Polina Ivanova
@polinaivanovva
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Foreign correspondent @FT. DM for Signal or write to: [email protected]. Instagram: @polinaivnva
Joined August 2011
What's Russia's 'reconstruction' of Mariupol really like? . We spent months collecting testimonies and evidence of how Russia is rebuilding the city it invaded and destroyed. The reality is a far cry from the propaganda. Russia's new Potemkin village: .
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Russia exits the Council of Europe. A photo for the ages:
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BREAKING - Russia just started process of banning Instagram. It’s huge because this is really a much loved platform in Russia and also the source of income for lots of small businesses across the country. And for young Moscow elites it’s. everything
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Russia's military held a big briefing this afternoon, announcing the war was entering a 'second phase'. Here's a summary of how Russia, at this point in the war, is depicting what it set out to do, why, and where we're at. (relaying their words, pls don't shoot msnger)
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Extraordinary comments from Putin just now. Says Russia has “no ill intentions towards its neighbours” and calls for international cooperation to return, for relations to normalize
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Kyiv’s mayor says the city is now completely surrounded and all exits blocked by Russian troops. No way to evacuate civilians. Siege begins.
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"We see no need to exacerbate the situation or worsen our relations," Putin said. "I think everyone should think about normalising relations and cooperating normally.". Erm.
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Russian defence ministry is warning - according to the TASS and RIA - that it is about to strike several targets in Kyiv. One at least may be in the very heart of the city.
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Russia had never intended to capture Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities, the generals said - these are not setbacks in other words, it's all part of the plan. And the plan was to distract Ukrainian forces while Russia/ Donetsk/ Luhansk made territorial gains in the east.
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This for me has to be the most iconic image of this mad mad weekend. Russian officials scrambling to protect the capital from an advancing armed coup by sending diggers out to destroy motorways leading to Moscow. Hard to see how you recover authority after pictures like this.
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Bucharest, Romania — a centre for supporting Ukrainian refugees at the central train station. On the train from Moldova — volunteers jumped on at stops handing out food and water to Ukrainians on board. Countries with so little, doing so much.
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Firstly, the generals said Russia had always intended only to 'liberate' the Donbas, that was what it set out to do. It had two options: fight a war in the east, but allow Kyiv to replenish its forces, or start off by knocking out Ukrainian military capacities across the country.
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Defence ministry briefing also shared a new official figure for the number of Russian soldiers killed, the second statement by Russian side during the course of this war. Said 1,351 were killed - figure is far below Ukrainian and international estimates.
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Over a month of war, Russia has knocked out most of Ukraine's military capacities, the generals claimed, so can now move on to next phase, which will only be focused on the east, which could involve heavy bombardment.
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Numerous statements made about not targeting civilian infrastructure, avoiding civilian casualties.
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“Pictures have been posted of Russians using cheap, unencrypted Chinese radios, and their own mobile phones to contact commanders. As a result even radio enthusiasts miles away have been able to tune into real-time Russian military communications.”
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Here's the full english text of the briefing per military's translation just now
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Putin today labelled some Russians as traitors, and then some. Full quotes below and link to transcript here. And shivers.
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These photos by James Hill from the Belarus Poland border… feel like images from a textbook on ancient history, civilizations past. We shouldn’t be here
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A quick walk around my neighborhood in Kyiv and everyone is buying water, dragging suitcases, and checking updates on their phones. City is emptying out fast as Russian troops pour into Ukraine. Sound of shelling has stopped, but can hear military jets flying above
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#BREAKING - Russian government to resign in full, Prime Minister Medvedev to be appointed deputy head of Security Council.
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In the past hours, cyber attacks and bomb threats have hit Kyiv, just as media reports warn of a major Russian assault within next 48 hrs. Now, I don't mean to say that it's going to happen. But this is the psychological pressure Kyiv is under right now, and it's very real.
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Kyiv preparing for a long night ahead. Moscow-backed breakaway republics have called on Russia for military support against Ukraine. Airspace over the eastern border has been closed, as have some airports. Reports of comms down in eastern. State of emergency across Ukraine.
