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At Lefortovo prison, the interrogations start with the clanging of metal. Guards patrolling hundreds of cells at the sprawling facility on the outskirts of Moscow bang their keys together to signal that an inmate is being escorted from their cells to an interrogation room, according to former prisoners, their families and their lawyers. Others snap their fingers in the hallways, where fluorescent lights buzz day and night, a warning there should be no other prisoners in sight and as few personnel as possible.

ZURICH—The chairman of Switzerland’s largest bank received an urgent call last week. UBS Group AG needed to rescue its failing rival, Credit Suisse Group AG. For Switzerland, the stakes verged on existential. Its economic model and national identity, cultivated over centuries, were built on safeguarding the world’s wealth. Switzerland itself needed rescuing.

The closed Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, the site of the first known Covid case cluster, in January 2020. Chinese authorities are withholding genetic evidence that could provide clues about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization said, pointing to data temporarily posted online by Chinese scientists, and then removed, that indicated the presence of wild animals at a Wuhan market. China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention in late January briefly published genetic sequences done in 2020 that appear to show the presence of raccoon dogs and other animals at China’s Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, site of the first known Covid case cluster, WHO officials said Friday.

☆ Midair Video Shows Russian Jet Buzzing U.S. Drone
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Drew Hinshaw | Daniel Michaels | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

BRUSSELS—The Pentagon released video footage Thursday from a U.S. MQ-9 drone that crashed in the Black Sea on Tuesday showing a Russian jet buzzing and dumping fuel on it and apparently damaging the drone’s propeller. The declassified footage shows a Russian Sukhoi-27 jet flying very close to the unmanned surveillance aircraft, in one of the first direct military confrontations between the U.S. and Russia since the invasion in Ukraine began more than a year ago. It wasn’t clear whether the video showed one jet flying past the drone twice, or both Russian jets that the Pentagon says were there.

☆ Four Weeks After Turkey’s Earthquake, Rescued Babies Wait for Their Families to Claim Them
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Drew Hinshaw | Joe Parkinson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ADANA, Turkey—An ambulance raced to the doors of the Adana City Training and Research Hospital carrying a baby boy in footed pajamas. A rescue crew had found the baby under a heap of rubble by tracing his cries. He was alone and miraculously alive two days after twin earthquakes killed more than 51,000 people. No one knew his name.

☆ Estonia’s Premier Wins Second Term After Pro-Ukraine Campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Drew Hinshaw | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has argued that should Ukraine lose the war, Moscow would pivot to her country next. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas , one of Ukraine’s staunchest backers among Western leaders, was re-elected on Sunday, handily defeating an opposition that had questioned her government’s arms deliveries to Ukraine and signaling continuing support for Kyiv in Europe’s east. The center-right leader’s Reform Party was set to hold 37 seats in the Baltic country’s Parliament, three more than it secured in the last election four years ago, according to results published Monday by the Estonian National Electoral Committee. Her principal opponents, the more right-wing Conservative People’s Party, took just 17 of the chamber’s 101 seats, two fewer than it previously controlled.

☆ U.S., Allies Step Up Ukraine Military Aid as German Hesitancy Over Tanks Threatens Rift
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Gordon Lubold | Drew Hinshaw | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany—U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and allies gathered here Friday to discuss a significant boost in military aid for Ukraine as the question of whether the German government will greenlight tanks for Kyiv threatened to expose a fracture among Ukraine’s supporters. The U.S. and its European allies have closely coordinated their support for Ukraine in the 11 months since Russia invaded Ukraine, including a large new package from the U.S. that Mr. Austin announced Friday.

☆ Germany’s Standoff Over Tanks for Ukraine Overshadows West’s Arms-Deal Meeting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Drew Hinshaw | Bojan Pancevski | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Western leaders are set to gather Friday for a critical meeting that was designed to showcase a major new arms package for Ukraine, but is instead marred by an escalating dispute on whether Berlin should allow its allies to give Kyiv German-built battle tanks. In a sign of the strains the German hesitancy has created, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his government could supply Ukraine with German-made battle tanks even if Germany doesn’t grant consent. Berlin must grant consent for countries to re-export German-made military equipment.

☆ Poland Suggests Sending German-Made Tanks to Ukraine Without Berlin’s OK
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Drew Hinshaw | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Poland would supply Ukraine with German-made Leopard battle tanks if Germany doesn’t grant approval for the transfer soon, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, increasing pressure on Berlin to back down from its stance that the U.S. must send American-made tanks to Kyiv before allies donate the most-widely used tank in Europe. The statement is the latest sign of exasperation shared by the U.S. and its European allies that Germany’s hesitation over sending tanks will deprive Ukraine of resources needed in a critical phase of its war with Russia or at least delay their arrival onto the battlefield.

The head of the United Nations atomic agency plans to visit Ukraine next week to deploy international inspectors at all of the war-torn country’s nuclear plants, significantly expanding the regulator’s presence after months of attacks on power stations and amid the threat of a renewed Russian offensive. The agency’s Director-General Rafael Grossi plans to station two or three inspectors at the South Ukraine, Rivne and Khmelnytskyi power plants, according to Ukrainian officials and Western diplomats. Power lines to the latter two plants were damaged in a Nov. 15 barrage of missile strikes that plunged both into crisis. Inspectors will also deploy to Chernobyl, the site of the world’s largest nuclear disaster in 1986, which was occupied for 36 days at the start of the war and where dangerous radioactive materials are still stored, the officials said.

