Simon Ostrovsky, Katia Patin, Kateryna Hatsenko, PBS; Inside a Ukrainian city hit by Russian drones during the Starlink disruption
"In Ukraine, President Zelenskyy made the clearest indication yet that a disruption of Starlink technology contributed to civilian deaths. Elon Musk admitted last week to ordering the slowdown of the service. The intentional hindrance of Ukrainian defenses led to bipartisan anger in Washington."
Alexander Ward, Natalie Andrews and Josh Dawsey, Wall Street Journal; Musk Ordered Starlink Slowdown That Blindsided Ukraine
"Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink relied on by Ukraine, a decision that sparked panic in Kyiv and confusion inside the Trump administration, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said.
Both Musk and President Trump have expressed anger at Ukraine for attacking Russian diesel refineries in recent weeks, which the president blames for high energy prices. Last week, Musk capped the speeds at which Ukrainian hardware could stay connected to the satellite-based network, the people said, rendering some offensive drones and interceptor drones virtually useless.
Musk and Trump discussed the Starlink decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public, while the president was campaigning last week, two of the people said. One of the people also claimed Musk and Trump discussed the matter prior to the decision to throttle Starlink."
Andrew Roth and Sam Jones, The Guardian; Zelenskyy thanks Trump for resumed intelligence sharing after US Starlink ‘message’
"Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday thanked the Trump administration for resuming intelligence sharing between the two countries, but maintained the US had intentionally throttled its Starlink satellite internet access so that Donald Trump could send a “message” in his ongoing feud with the Ukrainian president.
In an interview on NBC, Zelenskyy said the US had “unblocked” intelligence on impending Russian ballistic missile strikes, which have pounded the country’s energy infrastructure as winter draws in.
“It was blocked for some period of time. And then it was deblocked by the American side. We are very thankful for this. Now it works,” Zelenskyy told NBC’s Meet the Press. “Only [the] United States has this unique intelligence to tell our side when Russia uses ballistic missiles. And we didn’t get it during ballistic attacks during three days.”
Zelenskyy also said that Elon Musk’s SpaceX was responsible for suddenly limiting the speed at which Starlink terminals worked in Ukraine, hampering drone operations on the frontlines as well as some air defence missions.
“It was a message from [the] American government to limit the speed,” he said. “And technically, SpaceX did it.”
ALEXANDER BOLTON , The Hill; GOP senators press Pentagon over Ukraine’s loss of Starshield data
"Four Republican senators have joined their Democratic colleagues in pressing the Trump administration for information about whether Pentagon officials ordered restrictions on Ukraine’s access to the satellite-based Starshield network, which Ukrainian officials said limited their ability to intercept Russian drones.
Ukraine needs access to fast Starshield data speeds to operate drones along with fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, which are critical to its national defense.
Ukraine’s full access to Starshield-provided data was quickly restored Wednesday, prompting speculation on Capitol Hill that President Trump didn’t make the call to cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine but that the decision may have come from senior officials.
Four Republican senators — including two senior members of the Senate Intelligence Committee — signed a bipartisan letter to Platte Moring, the Pentagon’s inspector general, demanding he investigate whether any Department of Defense (DOD) or other U.S. government officials “directed” or “authorized” changes to intelligence-sharing arrangements or Starlink and Starshield services affecting Ukraine."
Anthony Vinci , The New York Times; A.I. Is Lying to You. Here’s How to Fight Back.
"Portal Kombat’s goal is to influence these models so that they will pass along propaganda to trusting users in response to questions. Portal Kombat pushed over 3.6 million stories across hundreds of independent websites in dozens of languages in 2024, according to NewsGuard, an organization that tracks online disinformation. NewsGuard researchers systematically tested A.I. chat systems and found that Portal Kombat propaganda was regularly provided to users.
Large language model influence operations are just one way that America’s adversaries are using A.I. to try to steer its politics. China directs its A.I. platforms to push false claims about the treatment of Uyghurs and to censor dissent and criticism of the Chinese Communist Party. Russia is using A.I. to generate scores of news websites to turn Americans against democracy and Western alliances. Like many, these adversaries use A.I. to create fake written, audio or video content that is nearly indistinguishable from the real thing."