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Whatsapp too.
I mean hugely significant -- WhatsApp is the most popular messenger in Russia, it takes up nearly 60% of all messenger internet traffic. We are talking tens of millions of people having limited access to comms, and for a lot of them VPNs are not familiar tech.
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Russia is heading towards a total blackout of all and any independent media outlets. This is beyond anything I could have imagined, even days ago.
@tvrain @EchoMskRu Ekho Moskvy has been turned off the airwaves already, according to editor @aavst.
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In Russia, a planned partial Facebook shutdown; Twitter appears to be shut in Moscow too; media watchdog on a warpath against any media reporting anything from non-state sources about this conflict. Russia is being cut off from the truth.
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Yesterday I spoke to a woman from the ethnic minority region of Buryatia. Her husband - a father of five with no military experience - had been bombarded with phone calls from local officials saying they were coming to give him conscription papers.
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Several more loud explosions over Kyiv. The skyline right now:
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Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have crossed the border into Moldova in the past 72hrs. Ukrainian refugees are being housed across the country and in a big expo centre in the capital Chisinau. A truly impressive relief effort ongoing
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A mayor in the Ukrainian town of Slavutych, occupied by Russian forces, has been released from captivity and the soldiers have agreed to leave after a mass protest by residents. I mean - wow.
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Drone footage by @the_ins_ru shows the length of the queue to exit Russia at one of its southern borders — thousands have been fleeing last week’s call-up decree
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The Kremlin says it has no plans to announce mass mobilisation in Russia. But journalists at @MoscowTimes have spotted numerous government institutions across the country posting job ads for "wartime mobilisation specialists". Hm
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Some pretty fearless scenes in Berdyansk on Ukraine’s southern coast today, per social media videos. Residents of the captured city are chanting “go home” at Russian troops.
Très impressionnante vidéo. On est à Berdiansk, en plein cœur du « monde russe » fantasmé par Vladimir Poutine. Et c’est bien en langue russe que la foule dit au soldats de rentrer « à la maison ».
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One of the most terrible images from this war for me, taken by @jackhillphoto. We’ve all met this babushka, in our part of the world, we’ve all loved and cared for grandmothers just like her. Now she’s in a subway bomb shelter, hiding from the Russian shelling of Kharkiv.
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Good morning. Belarus state media Belta reporting that a room has been prepared for Russia-Ukraine talks
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Woke up to two loud bangs in central Kyiv, around 04:20 am. Videos (unverified!!) shared by residents on social media show an explosion in the sky raining burning shrapnel onto the city. Twitter suggesting it is the work of Ukraine’s air defences intercepting a missile
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Explosions reported around Kyiv’s airport and heard in the city. It’s 05:30am here.
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More horrible news. A stringer for @Reuters in Moscow has been arrested (for some alleged other/prior work) according to the court. Konstantin Gabov, a journalist and video producer, will now face trial and jail in Russia. Local staff always at highest risk
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Our friend in court today in Moscow, as his jailers upheld yet another extension of his arrest, days after Alexei Navalny died - was killed - in a prison in the Russian Arctic. A lot. FREE EVAN GERSHKOVICH.#FreeEvan
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Latest from Ukraine’s army — says it has regained control of Mariupol
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Labeling Meta extremist.
Russia's is moving to ban Instagram, which seemed inevitable – and wants to have Meta, the parent company, declared an "extremist organization.". Even in the context of wartime repression, this is astonishing – it basically likens Facebook to al-Qaeda.
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These images will reverberate through Moscow. This is the bridge that Putin opened in 2018 to huge fanfare, Simonyan made a film about, and so on. Used by the Kremlin as a symbol of its control over territories it had seized from Ukraine four years earlier.
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Wow - Putin said almost nothing, speaking for just 5 minutes. And nothing newsworthy. This was the statement that his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said would "without exaggeration, determine the fate of Russia." What?.
Putin's speech tonight - which he's apparently been working on "all day" - will be at 22:10 Moscow time tonight (20:10 London).