☆ U.K. and Allies Weigh Sending Ukraine Heavy Tanks, Pointing to New Phase of the War
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Max Colchester | Drew Hinshaw | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON—The British government is in talks to send main battle tanks to Ukraine to help its forces roll back Russia’s territorial gains, as other allies consider sending Kyiv their own tanks. The discussions, which have been going on for weeks, concern whether to give Ukraine some of the U.K.’s Challenger 2 tanks, British officials said, although London has yet to reach a final decision. Officials in Poland, Finland and other European nations are also considering supplying tanks.

☆ Russia’s War Unites Europe, but Highlights Bloc’s Dependence on U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Drew Hinshaw | Daniel Michaels | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

As the war in Ukraine approaches 2023, Europe has never been as united against Vladimir Putin ’s Russia—nor as dependent on the U.S. for holding the Russian leader back. For years, the U.S.’s European allies struggled to reach a shared view of Mr. Putin, with France and Germany pushing the case for engaging with the authoritarian leader, over the building frustration of countries closer to Russia, who believed only determined resistance could stop him from pursuing his expansionist agenda in Europe’s east.

☆ Russia’s War Has United Europe, but Highlights Bloc’s Dependence on U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Drew Hinshaw | Daniel Michaels | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

As the war in Ukraine approaches 2023, Europe has never been as united against Vladimir Putin‘s Russia—nor as dependent on the U.S. for holding the Russian leader back. For years, the U.S.’s European allies struggled to reach a shared view of Mr. Putin, with France and Germany pushing the case for engaging with the authoritarian leader, over the building frustration of countries closer to Russia, who believed only determined resistance could stop him from pursuing his expansionist agenda in Europe’s east.

MOSCOW—Russian troops were losing the battle for Lyman, a small city in eastern Ukraine, in late September when a call came in for the commanding officer on the front line, over an encrypted line from Moscow. It was Vladimir Putin , ordering them not to retreat.

☆ U.N. Nuclear Agency Under Pressure to Share Knowledge of Alleged Russian Abuse of Ukraine Plant Workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Drew Hinshaw | Joe Parkinson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-n-nuclear-agency-under-pressure-to-share-knowledge-of-alleged-russian-abuse-of-ukraine-plant-workers-11670236452

Police officers check an area in Przewodow, Poland, where a missile killed two people in November. Ukraine’s initial claim last month that a strike fired by Russia—and not by its own forces—was responsible for the death of two Polish citizens revealed one of the sharpest public divergences between Ukraine and the U.S. since Russia’s invasion of its neighbor in February. The incident caused a moment of dangerous high drama, as the world watched to see if Russia had attacked Poland, a NATO alliance member, a possibility that was quickly discarded.

☆ ‘The Hole’: Gruesome Accounts of Russian Occupation Emerge From Ukrainian Nuclear Plant
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Joe Parkinson | Drew Hinshaw | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine—Hooded and handcuffed, Ihor Murashov , director general of Europe’s largest nuclear plant, was on the stone floor of a basement prison, accused by masked men of betraying Russia. He could hear the captors interrogating his chauffeur. The 46-year-old Mr. Murashov, who had led the occupied Zaporizhzhia atomic energy station for seven months, was ordered by gun-brandishing guards to face the lens of a video camera. “What you say now will determine your fate,” he recalled one telling him.

☆ Russian Occupation of Nuclear Plant Turns Brutal, With Accusations of Torture and Beatings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Joe Parkinson | Drew Hinshaw | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Poland’s Exposure to Ukraine War in Spotlight After Missile Blast
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Drew Hinshaw | Karolina Jeznach | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

PRZEWODÓW, Poland—Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Poland has been at the leading edge of NATO’s efforts to arm its neighbor against Russian forces—without letting the war spill onto the alliance’s own territory. Now, the stray missile that killed two Polish nationals and prompted high-level discussions within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, puts the spotlight back on a country that has been Ukraine’s biggest champion in Europe and is at the greatest risk should the conflict spill over into a wider war.

BRUSSELS—The explosion of a stray air-defense missile in Poland on Tuesday offers an unsettling reminder of how close Russia’s war in Ukraine is to NATO territory, and with that the risk of confrontation between nuclear powers. But fast efforts by both sides to ease rising tensions indicate that despite the conflict’s brutality and mounting toll, neither Russia nor NATO countries want fighting to spill west of Ukraine.

BRUSSELS—Polish President Andrzej Duda said there was no evidence that a missile that crashed in his country, killing two local workers, was intentional and was likely a Russian-made weapon fired by a Ukrainian air-defense system. “We currently have no evidence that the missile was fired by the Russian side,” he said. He blamed the tragedy on Moscow’s campaign of missile strikes on Ukrainian targets, including along the Polish border.

Senior U.S. officials have begun nudging Kyiv to start thinking about peace talks in the event winter stalls its momentum, following Ukraine’s recapture of Kherson in one of its most stunning triumphs of the war. The imminent onset of winter—coupled with fears of inflation spurred by mounting energy and food prices, the billions of dollars of weaponry already pumped into Ukraine, and the tens of thousands of casualties on both sides—has prompted talk in Washington of a potential inflection point in the war, now in its ninth month.

☆ Poland Begins Building Wall to Prevent Russia From Pushing Migrants Into Europe
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Karolina Jeznach | Drew Hinshaw | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WARSAW—Polish army engineers began building a razor-wire fence across the country’s 130-mile border with Russia, the latest country in Europe’s east to construct such a barrier, in what Poland’s government described as a bid to prevent Moscow from encouraging asylum seekers to cross overland into the European Union. The fence will span the entire length of Poland’s border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told reporters Wednesday. The construction began, he said, in response to concerns that Moscow would seek to encourage asylum seekers to fly into the exclave and enter the EU via the Polish border.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/huawei-china-meng-kovrig-spavor-prisoner-swap-11666877779

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