The Washington Post

Russia destroyed Ukraine’s energy sector, so it’s being rebuilt green By relentlessly attacking Ukraine’s power sector for the past two years with missiles and drones, Russian President Vladimir Putin has inadvertently accelerated the country’s shift to greener energy options. Even as Ukrainians look toward one of the coldest and darkest winters in their history, authorities see a potential upside: Ukraine can now begin anew and create a cleaner, eco-friendly energy sector. “The war, of course, is a tragedy, but it depends on you, how you react to it,” said Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of Ukraine’s state electricity distributor, Ukrenergo. “You can say ‘Okay, it’s a horrible situation, and we are just victims’ — or we can try to build back better, to come back in better shape.” The plan is to switch from large smoke-belching thermal power facilities to a mix of renewable energy like wind and solar, battery storage and biofuel installations. Read the full story here.

Hungarian leader Viktor Orban visits Moscow, angering E.U. allies Fresh off his first visit to Ukraine since Russia invaded, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrived in Moscow on Friday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin — a striking break with the European Union’s collective foreign policy just days after Hungary took over the bloc’s rotating presidency. Even before Orban’s plane touched down Friday, the trip drew sharp disavowals from Brussels. Josep Borrell, the E.U.’s top diplomat, preemptively noted that the Hungarian leader’s travel is not official E.U. business and “takes place exclusively in the framework of bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia.” But with Hungary now holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, the trip represented a diplomatic triumph for Putin, who has repeatedly accused NATO nations, particularly the United States, of prolonging the war he started. Read the full story here.

Kyiv’s shrouded and absent statues tell a story of war and defiance As Russian troops rolled toward Kyiv in February 2022, millions of Ukrainians fled, but many of those who stayed rushed to protect the country’s cultural heritage. Statues were encased in sandbags, monuments boarded up, sculptures wrapped, and framed paintings taped over. Nearly 2½ years later, away from the front lines but still under constant threat of bombardment, many statues remain covered, some have been removed and others have been freed from their sandbags. This incongruous mix has taken on new meaning for some Kyiv residents as the country grapples with a changing sense of identity, a gasping economy and an unrelenting foe. Read the full story here.

Hungarian leader and Putin ally Viktor Orban visits Ukraine KYIV — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the European Union’s most prominent critic of providing Ukraine with military aid, arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday in his first visit since Russia’s invasion more than two years ago. His meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky comes just a day after Hungary took over the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the E.U. and is a rare gesture in what has been a fraught relationship between the leaders. Orban has repeatedly blocked or weakened European efforts to provide Ukraine with security assistance throughout the war, frustrating Zelensky. He does not permit donated Western weapons to be transferred to Ukraine over the two countries’ shared border. Read the full story here.

Russia’s devastating glide bombs keep falling on its own territory The powerful glide-bombs that Russia has used to such great effect to pound Ukrainian cities into rubble have also been falling on its own territory, an internal Russian document has revealed. At least 38 of the bombs, which have been credited with helping drive Russia’s recent territorial advances, crashed into the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine between April 2023 and April 2024, according to the document obtained by The Washington Post, though most did not detonate. Roughly comparable to the more advanced American JDAM guided bombs, these glide bombs are large Soviet-era munitions retrofitted with guidance systems that experts say often fail — resulting in impacts on Russian territory. Read the full story here.

During CNN's 2024 presidential debate, former president Donald Trump was trying to undercut President Biden’s key foreign policy argument: that Biden has restored alliances and united the world against despots and dictators. Trump argued that these conflicts would have never happened if he were president. And now he’s arguing that, if elected, he’d “get it settled and get it settled fast.” Read more here: https://wapo.st/4eB27VH

Closed-door espionage trial of U.S. journalist kicks off in Russia The closed-door trial of American journalist Evan Gershkovich began in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on Wednesday, 15 months after he was arrested and charged with espionage while on a reporting trip. The case marks the first time since the Cold War that an American journalist has been put on trial for espionage in Russia. Gershkovich appeared calm in court Wednesday, smiling and nodding at colleagues who had traveled to Yekaterinburg — almost 900 miles to the east of Moscow — to report on the opening moments of the trial. Gershkovich’s head had been shaved, as is typical for prisoners in the Russian penitentiary system. Russian prosecutors announced earlier this month that they had finalized an indictment and had “established and documented” that Gershkovich had “collected secret information” about the Uralvagonzavod military factory in the Sverdlovsk region in Russia while “on assignment from the CIA.” Read the full story here.

International Court issues warrants for top Russian military officials The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for two top Russian military figures who led the war on Ukraine for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, it announced Tuesday. Former defense minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov were named in the warrants for their attacks on civilian infrastructure in particular. The action comes after the court — to which Russia is not a signatory — last year issued indictments against President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, over the removal of Ukrainian children to Russia. Read the full story here.

After attack in Dagestan, Russian officials minimize Islamic State claim Russian lawmakers on Monday quickly blamed external forces, including Ukraine and NATO, for terrorist attacks on Sunday that killed at least 20 people in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region of Russia in the North Caucasus that has long been a hotbed of violence by Islamist militants. The gunfire attacks on Sunday — at a police post, a synagogue and Orthodox churches in the regional capital of Makhachkala and a second city, Derbent — killed at least 17 police officers and an Orthodox priest, authorities said. Pro-Kremlin media appeared to play down a claim from Al Azaim Media, a Russian-language channel associated with the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, which posted a statement late Sunday that the attack was carried out in response to calls for attacks on behalf of the Islamic State organization, or ISIS. Read the full story here.

More than 15 killed in Dagestan, Russia, as gunmen hit multiple sites Assailants opened fire at an Orthodox church, a synagogue and a traffic police post across two cities in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Sunday evening, killing more than 15 police officers and several civilians, local officials said. The dead included an Orthodox priest, Nikolai Kotelnikov. More than two dozen others were injured in what appeared to be a coordinated attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Kotelnikov, 66, was killed at the Church of Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Derbent. Gunmen also attacked the city’s only synagogue, though it was apparently empty at the time. Read the full story here.