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Marina Ovsyannikova exits court after being fined for protesting the war live on Channel One
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I tried to put Evan’s wit and wisdom, and all of our pain, onto one page. This is my letter to our brilliant friend, who as of today has spent a full month in jail.
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“It is the writer’s duty to tell the terrible truth, and it is the reader’s civic duty to learn this truth”“To turn away, to close one’s eyes and walk past is to insult the memory of those who have perished.”.
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Jan 14 (Reuters) - Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday of shameful subservience to the United States and suggested he should ritually disembowel himself. good morning and welcome to the moscow news cycle.
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Our best friend and completely professional journalist Evan Gershkovich has been detained in Russia for doing his job and must be released immediately. Journalism is not a crime. The allegations are ridiculous.
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Seven years for asking for a minute’s silence for Ukraine
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A group of former senior US officials have held secret talks with people close to the Kremlin — and with its top diplomat — with the aim of laying the groundwork for negotiations to end the war, six people briefed on the talks told @NBCNews
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“We’re speaking with friends in messenger chats. We’re prepared to lose phone signal so we’re downloading apps that work without mobile internet, exchanging phone numbers and addresses.” . Kyiv, 2022.
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If you have watched the first 30 minutes of Putin’s interview and have been pained by the way he twists and pummels historical facts to make them fit his view of the world — . I spoke to the great historian @SPlokhy once about just this. Some relief: .
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BREAKING: Belarus-Russia military exercises, due to end today, won’t in fact end. They will be extended, the Belarus defence ministry says, per RIA news reporting, because of the escalation in east Ukraine. So Russian troops and gear will stay.
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Andrei, from Russia's Buryatia region, fled conscription to Mongolia. There, he reunited with a branch of his family that fled in the 1920s. “Now I joke with them: ‘you fled in the 20s, and so did we’”. On the long suffering of Russian minority groups: .
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A huge queue at midday in Berlin outside the Russian embassy as people line up to vote. @yulia_navalnaya arrives to applause and cheering
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Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais has stepped down and left the country, citing his opposition to war in Ukraine, @business cites sources, becoming the highest-level official to break with the Kremlin over the invasion.
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#BREAKING- Russian PM Medvedev is stepping down . This photo of a 'work meeting' between Putin and Medvedev, published by the Kremlin an hour ago, has suddenly taken on a whole new meaning
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The squatters’ plan is to open up the mansion, which they say “has too many rooms to count”, to Ukrainians fleeing the war. In a message to Russian oligarchs, the squatters said: “You occupy Ukraine, we occupy you.” @guardian reports
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It says it is also targeting 'relay centres' and tells residents near those to get out. ('ретрансляционный узел') -- Ukraine was warning earlier that Russia may target Kyiv comms v soon.
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🚨 Personal news. ! I'm starting a new job later this month as Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times. Excited to work with @maxseddon and @NastassiaAstra as well as the global @FT team, and to cover this critical moment in Russia's political life.
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Extraordinary stuff. Across the board, countries whose allegiance the Kremlin took for granted are pushing back. I wrote about this this week with a focus on Kazakhstan:
Tajikistan's president demands respect from Russian President Vladimir Putin in a remarkable outburst at Central Asia-Russia summit in Astana
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"X" suspends Yulia Navalnaya's brand new account. Just as she announces she will take over her husband's campaign.
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It feels an ominous night in Kyiv tonight. The city is pin-drop silent, a few lights are still on in some apartment blocks, as the city waits to see what happens next — and the forecasts from western intel are grim. Day 2.
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Air raid sirens over Kyiv this morning as local MP warns that bomber jets coming down from Belarus. It’s 08:22 here.
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Earlier this month, I was able to get a glimpse of areas of Nagorno-Karabakh retaken by Azerbaijan in a one-day war in late September. Over 100,000 Armenians evacuated from the area. Some left fast. In one home, food still stands half-cooked on the kitchen table.
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Tens of thousands of Russians have fled this week, grabbing the last available flights, catching day-long buses to the borders, some even chartering planes, hoping to escape a country one said was "flying into the abyss.".
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Horrific scenes across Ukraine today.
