Mark MacKinnon

Senior International Correspondent for The Globe and Mail. Now based in London, after stops in Moscow, the Middle East and Beijing.

[Mark MacKinnon @markmackinnon]

Oh, and find me here more and more often going forward… https://t.co/6n27H4jwGs

[Mark MacKinnon @markmackinnon]

The Chernobyl Museum in Kyiv lies in ruins. The opening of the “Russian Davos” in St. Petersburg marred by a drone attack.

The war in Ukraine is at a standstill, leaving the two sides trying to dent morale by lashing out at symbols.

My report from Kyiv

https://t.co/REYm0YVEJo

[Steven Seegel 🇺🇦 @stevenseegel.bsky.social @steven_seegel]

Excellent. Read it.

[Jimmy Rushton @JimmySecUK]

This was Kyiv last night.

Those very, very fast missiles are probably 3M22 Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles. Russia fired eight of them at us yesterday.

Imagine this was your city, and this was happening a few hundred metres from your home.

[Mark MacKinnon @markmackinnon]

Russian troops are once more bogged down in Ukraine, unable to achieve Vladimir Putin's aims.

And so, once again, Putin's forces are lashing out at Ukrainian civilians.

My analysis, written from Kyiv

https://t.co/knLRjRtiW9

[Kevin Rothrock @MrKevinRothrock]

Signs of internal divisions in Moscow: Bloomberg says Russia's Finance Ministry & Central Bank privately warned Putin that current defense spending is unsustainable, but the Defense Ministry is demanding more funding, not less. Putin says to start w the nonmilitary spending cuts.

[KyivPost @KyivPost]

The European Union is increasing its support for Armenia amid Russian pressure and warnings of a potential “Ukrainian scenario” if Yerevan continues its pro-European path, European Pravda reported.

“We are a reliable partner for Armenia, and our partnership is stronger than ever,” EU Commission spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said.

[Greg Myre @gregmyre1]

Three separate ceasefires have been declared in the Middle East: Iran, Lebanon and Gaza. None is going according to plan. https://t.co/OAT7gvm1WX

[Mark MacKinnon @markmackinnon]

Insider trading, Scotland style…

[Chris McCall @Dennynews]

Peter Murrell bought 108 toilet rolls just hours before then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned the public against panic buying during the Covid pandemic.

https://t.co/2QwSSAKTEt

[Kenneth Roth @KenRoth]

For the first since the Oslo accord, Israel is seizing land for an army base inside an occupied West Bank city. The seizure order, near Jenin refugee camp, is the latest move aimed at expanding the Israeli military and settler presence. https://t.co/qRIQi48Q6z

[Clash Report @clashreport]

Zelensky:

Today at night or tomorrow at night, we think that we will have a big attack from the Russian side using drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.

[Ishaan Tharoor @ishaantharoor]

Wow. @derspiegel has made millions of Nazi party membership cards searchable so Germans can look up their ancestors and get a glimpse of what they were doing under Hitler

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

One of the most terrible things we will have to face in the future is learning, one way or another, how many people died in Mariupol in the spring of 2022, when Russia was leveling the city to the ground along with its inhabitants.

Among them were my former classmate and the father of a good friend of mine.

And how many more remain unknown to us, lying in the vast anonymous mass graves on the outskirts of Mariupol, visible even in satellite images.

[Vali Nasr @vali_nasr]

My piece in @FT on why Iran has been reluctant to sign on to the MoU agreement and why the agreement is not likely to easily lead to a larger deal in 30 or 60 days:

"The dominant view shared across the political spectrum in Tehran is that, given Trump’s record, the promise of diplomacy could actually raise the threat of war. Washington’s seemingly generous concessions are interpreted as too good to be true. Tehran suspects that the US seeks not a lasting peace but a free hand to keep Iran isolated and weak, checking its nuclear and missile activities by periodically “mowing the lawn”. Faced with such a prospect, deterrence is all that matters.

Iranian leaders talk of control of the Strait of Hormuz and maintaining Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium as the key to deterrence. They believe any durable deal that includes economic compensation for war damage and lasting sanctions relief would hinge on these two issues; the US is demanding that Iran concede on both. This makes striking a lasting deal highly unlikely."👇🏽

https://t.co/Po1LI2pyh6

[Mark MacKinnon @markmackinnon]

Ahead of June 7 elections in Armenia that increasingly feel like one of those moments Ukraine faced in 2004 and 2014…

[Bloomberg @business]

Russia recalled its ambassador to Armenia for consultations in Moscow amid growing tensions with the South Caucasus country over its tilt toward Europe https://t.co/NjI5Cuq5pb

[Dahlia Scheindlin @dahliasc]

This piece is particularly important to me; I wrote it because I couldn't face not facing it anymore. Why Aren't All Eyes on Sudan? @haaretzcom https://t.co/2kCRZ3aBhq

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

The UN adds Israel and Russia to a blacklist of countries engaged in sexual violence, after documenting “patterns of sexual violence” by Israelis against Palestinians, citing assaults on 14 men, seven women, nine boys and one girl from Gaza and the West Bank. Israel said it would cut off ties with the UN Secretary General; seems to me it would make more sense to investigate and allow Red Cross visits. https://t.co/9wSkaVsvfx

[Mark MacKinnon @markmackinnon]

Uh-oh.

[Guy Faulconbridge @GuyReuters]

PUTIN: STATEMENTS ABOUT RUSSIA PREPARING FOR A WAR WITH EUROPE ARE LIES

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

Eleven children killed or injured every 24 hours in Lebanon, UN says - https://t.co/VRg3ak1x2k

[Guy Faulconbridge @GuyReuters]

MOSCOW, May 29 (Reuters) - Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia's powerful Security Council, warned European leaders on Friday that drones would continue to stray into their countries and prevent their populations from sleeping peacefully.

[Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof]

Russia probably didn’t intend to hit Romania. But in planning its attacks on Ukraine it doesn’t mind if Romania gets struck once in a while, calculating (correctly, so far) that there will be no price to pay for that.