Dustin Volz, The New York Times; Hackers Say They Stole Thousands of Sensitive F.B.I. Personnel Records
"Former F.B.I. officials and cybersecurity experts who track criminal groups said that the breach appeared authentic and that it amounted to a potentially devastating security lapse and counterintelligence danger for the bureau. Among other concerns, the personnel information of F.B.I. officials, if posted on the dark web, could be acquired by foreign intelligence agencies in China, Russia or elsewhere and weaponized for espionage operations."
Emily Hamilton
, Wall Street Journal; Russia Burns Books and Sacks Libraries in Ukraine"Bibliocide—attacks on the written word—is a common tactic of totalitarians and terrorists. The Nazis burned books in Germany in the 1930s, as did the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970s. Bosnian Serbs destroyed Sarajevo’s National and University Library in 1992, and in 2015 ISIS devastated Mosul Central Library.
The Ukrainian Culture Ministry says Russia has damaged or destroyed 906 libraries since 2022. Numerous cases of book burning and library sacking have been documented."
Ephrat Livni, The New York Times ; ‘Operation Pushkin’: Paris Trial Puts Spotlight on Rare-Book Heists
One by one, valuable works by Russian masters like Pushkin and Gogol were disappearing from libraries across Europe. Now six defendants are being prosecuted.
"The latest chapter in the saga of an international book heist that stripped prominent libraries across Europe of more than 170 rare Russian literary works is being written in a Paris courtroom this week.
Alexander Pushkin, the 19th-century poet and novelist considered the father of modern Russian literature, is a main character. Most of the thefts targeted his works — worth nearly $3 million in total — from libraries in the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland.
The other characters have a less literary pedigree. They are six Georgian defendants standing trial, most unnamed by the French authorities, on accusations of conspiracy and theft...
The crimes stunned librarians, bibliophiles and prosecutors alike because of their scale, the prominence of the libraries targeted and the near-singular focus of the suspects. The investigation became known as “Operation Pushkin.”
The thieves used different background stories, giving various reasons for their interest in rare Russian books, according to a law enforcement arm of the European Union, the Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation. They often worked in pairs, with one distracting librarians while the other replaced the original work with a copy, usually after multiple visits."
M. GESSEN, The New York Times; State Terror Has Arrived
[Kip Currier: It is fortunate to have the first-hand experience and insights of M. Gessen, who has lived through state-sponsored authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union, and more recently in Russia, until emigrating to the United States.
Forward this New York Times article to as many people as possible to raise awareness and promote advocacy against what Gessen and others refer to as Trump 2.0's strategy of "state terror". To "name it" and "know what it is" is to be better prepared to stand against it.]
[Excerpt]
"After the past three weeks of brutality in Minneapolis, it should no longer be possible to say that the Trump administration seeks merely to govern this nation. It seeks to reduce us all to a state of constant fear — a fear of violence from which some people may at a given moment be spared, but from which no one will ever be truly safe. That is our new national reality. State terror has arrived.
Please look at this list with me. Since early January, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement expanded its operation in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., federal officers have: killed Renee Good, a white middle-class mother; menaced a pregnant immigration lawyer in her firm’s parking lot; detained numerous U.S. citizens, including one who was dragged out of his house in his underwear; smashed in the windows of cars and detained their occupants, including a U.S. citizen who was on her way to a medical appointment at a traumatic brain injury center; set offcrowd-control grenades and a tear gas container next to a car that contained six children, including a 6-month-old; swept an airport, demanding to see people’s papers and arresting more than a dozen people who were working there; detained a 5-year-old. And now they have killed another U.S. citizen, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an I.C.U. nurse with no criminal record. It seems he was white. The agents had him down on the ground, subdued, before they apparently fired at least 10 shots at point-blank range."
Erkki Forster, The Daily Beast; Putin’s ‘Keeper of Secrets’ Dies Suddenly After Firing
"Since the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022, numerous top government officials have died under suspicious or sudden circumstances...
Orlov’s death adds to a growing list of Russian military and civilian leaders who have died, most notably Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenaries...
Other deaths have long sparked jokes about staying away from windows and seen a series of former high-ranking officials being suddenly found dead stories below where they were last seen."
Foreign Relations Committee ; Ranking Member Shaheen, Senators Tillis, Rosen, Barrasso, Coons, King, Moran, Merkley, Van Hollen Statement on Russia’s Christmas Bombing of Ukraine
[Kip Currier: Note the silence of the Trump administration regarding Vladimir Putin's brutal Christmas Day attacks on the Ukrainian people. (See here and here and here.)
