In today’s newsletter, a report on the Ukrainian spy who is accused of blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline. But, first, reflections on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, at a perilous geopolitical moment. Plus:
Joshua Yaffa
Yaffa has been writing about Russia for The New Yorker for more than a decade.
Three years ago today, I awoke to the sound of Russian missile strikes in Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine. I was terrified of the horror and loss that would soon be visited upon the country. On that question, alas, my fears turned out to be right. But I also suspected—hoped, I suppose—that the war could not possibly drag on for years, that Russian society was not prepared for a long fight, and that Ukraine’s successful defense of the capital, Kyiv, would prove the folly of the invasion. There I was wrong. I also felt certain that, even if U.S. aid and support would not prove decisive, it would be clear, for the duration of the war, which side the United States was backing. Wrong again.
The third anniversary of the Russian invasion comes at a moment of dizzying upheaval, as the past few weeks have upturned the logic of the war and the basic sense of how it might be resolved. President Trump appears to have more animus for Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky—a “dictator,” as he’s said, who simply wants the “gravy train” to continue—than he does for Vladimir Putin, whose emissaries he sent representatives to meet in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine, Trump suggested, doesn’t need to be party to talks to end a war conducted on its own soil. “He makes it very hard to make deals,” Trump said of Zelensky. On Monday, the U.S. voted against a U.N. resolution condemning Russia’s war—joining Russia in opposition to a measure backed by Ukraine and its European allies.
By last fall, many people in Kyiv had tired of what one source dubbed Joe Biden’s “killing us softly” approach—that is, a drip-drip flow of aid that kept Ukraine from outright defeat but never gave it a chance at victory, either. Trump, in his unpredictability, looked to some to be an intriguing option, a chance to shake up the game board, with the hope that a more favorable outcome might emerge. That may still be the case—perhaps the shock of a looming U.S. pullout from matters of European security will force governments there to get serious about their own defense capabilities, for example, and what they can do for Ukraine. But for now the anniversary passes on a sombre, dispiriting note: What has Ukrainian suffering and sacrifice been for, and will Ukraine be sold out by the country whose nominal values it aspired to uphold?
Photograph by Julia Kochetova for The New Yorker
The Adventures of a Ukrainian Intelligence Officer
Roman Chervinsky’s spycraft has been a decisive factor in Ukraine’s national defense. Why is he under house arrest in Kyiv?
In a deeply reported piece for this week’s issue, Yaffa sat down with Roman Chervinsky, a former Ukrainian intelligence officer and the suspected lead organizer of the 2022 sabotage mission that destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines, the underwater conduits meant to bring Russian natural gas to Germany and onward to the rest of Europe. “I didn’t do it,” Chervinsky says. Is he telling the truth?
The Briefing Room
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Dan Bongino is picked to become the next deputy director of the F.B.I.: Read Evan Osnos’s 2021 Profile of the Secret Service agent turned right-wing radio host who made big business out of election conspiracies and liberal-hating »
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Elon Musk’s latest demand to government workers: Federal employees received an e-mail this weekend, with the subject line “What did you do last week?” Musk followed up with a post on X warning that failure to respond would be taken as a resignation. Employees at the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security were told by their superiors not to comply. Read Kyle Chayka on Musk’s plan to take a chainsaw to the government »
John Cassidy
Source photograph by Spencer Platt / Getty
The White House Is Gaslighting Americans About Donald Trump’s Tariffs
The Trump Administration insists that its aggressive trade policies won’t hurt U.S. consumers, but data from the President’s first term suggest otherwise. “International economics can’t be separated from geopolitics,” Cassidy writes. “Trump is creating a great deal of angst in both arenas.” Read the column »
The Financial Page, a column about the effects of economic policy, publishes every Monday.
More Top Stories
Daily Cartoon
“Elon Musk says I have to justify my job, then forward his e-mail to ten federal employees, or I’ll have bad luck.”
Cartoon by Ali Solomon
More Fun & Games
P.S. Roberta Flack, the majestic voice behind the song “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” died today at the age of eighty-eight. In 2010, Rebecca Curtis encountered Flack when they were both getting I.V. treatments at a clinic in New York. While they waited for their drips to be done, Flack shared memories, advice, and the trouble with being known.