A son wept over the body of his father among the wreckage of a missile strike in a residential district in the eastern Ukrainian town of #Chuguiv on Thursday as the country woke up to a Russian invasion
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Russian defence ministry statement today acknowledges retreat of Russian forces from key Ukrainian towns. Rare admission
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This means all ministers stepping down, pending re-appointment. Putin has asked them to keep working in their current jobs until new govt formed.
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How does looting actually work? For weeks we have investigated the grain trade out of occupied Ukraine - finding a rare trove of documents, and a complex shadow operation by private companies and arms of the Russian state itself. w @xtophercook+@laurapitel.
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News comes about two hours after Putin's annual state of the nation address where he announced sweeping constitutional changes that would shift power from the presidency to parliament and the PM.
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The city itself still feels calm, if a little emptier than usual. There were armored vehicles earlier on Maidan square. The city’s mayor has said it is prepared with 5,000 bomb shelters, generators for electricity and water supplies.
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For one whole week now @evangershkovich has been in detention in Russia. Don't dare let myself imagine what that has been like. Evan is a superb journalist, now taken hostage. He must be released immediately. Journalism is not a crime!!! #FreeEvan . Seven very long days.
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Shooting in the centre, Russian troops entering Kyiv from the north. Ukraine’s army called on residents of the northern Kyiv district of Obolon to resist. “Make Molotov cocktails, neutralize the occupier!” the defence ministry said.
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Credit Suisse asked hedge funds and others to destroy documents relating to its richest clients’ yachts and private jets, in an attempt to stop leaks about a unit of the bank that has made loans to oligarchs who later sanctioned. @bondhack strikes again.
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“Russian mobile phone users will likely experience slower downloads, more dropped calls, calls that won't connect, and longer outages as operators lose the ability to upgrade or patch software, and battle over dwindling spare parts” @alexmarrow57
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All this comes after this Reuters report by @MunsifV @eculliford (with Meta statement in story confirming)
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Ukrainian troops blew up the railway junctions connecting the Ukrainian railway system with its Russian counterpart on Saturday afternoon, local media and Ukraine’s state-owned railway company said. @JohnReedwrites reports
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Vladimir Putin on Wednesday referred to pro-Western Russians as “scum and traitors” who needed to be removed from society… setting the stage for an ever fiercer crackdown at home and even more aggression abroad. .@antontroian on the terror speech
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It’s Evan’s court day. It’s also my birthday. Reading a letter from him this morning and wondering how he’s able to be such a damned good friend right now, make me smile on my birthday and somehow be smiling himself as he’s led in handcuffs to court. Our unbreakable friend.
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We have received just so so so SO many amazing letters from people all over the world and cannot wait for Evan to read them. Evan Gershkovich is being held hostage and must be freed immediately. JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME #FreeEvan
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It has been two full weeks since Evan Gershkovich was arrested and taken to Moscow’s Lefortovo jail. Two full weeks. Journalism is not a crime and our dear friend must be released immediately! #FreeEvan #IStandWithEvan
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And that’s it. Memorial, legendary human rights org, Russia’s first civil society group, cofounded by Nobel prize winner Sakharov, is shut down by the Supreme Court. Hard to believe.
Суд постановил ликвидировать Международный Мемориал.
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Vladimir Kara-Murza is a British dual national. He has been handed down a brutal 25-year term in Russia today. Kara-Murza lobbied for sanctions on human rights violators — including on the judge that Russia appointed to preside over his trial today.
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Dispatch from the Kazakh border as 100k Russians stream in fleeing last week’s conscription order. Some sleep rough for days, waiting to cross — the lengths they’re willing to go says a lot about mood in Russia right now as Moscow escalates the war.
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This photo is from a past life that now seems completely strange and unreal. But it was a joyful day. Happy to see @evangershkovich grinning from the front page of the newspaper he loves and is so proud to work for. I miss that day right now @PjotrSauer @FrancescaEbel. FREE EVAN
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Russia is suffering a dramatic brain drain: so many of the muddy and tired people I spoke to on the border were young professionals, lawyers, programmers, etc. They were all against the war, but many acknowledged that it had taken mobilisation to really make them understand
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