Shaun Walker

Russian drone incursion into Poland ‘was Kremlin test on Nato’ Polish minister says Moscow sought to gauge reaction without starting war as Romania reports new incursion

And here is the interview with Sikorski in full: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Thought this was an interesting point made by Polish foreign minister Sikorski in Kyiv this weekend - a good summary of what could be the problem with all the discussions of boots on the ground and the "coalition of the willing".

General, envoy … future Ukraine president? Valerii Zaluzhnyi’s London waiting game Refusal to take calls from JD Vance after Zelenskyy-Trump showdown reflects political tightrope ‘war hero’ has walked since being fired as army chief

My long profile of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s former army commander and current ambassador to London, who many see as Ukraine’s next president, with plenty of new info from behind the scenes:

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

In wartime, demonstrations in Ukraine can never be more than a peaceful protest Zelenskyy forced to U-turn on anti-corruption bodies but protesters know unrest only plays into Russia’s hands

Wrote this on the past two weeks of politics and protests in Kyiv

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Yes, they are mentioned fairly high up in the story.

Russia pays young Ukrainians to be unwitting suicide bombers in shadow war Oleh, 19, was offered $1,000 for a paint attack on a police station – but the bag he was given contained a crude bomb

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

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Banned from home for 40 years: deportations are Russia’s latest move to ‘cleanse’ Ukraine A deal freezing frontlines would be unacceptable for Serhiy Serdiuk, who was taken to Georgia in handcuffs with his family after refusing to teach the Russian curriculum

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

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

The Illegals: A Conversation With Shaun Walker on the Untold Story of Russia’s Deep-Cover Spies For more than a century, Soviet and Russian spymasters have poured enormous resources into the training and deployment of deep-cover spies known as “illegals.” These agents live behind enemy lines for...

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

carnegieendowment.org/events/2025/...

‘She lived without fear’: daughter of Chechen activist publishes book she vowed to pen after mother’s murder Lana Estemirova promised to tell story of her mother, a renowned human rights activist. This month it is published

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.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

‘Does he know anything?’: Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev on Trump’s plans to legitimise Russian annexation Exiled Soviet-era dissident tells the Guardian that for the US to turn its back on the territory would be ‘shameful’

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.”)

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Russia’s spies: Uncovering Russia’s secret espionage programmes Exploding weapons factories, assassination plots and fake news: Vladimir Putin’s hybrid war campaign against the West has stepped up several notches since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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

www.theguardian.com/guardian-liv...

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

Week of geopolitical poker over Ukraine ends with no endgame in sight Path to peace looks as unclear as it was before European leaders’ meeting with Zelenskyy in Kyiv

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.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

After Euro ultimatum in Kyiv today, Putin's going to do a surprise video address at midnight Moscow time (in 45 mins). Is he going to agree to ceasefire? Would be big surprise for him to cave under ultimatum... Double down? Go on a random history rant?

Feels quite unpredictable.

Explosive sex toys and cosmetics: the story behind the DHL parcels plot Exclusive account reveals previously unreported details and insights into how Kremlin’s sabotage campaign played out on the ground – and the multinational effort to track down the network behind it

NEW: Our exclusive deep dive into a suspected Russian-led cell behind the parcel bomb plots with the first interviews with those directly involved, revealing how the sabotage campaign unfolded on the ground With @shaunwalker7.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

‘These people are disposable’: how Russia is using online recruits for a campaign of sabotage in Europe Moscow’s intelligence services have launched a new type of attack on the west, violent but piecemeal and hard to prove

“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.

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

with @manisha.bsky.social @pjotrsauer.bsky.social @juliettegarside.bsky.social Anton Naumliuk, Tetyana Nikolayenko, Artem Mazhulin and Lucy Swan, and together with a journalistic consortium put together by @forbidden-stories.bsky.social

Inside Taganrog: beatings, electrocution and starvation at prison where Ukrainians were tortured Russia is holding an estimated 16,000 civilians in arbitrary detention at 180 separate facilities. Taganrog was the most notorious.

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

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

‘Numerous signs of torture’: a Ukrainian journalist’s detention and death in Russian prison The Guardian, working with media partners, has tracked down first-hand accounts to reconstruct Viktoriia Roshchyna’s final months

The Viktoriia project launches today- our first story. Our deep dive into Russian detention centres, with @shaunwalker7.bsky.social and @forbidden-stories.bsky.social consortium to follow tomorrow.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Exposing ‘the illegals’: how KGB’s fake westerners infiltrated the Prague Spring Kremlin’s most prized spies were sent in to Czechoslovakia to whip up the 1960s reform protests in a move then replicated across the eastern bloc

“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.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

The book doesn’t suggest that they are constructed or run in the same way. The point was meant to be different and only allusive: that opportunities for operatives to present in ways not linked to Moscow/RIS has expanded greatly since Soviet days when traditional illegals basically the only option.

Book Review: ‘The Illegals,’ by Shaun Walker In his new book, “The Illegals,” Shaun Walker studies the Russian agents who worked deep undercover as Americans for decades.

My book The Illegals, on Russia's deep-cover spies, is out in UK & US this week... Please consider picking up a copy if you're interested in Russian history, crazy spy stories or both.

A nice review in today's NYT:

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/b...

No tour as such but some US trips coming up over the year and always happy to discuss events. Please do email - Shaun.walker@theguardian.com

London: I'll be talking on Wednesday at Waterstones Gower St about my new book on the history of Russia's illegals programme, with the best possible conversation partner: @gordoncorera.bsky.social, who has himself written a (brilliant) book about illegals

t.co/zwbJCwCy84

‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son The long read: For the first time, the man the KGB codenamed ‘the Inheritor’ tells his story

Ahead of my book on the history of Russia's Illegals programme coming out next week, here's a taste in Guardian Longread form.

‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ap...

‘They came across as muppets’: Christo Grozev on being target of Bulgarian spy ring Investigative journalist called ‘modern-day Sherlock’ by Alexei Navalny on unsettling photos, reprisals and being exiled from Vienna

I spoke with @christogrozev.bsky.social about his feelings on being trailed by the Bulgarian spy ring jailed in London last week for spying for Russia, and the effect it has had on his life:

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Kidnapped, tortured and jailed: one woman’s quest to bring her son home from Russia Ivan and Maryna’s story is just one of hundreds of thousands of family tragedies that have afflicted Ukrainians after three years of Russian invasion

I wrote this story on a young man from Kharkiv who was kidnapped by Russian troops from his home village while trying to rescue his mum, and on his mum’s two-year quest to find him and bring him home. With striking photos by Julia Kochetova

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Zelenskyy: Europe cannot guarantee Ukraine’s security without America Exclusive: In extended interview with the Guardian, Ukraine’s president says he will offer US firms lucrative reconstruction contracts to try to get Trump onside

Spent an hour chatting with Zelenskyy yesterday about his upcoming mission to persuade Trump to stay on Ukraine's side. If not, Ze thinks Europe won't be able to fill the gap.

"Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees."

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Speeches by politicians banned at 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation Director of the memorial says he wants the focus to be on the last survivors of the Nazi concentration camp

“Never in the postwar period has remembrance been as important as now … We are at an enormous turning point. Everything’s changed very quickly... In these times we need some tangible points of reference."

My interview with Auschwitz museum director

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

lovely, thanks!