In the wake of such unrestrained cruelty, it is at least encouraging to see bipartisan condemnation of Putin's brutality by the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, as well as the Senators' unfiltered assessment of the Russian leader:
Putin is a ruthless murderer who has no interest in peace and cannot be trusted.
[Excerpt]
"“We condemn Russia’s brutal attacks on Kherson, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Donetsk and Kryvyi Rih waged on innocent Ukrainians as they convened to mark the birth of the Prince of Peace with their loved ones and in prayer.
“It bears repeating that President Zelenskyy agreed to a Christmas truce, but Putin declined, yet he directs soldiers to continue to commit brutal crimes of aggression on one of Christianity’s holiest days.
“Even for countries at war, there is a long history of Christmas ceasefires, including notably during World War I. Today’s decision by Putin to launch attacks rather than hold fire is a sobering reminder for us all: Putin is a ruthless murderer who has no interest in peace and cannot be trusted.
“We stand with the people of Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Kherson and Donetsk marking the birth of Christ under the most challenging of circumstances. Ukrainians’ faith is a stronger force than the evil unleashed today by the Kremlin.”"
"Secret meetings between Ukraine’s top peace negotiator and FBI leaders have injected new uncertainty into the high-stakes talks to end the war there, according to diplomats and officials familiar with the matter.
Over the last several weeks, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, flew to Miami three times to meet with President Donald Trump’s top envoy, Steve Witkoff, and discuss a proposal to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia.
But during his time in the United States, Umerov also held closed-door meetings with FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, according to four people, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations.
The meetings have caused alarm among Western officials who remain in the dark about their intent and purpose. Some said they believe Umerov and other Ukrainian officials sought out Patel and Bongino in the hopes of obtaining amnesty from any corruption allegations the Ukrainians could face. Others worry the newly established channel could be used to exert pressure on Zelensky’s government to accept a peace deal, proposed by the Trump administration, containing steep concessions for Kyiv."
Jennifer Rankin , The Guardian ; ‘It’s not going to be some miraculous recovery’: film charts healing of Ukrainian children rescued from Russia
"Between therapy sessions, the children walk golden retrievers, ride ponies in the verdant forest and swim in the Baltic Sea. Therapists hope the natural respite will soothe their souls and help undo some of the trauma of their separation in Russian custody.
The families in this film are unusual: only a minority of Ukraine’s stolen children have been reunited with their parents.
Ukraine’s government has identified 19,546 children who have been unlawfully deported or forcibly transferred to Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. The government-backed Bring Kids Back initiative estimates 1,898 have returned from deportation, forced transfers and occupied Ukraine.
But researchers say the true scale of the removals is unclear as Russian authorities erase records and falsify identities. The international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, over the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
In September, Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of a double crime against Ukraine’s children: “Russia first abducted them and deported them, and now it tries to steal everything they have inside – their culture, their character, their bond with family and their identity,” he said.
The documentary, After the Rain, does not tell this political story. The British director Sarah McCarthy, who has Ukrainian heritage, said she wanted to “introduce as many people as I could to these children as children, not as a statistic, not as a political story, just as kids with all their mischief and fun and longing”."
George F. Will, The Washington Post; A sickening moral slum of an administration
"The killing of the survivors by this moral slum of an administration should nauseate Americans. A nation incapable of shame is dangerous, not least to itself. As the recent “peace plan” for Ukraine demonstrated.
Marco Rubio, who is secretary of state and Trump’s national security adviser, seemed to be neither when the president released his 28-point plan for Ukraine’s dismemberment. The plan was cobbled together by Trump administration and Russian officials, with no Ukrainians participating. It reads like a wish-list letter from Vladimir Putin to Santa Claus: Ukraine to cede land that Russia has failed to capture in almost four years of aggression; Russia to have a veto over NATO’s composition, peacekeeping forces in Ukraine and the size of Ukraine’s armed forces. And more."
, The Daily Beast; Trump’s $2 Trillion Plan to Cash in on Ukraine ‘Peace’ Leaks
[Kip Currier: Notice that there's no Trump 2.0 substantive discussion of human rights violations or accountability for Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, abduction of Ukrainian children (see 11/20/25 Euronews "Back from captivity: Ukrainian children abducted by Russia share their stories", attacks on churches, schools, and hospitals (see also 2023 National Library of Medicine (NLM) study "Attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities during the first year of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine"), and atrocities like the Bucha massacre in March 2022.]
[Excerpt]
"At the center of President Trump’s contentious plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war isn’t peace: it’s profit.
Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are negotiating with Russian officials to ensure U.S. businesses—and Trump’s friends—are in position to make a killing once the war ends, according to an exhaustive Wall Street Journal report published Friday...
Witkoff spoke to the paper about a future where Russia, the U.S., and Ukraine are all business partners.
“If we do all that, and everybody’s prospering and they’re all a part of it, and there’s upside for everybody, that’s going to naturally be a bulwark against future conflicts there. Because everybody’s thriving,” Witkoff said...
Europe balked at President Trump’s 28-point peace plan—which Witkoff drafted based on a Russian plan— arguing it was overly generous to Russia. The deal had Ukraine concede territory and cut its military capacity, effectively neutering the nation’s sovereignty. The plan wasn’t popular in America either, as it received significant pushback from the GOP...
Though the Journal’s report details the many ways in which Americans and Russians could profit from an eventual peace deal, it’s unclear how Ukraine would benefit."
Editorial Board, The Washington Post; Ukraine’s inspiring democratic resilience
"Democracy and martial law make strange bedfellows. In Russia, where President Vladimir Putin’s hierarchical power is never contested, authoritarianism is entrenched. Repressive measures imposed for the sake of the war are unlikely to ever be lifted.
In Ukraine, however, the democratic spirit never bridled under wartime restrictions. Most Ukrainians understand that emergency measures have been necessary but remain skeptical of permanent centralized rule.
Isolationists in Washington may try to use Yermak’s resignation as an excuse to ditch Ukraine, citing it as evidence of endemic corruption. In truth, his ouster is evidence of resiliency and maturity that should hearten the Trump administration. Friday’s news shows Zelensky’s willingness to sideline even his closest aide to do what’s best for his country in its fight for national survival."
Joseph Gedeon, The Guardian ; ‘Traitor’: US representatives call for Trump envoy Witkoff to be fired after leaked Kremlin call: Republicans and Democrats warn Witkoff ‘cannot be trusted’ after reportedly advising officials on peace plan
"A handful of US representatives have reacted furiously to a leaked recording in which the special envoy to Ukraine reportedly coached Moscow on how to handle Donald Trump, but most have so far remained mute on the revelation that American officials were advising a US adversary.
Don Bacon, a Republican representative, called for Steve Witkoff’s immediate dismissal. “For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign & democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians,” the Nebraska lawmaker wrote on X.
“He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he? He should be fired.”
Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican wrote that the leak represented “a major problem” and “one of the many reasons why these ridiculous side shows and secret meetings need to stop”. He urged that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, be allowed to “do his job in a fair and objective manner”.
Democratic representative Ted Lieu went further, calling Witkoff an “actual traitor,” and adding: “Steve Witkoff is supposed to work for the United States, not Russia.”
In a recording obtained by Bloomberg of a 14 October phone call between Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Witkoff said peace would require Moscow gaining control of Donetsk and potentially additional Ukrainian territory."
Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic ; Why Does Steve Witkoff Keep Taking Russia’s Side?: Trump’s envoy isn’t promoting peace. His interventions are helping Vladimir Putin.
"I’ve written this before, but it cannot be repeated often enough: This war will end only when Russia stops fighting. The Russians need to halt the invasion, recognize the sovereignty of Ukraine, and drop their imperial ambitions. Then Ukraine can discuss borders, prisoners, and the fate of thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children.
But the only way to persuade Russia to stop fighting is to put pressure on Russia. Not Ukraine, Russia. The Ukrainians have already said they will stop fighting and agree to a cease-fire right now, on the current lines of conflict. Yet Witkoff is seeking to persuade Trump not to put pressure on Russia, and we don’t really know why.
Witkoff has no previous diplomatic experience, so perhaps he is naive. He spent many years in New York real estate, at a time when Russians were spending fortunes on property, so perhaps he feels gratitude. Maybe he’s helping Russia win because he has “the deepest respect for President Putin,” as he told Ushakov, and admires his brutality. Maybe he, or others in the White House entourage, have business interests tied to Russia—or hope to. In addition to discussing “peace,” Witkoff has also been, according to the document made public last week, talking with the Russians about American investments “in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centers, rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic.”
Whatever the reason, Witkoff is prolonging the conflict. He is not promoting peace. His call to Ushakov was not, as Trump said last night, a normal negotiating tactic. Every time he intervenes, advocating for Putin’s positions, he encourages the Russians to think they can get Trump on their side, pull America away from Europe, break up NATO, and win the war. In other words, every time he intervenes on behalf of the Russians, he contributes to the deaths of Ukrainians, the attacks on infrastructure, the ongoing tragedy that affects millions of people.
