Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7
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Covering central/eastern Europe for The Guardian. Author of The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past. shaun.walker @theguardian .com
Warsaw, Kyiv, London
Joined April 2009
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Last Seen Profiles
Driving on the road towards Kyiv and the radio announcer is giving out instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails.
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Two presidents meet with their respective defence ministers.
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Zelenskiy with another video from his office in the heart of Kyiv.
Not many presidents would still be there and not in a bunker, on the 12th day of an invasion, with multiple intelligence reports of hit squads out to get him.
His resilience is proving hugely inspiring here.
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Written down like this Zelenskiy’s address tonight reads like a powerful poem.
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Odessa mayor Gennady Trukhanov, generally known as pro-Russian, has come down firmly on the side of Kyiv in recent days.
“I don’t know what kind of bastard you have to be to press the button to drop bombs on Odessa”
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Left behind by a fleeing Russian convoy in a Ukrainian village: 50 Syrian Pounds
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Road sign in Odessa
Straight on: fuck off
Left: fuck off again
Right: fuck off to Russia
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Watching some guy complain in English to a friendly waitress that the food is bad and the bill is slow to come, in a Kyiv hotel restaurant on the 30th day of a war, has brought on perhaps the strongest wave of that German word for being embarrassed for someone else I’ve ever had.
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Unbearable scenes at Kyiv central station. Old people, kids, disabled people, pets, this train is already packed full. People fear it could be the last chance to flee.
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The best Putin massive table memes spotted on Twitter, a short thread:
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A story in two parts:
1. Today I met a woman who ran a beauty salon. The Russians occupied her town, shot at her brother, stole friend's car. Seven soldiers broke into her salon and slept there, stole boxes of beauty products and all the equipment, shat in the neighbouring shop.
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I won’t share the images/names here but there are numerous reports and pics of young Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine with documents showing they were born in 2001 or 2002.
Born under Putin, killed under Putin.
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2. As this unfolded, she called her aunt who lives just outside Moscow, to tell her what was happening. Her aunt said, "Nonsense, that's not possible. It must have been Ukrainians dressed up as Russians. They've really brainwashed you there."
They have not spoken since.
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KYIV - Despite US warnings of an imminent Russian invasion, the couple staying in the adjacent hotel room to mine continued to have incredibly loud sex while I tried to write my story.
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Watching this video of saluting youths in a shopping mall in Kazan wearing the Z Russian army logo side and then looking at the photographs coming out of Mariupol and it’s hard not to feel sick.
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Spent the morning with this marvellous 99-year-old, who survived Holodomor, was sent to Austria by Nazis to work as forced labour, and still has razor sharp mind. Now living close to battles with Russian forces.
Asked what she thought of Putin, she made an angry hand symbol.
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Kharkiv kangaroo man has gone back for the tapirs!
Kharkiv’s zoo is being evacuated and this footage of tapirs in transit might be the best video I’ve seen in weeks.
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In the Ukrainian village of Novyi Bykiv, the Russians set up their base in the local school. The whole place is totally wrecked now, just two years after it was renovated.
But the messages they left behind and the way they behaved are quite revealing. Thread:
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Iasi airport in Romania absolutely packed with Ukrainian refugees taking flights to Bucharest, Dublin, Vienna, Warsaw. The only flight not full with Ukrainians is the one to London Luton, because they wouldn’t be allowed on without visas. Feels quite shameful as a Brit.
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Just left Ukraine to Romania. Huge queues of 6+ hours in snow and wind, caused by Ukraine border checks.
On the Ro side: food, hot drinks, free buses, help, volunteers, arranging of rooms. Free travel on Ro trains.
Textbook case of a civilised and humane approach to refugees.
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1. Destroy the place
2. Terrorise the survivors
3. Paint everything in the russian flag
4. Send in Phillips
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Can’t quite imagine how, but one fancy Kyiv supermarket is restocked with oysters and lobsters
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Lavrov: Russia has many friends, you can’t isolate it.
