Shaun Walker

A war foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them Drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin’s plans ...

I've been working on this for ages in various countries: the story of the intelligence buildup to Putin's 2022 invasion. How did the US and Britain find out so much, and why were Europe and Ukraine sceptical.

It's a long one:

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

The bleakest winter: Ukrainians face exhaustion and uncertainty as Trump demands concessions People torn between craving for peace as conditions worsen and desire to hold strong against Russian military and US

My story from travels in ukraine over the past few weeks on what feels like the hardest winter yet. Most people want peace but not in the way it’s being offered. Exhaustion is everywhere, and there and no easy answers.

US tells Nato if Zelenskyy does not sign peace deal Ukraine will face worse in future ‘No deal is perfect, but it must be done sooner rather than later,’ says US army secretary in sombre meeting

Latest from sources in Kyiv: US officials tell NATO nations that Zelenskyy will be pushed to sign the “peace plan” this week or face an even worse deal in future

Trump may yet impose a Ukraine deal – but it threatens to be a disaster for Kyiv Ukraine could be forced into an agreement but plan as it stands seems too bizarre for Zelenskyy to sell to his public

A few thoughts on the current alarming moment

Russian activist held in Poland admits he worked as FSB agent, court papers say Igor Rogov, who left Russia in 2021, due to go on trial accused of informing on other Russian opposition activists

I feel like there are a lot of as-yet-unknown twists to this story - one to keep an eye on.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

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...