🇺🇦, the last Donbas fortress Most maps of the war in Ukraine are showing the same perspective and the same informations. Here, you will see rivers, railways, fortifications, forests... 20 surprising maps on the war in Ukraine 🧵THREAD🧵1/23 ⬇️⬇️⬇️
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Read our latest crazy story on the spy who was so successful at pretending he's someone else that the GRU "killed off" his real persona and stranded him with the fake one. Once a fake environmental expert, now he's part of the Russia disinformation machine
theins.ru
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s military Intelligence, the GRU, has dramatically stepped up its activities across Europe — from assassinations and acts of...
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Serhii Plokhy: What Putin is doing now to Ukraine would be like Trump claiming not Canada but Britain. Because that’s where the origins of the political system, language, and ideas Americans see as their own were born. A state on the periphery reclaiming its former metropole. 1/
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Kherson. A bomb shelter Halloween kids’ party. “I’m a witch. I’m going far away, to Odesa and Poland, soon.” I had to leave the party early to report on yet another Russian attack on the city as it killed two, injured ten. Part 1.
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This month the @NYT devoted an entire issue of its Sunday mag to my 26,000-word story on war crimes and lawlessness by the Special Forces, and how a vigilante ethos that developed overseas has been adopted by leaders in the US. With stunning photos by @victorjblue. Free links:
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Kirill Dmitriev hands (R.-Fla., naturally) Rep. Ana Paulina Luna a book titled, "Great Words of a Great Man." You can see the great man referred to right there on the cover. She is very excited.
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GRU's Spy Airbnb: check out our latest video investigation into Unit 29155, and the "Czech" spy couple they used to help them plant explosives in weapons depots. https://t.co/k5qr3JQSX4
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Multiple Russian war bloggers are calling out Gerasimov’s inflated reports of success. But these folks aren’t independent actors— they get MOD access now. Some faction is telling them to swat down Gerasimov and only a few outrank Gerasimov or have the krisha to do it.
1/ Russian warbloggers are angrily denouncing General Valery Gerasimov for blatantly lying to President Vladimir Putin about Russia's military progress in Ukraine during a televised briefing. They note that the incident highlights the persistent problem of false reporting. ⬇️
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Kyiv, Podil; an old man surveys the ruins of his destroyed home, hit by a Russian-Iranian “Shahid” kamikaze drone early this morning.
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This is not what we reported. Our story says authority for supporting long-range attacks has moved from SECDEF to EUCOM. Plus, the U.S. can restrict Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow because the missiles use American targeting data. Read the story here:
wsj.com
The move coincides with a Trump push to pressure Moscow into talks on ending the war and to withhold U.S. Tomahawk missiles from Kyiv.
Trump on the "fake" Wall Street Journal: "It said I gave Ukraine permission to shoot missiles deep into Russia. I didn't do that."
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RT @ChristopherJM: Awful news. Olena Hubanova and Yevhen Karmazin Ukrainian journalists working for TV channel Freedom were killed in a Rus…
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