Russia’s friends: Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea, Syria
A thumping defeat for Russia at the UN General Assembly
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German UPS, which lost four out five parcels I sent with them, could learn a thing or two from Ukrainian Post, which despite the war is still operating and delivered my suitcase from Kyiv to Lviv in 36 hours for €5.
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Volodymyr Kravets served in Murmansk in Soviet missile forces in 1959-60 and used to love Russia. Now he’s furious they’re invading and came to pick up Molotov cocktails.
“I tried to buy a gun but they told me I was too old, I at least want one of these to throw at the fuckers”
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Powerful address by Zelenskiy in Russian, to Russians.
“This is how the Russian state will now be perceived. This is your image. Your culture and human appearance perished together with the Ukrainian men and women to whom you came.”
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Road signs are being taken down by teams on the roads outside Kyiv - so as not to help any lost Russians
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(One of hundreds of similar stories that I've heard and many others have also reported.)
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Ukraine stands accused of the war crime of “not surrendering”
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Governor of Kharkiv says whole city under Ukrainian control, announced curfew from 6pm - non-military vehicles on the street will be “liquidated”
I interviewed him on Monday, he was in a sharp suit and wanted to talk about the city’s economic agenda.
What a fucking week.
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I’ve been into thousands of Russian homes - even in the poorest, most dilapidated places it’s almost sacred to keep the inside tidy, take off shoes etc.
The disgusting mess left behind in private homes Russian soldiers took over in Ukraine thus feels v deliberate/demonstrative.
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You come back to your home in a Ukrainian village after the Russians leave and find that not only have they lived in your house and stolen all your electronics, they’ve also painted a fucking Z on your fridge.
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Russian chat shows always had the “NATO shill guest” who said relatively sensible things and could then be torn down by the others.
But Boris Nadezhdin here speaking some dangerous truths, you wonder if he might simply get arrested soon.
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A source with direct knowledge has just confirmed to me the WSJ/Bellingcat reports that Abramovich suffered symptoms of poisoning. "Roman lost his sight for several hours" and was treated in Turkey, the source said.
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Through the horror I can’t stop thinking about the sheer idiocy. Putin is creating & reinforcing all the things he is most scared of that were once phantom. A Ukraine that’s alien to Russia and despises it, and a massive reinvigoration of NATO and huge anti-Russian resolve.
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Reportedly audio from Snake Island in Black Sea:
-This is a Russian military ship. I suggest you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary victims. Otherwise we will open fire on you.
-Russian military ship, go fuck yourself.
They were all killed
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Somewhat bizarre to have endless messages in my mentions telling my this is photoshopped and “schooling” me in being able to recognise fakes. I took the photograph myself three hours ago. Here it is from further away.
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Extraordinary video (and soundtrack) reportedly from Bucha outside Kyiv, near the Hostomel airbase
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A Moscow friend writes on this note: our whole identity is based on our victory over fascism and then you wake up and you’re Germany in 1941.
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Good morning Odessa! Beautiful morning, welcome music playing at the train station.
For a short moment, it’s hard to tell that this is a city about to face attack.
Amazing service to keep the trains running.
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Heading out of Kyiv, perhaps won’t be back for a little while. Worrying to think what the city might look like in a week or two.
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One of very many sad encounters I had in a recently deoccupied town east of Kyiv today was with 72-year-old Ivan Komorny, wheeling food aid home to a barn, where he’s sleeping because his house is totally destroyed.
He asked who would help him, when will things be rebuilt?
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War cheerleader Simonyan reports in shock that Russian border guards wouldn’t let one of her sports desk employees “who just wanted to go on holiday” out of the country as he may have to be mobilised.
What a tragic and moving story.
