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 spoke to perpetrators and investigators in the grim trend in Ukraine of Russians recruiting teenagers online and turning them into unwitting suicide bombers .

My story about a newish phenomenon of deportations from the occupied areas of Ukraine. Russia tells people they are banned from “Russia” for 40/50 years, drives them 20 hours under guard to the border with Georgia and pushes them across.

Will be talking with the amazing David Hoffman next Thursday for anyone in DC who might be interested….

Wrote this on Lana Estemirova’s new book Please Live, about her mother Natalia, the rights activist murdered in Chechnya in 2009, her work and their relationship. It’s a powerful, beautiful read - can’t recommend highly enough.

I spoke to the Crimean Tatar legend Mustafa Dzhemilev on a life of two exiles, turning down Putin’s money, and his views on Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff (“I’ve seen a lot of stupid diplomats in my life, but one like him, that’s a first.”).

London: there are a few tickets left for Thursday’s Guardian event when I’ll be talking to Christo Grozev and Daniela Richterova about Russia’s modern espionage programmes and Christo’s work to uncover them. Non-London: online tix also available .

“If you don’t engage in good faith we’ll have to abandon our support for your adversary” is quite a negotiating position.

My analysis from a week in Kyiv that had lots of gambits, ultimatums, counter-offers and threats but didn’t change much when it comes to the fundamentals, as everyone puts on “a theatre play with one audience member” - Trump.

Long-time Putin court reporter Andrei Kolesnikov says Putin held no consultations with aides etc on response to the ceasefire offer, but just sat alone and wrote it out late last night. (Don’t think Kolesnikov risks “guessing” such things so it’s probably the case)

Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Donald Tusk will be arriving here in Kyiv tomorrow morning. Just as the US says it has intel of “potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next several days”.

Here’s the story:

Wrote from Zaporizhzhia on changing nature of WW2 memory in Ukraine & how it melds with the current war. Met some truly beautiful people including Mariia, who lives alone at 95, and Ivan who helped liberate Dnipro in 1943 & turns 100 next week. Link below, pics @yeah_kochetova

RT @PjotrSauer: NEW: Our exclusive deep dive into a suspected Russian-led cell behind the parcel bomb plots with the first interviews with….

“These people are disposable.”. I’ve been working for a while on this story about how Russian intel services recruit (often unsuspecting) Ukrainians and Belarusians for their sabotage offensive in Europe, and how Western services are trying to counter it.

Repeated beatings, electric shocks, suffocation, prisoners wrapped from head to toe in sticky tape and then “used as human furniture”…. Inside one Russian torture facility (of many) where Ukrainian POWs and civilian detainees are held. A horror story:.

With Manisha Ganguly, @JulietteGarside @PjotrSauer @antony_mon, Tetyana Nikolayenko, Artem Mazhulin and Lucy Swan, and together with a journalistic consortium put together by @FbdnStories.

Yesterday we published our investigation into torture & death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna. Now, what I & several Guardian colleagues have been working on for past few months: inside one of Russia's worst torture prisons for Ukrainians .

Tomorrow, our story on the grim prison where she and thousands of other Ukrainians have been held.

Together with several Guardian colleagues, as part of a large journalistic consortium, we investigated the torture and death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna in Russian captivity.

“Carpet. Plane. Siberia.” . An adapted short extract from my new book The Illegals: on how the KGB used its deep cover spies to get close to the leading lights of the Prague Spring .