If this were a normal American administration, he would be fired immediately. But nothing about this negotiation, or this administration, is normal at all."
Sarah Ewall-Wice , The Daily Beast ; GOP Civil War Erupts Over Trump’s ‘Garbage’ Peace Plan
"President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan to end the brutal war in Ukraine was met with fierce opposition from members of his own Republican Party.
GOP lawmakers warned the 28-point deal appeared to be a complete cave-in to Russian President Vladimir Putin."
Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times; Trump’s Neville Chamberlain Prize
[Kip Currier: Thomas Friedman speaks out persuasively for Ukraine and its brave people, at a time when so many in positions of leadership and political influence are disgracefully silent.
Ukraine is the U.S.'s ally. Ukraine's people are fighting to uphold its democracy and freedoms.
And yet Trump again and again sides with Russia and its tyrannical autocrat Vladimir Putin against Ukraine and its stalwart leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Who in the U.S. Congress will stand up for and beside Ukraine when courage and moral clarity are needed most?]
[Excerpt]
"Finally, finally, President Trump just might get a peace prize that would secure his place in history. Unfortunately, though, it is not that Nobel peace prize he so covets. It is the “Neville Chamberlain Peace Prize” — awarded by history to the leader of the country that most flagrantly sells out its allies and its values to an aggressive dictator.
This prize richly deserves to be shared by Trump’s many “secretaries of state” — Steve Witkoff, Marco Rubio and Dan Driscoll — who together negotiated the surrender of Ukraine to Vladimir Putin’s demands without consulting Ukraine or our European allies in advance — and then told Ukraine it had to accept the plan by Thanksgiving.
That is this coming Thursday.
If Ukraine is, indeed, forced to surrender to the specific terms of this “deal” by then, Thanksgiving will no longer be an American holiday. It will become a Russian holiday. It will become a day of thanks that victory in Putin’s savage and misbegotten war against Ukraine’s people, which has been an utter failure — morally, militarily, diplomatically and economically — was delivered to Russia not by the superiority of its arms or the virtue of its claims, but by an American administration.
How do you say “Thanksgiving” in Russian?
To all the gentlemen who delivered this turkey to Moscow, I can offer only one piece of advice: Be under no illusions. Neither Fox News nor the White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt will be writing the history of this deal. If you force it upon Ukraine as it is, every one of your names will live in infamy alongside that of Chamberlain, who is remembered today for only one thing:
He was the British prime minister who advocated the policy of appeasement, which aimed to avoid war with Adolf Hitler’s Germany by giving in to his demands. This was concretized in the 1938 Munich Agreement, in which Chamberlain, along with others in Europe, allowed Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain boasted it would secure “peace for our time.” A year later, Poland was invaded, starting World War II and leading to Chamberlain’s resignation — and his everlasting shame...
Trump, facing blowback from allies, Congress and Ukraine, said Saturday that this was not his “final offer” but added, if Zelensky refuses to accept the terms, “then he can continue to fight his little heart out.” As always with Trump, he is all over the place — and as always, ready to stick it to Zelensky, the guy fighting for his country’s freedom, and never to Putin, the guy trying to take Ukraine’s freedom away.
What would an acceptable dirty deal look like?
It would freeze the forces in place, but never formally cede any seized Ukrainian territory. It would insist that European security forces, backed by U.S. logistics, be stationed along the cease-fire line as a symbolic tripwire against any Russian re-invasion. It would require Russia to pay a significant amount of money to cover all the carnage it has inflicted on Ukraine — and keep Moscow isolated and under sanctions until it does — and include a commitment by the European Union to admit Ukraine as a member as soon as it is ready, without Russian interference.
This last point is vital. It is so the Russian people would have to forever look at their Ukrainian Slavic brothers and sisters in the thriving European Union, while they are stuck in Putin’s kleptocracy. That contrast is Putin’s best punishment for this war and the thing that would cause him the most trouble after it is over.
This would be a dirty deal that history would praise Trump for — getting the best out of a less than perfect hand, by using U.S. leverage on both sides, as he did in Gaza.
But just using U.S. leverage on Ukraine is a filthy deal — folding our imperfect hand to a Russian leader who is playing a terrible one.
There is a term for that in poker: sucker."