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Vadim Shishimarin sentenced to life in prison in Kyiv just now. He looks like a child. Wonder if the people who ordered him into Ukraine will ever be standing in the dock…
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Anna Bahatelya, a remarkable woman I interviewed in March who survived the Holodomor, Second World War, a covid bout aged 99 and now Putin’s invasion, turned 100 today. Her birthday wish was for Putin to die. In the absence of that I sent some flowers and copy of interview.
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Totally normal way for a journalist covering a war to be dressed
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The Russian official accounts calling Bucha fake news, a provocation etc., are still on Twitter, but one of the only Russian journalists to have reported (brilliantly) from Ukraine has been blocked.
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Road signs coming out of Kyiv: the air temperature is +1, the ground temperature is +2, Russians fuck off.
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Putin is running this Security Council meeting like a Netflix drama. Starts by saying basically we're all going to decide the fate of Ukraine today, then lots of plot filling from the others before we get the answer.
Extraordinary way to find out the future fate of Europe.
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Irpin mayor: about 50 people from army/territorial defence died liberating the town just outside Kyiv, 100 injured.
Civilian casualties not counted yet. "I think abt 200-300 people died. Lots of bodies are in the ruins. We need time to find them"
50% of the city is destroyed.
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I wrote a piece on the amazing effort of the Ukrainian railways over the last month, to take millions of people to safety and continue delivering aid to the east. 64 of their employees have died since the war started (with a photo essay by Jelle Krings)
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I have a compartment of my own heading west from Kyiv this evening to work and sleep in and feel like Kim Jong Un 🤴🏻
Love Ukrainian Railways
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For clarity. The 13 Ukrainian defenders of the island were killed, after refusing to surrender, as per Ukrainian official info. President Zelenskiy said they’d all be given hero of ukraine medal posthumously.
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My story on the full horrors in Novyi and Staryi Bykiv will be in tomorrow’s Guardian.
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2014 marches for peace in central Moscow, tens of thousands of people came. In the first pic is one of the organisers, Boris Nemtsov, and the sign says "Hands off Ukraine".
He was planning to lead another anti-war rally in March 2015, but was shot dead a couple of days before.
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Among reasons
@mfa_russia
gives for banning me and other journos today is that we "contribute to fuelling Russophobia in British society".
Novichok'ing people, shooting down MH17, launching massive invasion of Ukraine, Bucha etc, may have also "contributed". Just maybe...
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The videos from Chernihiv this evening seem an extreme escalation even by the standards of this hideous Russian campaign - suggest the Aleppo option for Ukrainian cities is very much on the table:
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It won’t come as any surprise that they stole all the computers from the school before they left.
I found these papers in the school. 02030 - which is the 297th anti-aircraft missile brigade from Penza region. The used cases from their BUK missiles were lined up outside.
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Dutch TV launches campaign for a referendum to return Russia to its historical Dutch roots…
Референдум о присоединении России к Нидерландам. Какая хорошая идея! Голосуйте ЗА, дорогие россияне. Пора!
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The Malaysian plane was not shot down by Ukrainians, the collapsed opposition leader was not suffering from low blood sugar, they weren’t in Salisbury to see the cathedral, the bodies in Bucha weren’t planted by Ukrainian army, etc etc ad nauseum
Enough already.
I note that Russia now suggesting Ukrainians did
#Bucha
executions themselves after Russian r etreat. There’s one reason why this can’t be true. The smell of the decomposing bodies. You simply don’t get such a strong odour after few days in v cold (near or sub zero) temperatures
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A few hours ago: let's have a chat about whether we should recognise DNR, I'm genuinely unsure and keen to hear your opinions.
Now: OK we will, and here's a wide-ranging 86,000 word speech I have written for the occasion.
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On the class blackboards soldiers had left messages. “Slavic brothers, you’re being cheated”. And “sorry, we didn’t want this war”. And grotesquely given what was all around “let’s live peacefully”. Someone else had drawn a GRU bat.
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Awkwardly pretending to check your phone because your date’s late. But you don’t have a phone and your date’s Aliyev
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March 25: Putin cites JK Rowling as proof of West’s ‘cancel culture’.
May 2: Russia's Bolshoi Theatre has announced it is canceling performances by directors who have spoken out against Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine.
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They painted over the faces on posters of Ukrainian historical /literary figures.
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The 13 snake island defenders reads like a modern Ukrainian 28 Pamfilovtsev legend, as the Russians continue to reverse engineer their glorious WW2 myths but with themselves in the role of aggressors
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I’m not a legal scholar but it feels like there may be some legality issues with organising a referendum in three days in the middle of a war on territory you only partially control.
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Mostly, volunteers on the Polish-Ukraine border offer food, drink, transport - a v uplifting sight.
But imagine you travel for days to safety, are stuck in a queue and have to listen for hours to an American yelling about “Jesus, Prince of peace” with loudspeaker translation 🤦🏻♂️
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1968: four days after Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring, eight Soviet citizens protested in Red Square and held up banners denouncing the invasion. They were arrested and some put in psychiatric institutions.
2022:
"Russia don't touch Ukraine!" 6 people unfurled banners against invasion in downtown Moscow. Waiting police immediately arrested them
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Every classroom was smashed up and littered with discarded food, ration packs and other rubbish
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Syrski, commander of Ukrainian ground forces, runs Ukrainian flag-raising ceremony in Balakliia (vid via Vertikal telegram channel). Amazing.
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Unforgiving and revealing interview with the Russian ambassador to Ireland
“Why should our government entertain your presence here when you’re acting as an apologist for slaughter?”
“Well, it’s a good question… I can leave any time.”
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“I am Valentina Iosifovna Romanova. I was born in Ukraine. I met the war of 22 June 1941 under bombing in Kyiv.
My relatives were killed in Babyn Yar.
On 24 February 2022 I was again in Kyiv under bombing.
Putin. Remove your troops!”
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Just finished probably the most harrowing week of reporting I’ve ever done, and couldn’t have done it without this guy, Svyatoslav.
Driver, occasional photographer, reluctant interviewee-whisperer, roadside food-preparer, and generally great company.
Thanks, Svyat!
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The few people who didn't leave Irpin were mostly those too old and to frail to walk.
For them, the last month has been hell. Death, illness and frayed nerves, a few miles from Kyiv.
I found it difficult to listen to these stories & keep it together.
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Zelenskiy in Izium is again a sharp contrast with Putin, who hasn't been anywhere near front, made brief visit to a military hospital once in May, and otherwise (as far as we know) has got no closer to troops than looking at them through binoculars at exercises. (pics AP&Reuters)
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Spoke to new Polish foreign minister
@sikorskiradek
, just back from Kyiv.
“The Ukrainians are tired, but only they are entitled to be tired by this war. We in this west don’t have the right to be tired, because we are not making any sacrifices”
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Aerial footage of the destruction of Mariupol, shared by Ukrainian officials
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When it comes to assessing the impact of Covid on the world, leaving Vladimir Putin isolated in a bunker with a library of books about Ukraine is probably going to be one of the major ones.
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Every room was trashed except a small exhibition about villagers who fought in the Second World War. “Don’t touch the museum” one soldier wrote on the door. “We wouldn’t dream of it”, is the reply, presumably by a later rotation.
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There may be "Mariupol fatigue", but the stories are all different and all awful. I wrote up this story about a couple who lost their apartment, Svitlana lost her pregnancy, and then they had to go through the Russian "filtration" system.
Please read.
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Current status of Russia’s “denazification campaign”: bombing a Holocaust memorial
To the world: what is the point of saying «never again» for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating…
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I spent some hours at Kyiv central station today and it was one of the most moving and upsetting days of reporting I've ever done.
I just hope everyone I spoke to manages to find a place on a train.
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Just spoke to
@albats
who reassuringly says Putin won't launch a nuclear war, because, "Look at the size of the table he got out for Macron - does it look like someone who is willing to die in a nuclear war?"
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