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Luke Harding

@lukeharding1968.bsky.social

4.1K followers 270 following 130 posts

Journalist @Guardian, #1 New York Times best-selling author, foreign correspondent. Latest book: "Invasion: Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival", shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and Peterson Literary Prize. Agent: Susanna Lea

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Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · 10d

Today's Guardian Read is my dispatch from the frontline in Ukraine with photos by @alessiomamo.bsky.social
"In between bombardments, Sloviansk enjoys moments of magical calm. Dawn begins with the cooing of collared doves; dusk brings a pulsing symphony of cicadas" www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

‘You have to live’: Ukrainians on frontline practice normality despite Russian bombings

In once-occupied Sloviansk, war has become so routine that nobody pays attention to air-raid sirens

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · 4d

I talked to #Ukraine's deputy foreign minister Sergiy Kyslytsya about Russia's recent drone incursions. His view: Europe needs to "get serious" or Vladimir Putin will "escalate escalating". He says the Kremlin has infiltrated EU countries with "agents and moles" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Europe needs to ‘get serious’ about threat posed to it by Russia, Ukraine minister says

Sergiy Kyslytsia says Kremlin already at war with Europe and predicts that Vladimir Putin will ‘escalate escalating’

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · 6d

I spoke to the @irishtimes.com about Russia's war against Ukraine - and Europe - featuring drones, sabotage, propaganda and manipulation www.irishtimes.com/podcasts/in-...

Is Europe already at war with Russia?

In the News podcast

www.irishtimes.com

Reposted by Luke Harding

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · 10d

Today's Guardian Read is my dispatch from the frontline in Ukraine with photos by @alessiomamo.bsky.social
"In between bombardments, Sloviansk enjoys moments of magical calm. Dawn begins with the cooing of collared doves; dusk brings a pulsing symphony of cicadas" www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

‘You have to live’: Ukrainians on frontline practice normality despite Russian bombings

In once-occupied Sloviansk, war has become so routine that nobody pays attention to air-raid sirens

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · 10d

Another grim day for Kyiv and Ukraine. Here's my report from the capital with photos by
@alessiomamo.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Zelenskyy condemns Russia’s ‘vile and brutal’ 12-hour bombardment of Ukraine

Moscow targets Kyiv and other regions with about 500 drones and 40 missiles, killing at least four people

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · 10d

Today's Guardian Read is my dispatch from the frontline in Ukraine with photos by @alessiomamo.bsky.social
"In between bombardments, Sloviansk enjoys moments of magical calm. Dawn begins with the cooing of collared doves; dusk brings a pulsing symphony of cicadas" www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

‘You have to live’: Ukrainians on frontline practice normality despite Russian bombings

In once-occupied Sloviansk, war has become so routine that nobody pays attention to air-raid sirens

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · 18d

New: Zelenskyy will press Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Russia when they meet next week in New York and urges allies to "stop wasting time". "Everyone is looking to the US," Ze told journalists in Kyiv, saying pressure should be applied to Slovakia & Hungary www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Zelenskyy accuses allies of ‘wasting time’ as he prepares for Trump meeting

Ukrainian president will urge his US counterpart to impose more sanctions on Russia when they meet next week

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · 29d

Nothing to see here: just Boris Johnson acting as a fixer for Evgeny Lebedev - the son of a KGB foreign intelligence officer - and introducing him to Elon Musk www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Revealed: Boris Johnson approached Elon Musk on behalf of London Evening Standard owner Lebedev

Former PM’s private office forwarded business proposal from peer to owner of X in June 2024, leaked files suggest

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Aug 25

A wonderful book! Valerian Pidmohylnyi's 1927 novel "The City", in a new English translation by Harvard Library of Ukrainian Lit. It's an extraordinary portrait of Kyiv in the years after the revolution through the eyes of a young writer: his encounters with women (much poor behaviour) & urban life

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Aug 21

Good piece by Ken Roth on why Putin invaded #Ukraine. It had nothing to do with "Nato" or "neo-Nazis". Rather, it was about crushing a pro-European democracy on Russia's doorstep, and "quashing" the example that offered to millions of Russians www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Trump needs to understand what the war in Ukraine is really about | Kenneth Roth

It’s not about Nato or the Soviet Union. It’s about democracy.

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Aug 19

Here's my explainer on what security guarantees Ukraine might get in the event of a deal with Russia? Short answer - we don't know - but they could include a European peace-keeping force, led by UK and France, as well as protection for the skies and Black Sea www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

What security guarantees might Ukraine get in return for a peace deal?

As western leaders meet, questions remain about the steps they could take to prevent any future Russian aggression

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Aug 18

Who are Zelenskyy's Oval Office "bodyguards"? My mini-profiles of the European leaders who are meeting with Trump today, together with #Ukraine's president. Their goal: to prevent a repeat of February's WH mugging, when Trump accused Zelenskyy of "having no cards" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Zelenskyy’s European ‘bodyguards’: which leaders will join Trump talks in Washington?

Presidents, PMs and heads of Nato and European Commission to accompany Ukraine’s leader at White House

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Aug 14

Writers, artists and MPs have urged the Royal Ballet and Opera House to drop the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko from its new season. The singer is a “longtime symbol of cultural propaganda for a regime that Is responsible for serious war crimes” they write www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...

Royal Ballet and Opera house urged to drop Russian soprano with Putin links

Exclusive: MPs and Ukrainian artists sign letter saying Anna Netrebko is ‘symbol of cultural propaganda for a regime responsible for war crimes’

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Aug 14

thank you!

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Aug 14

My piece from Kramatorsk. Putin is demanding Ukrainian troops and civilians leave the eastern city, as part of a "peace deal" to be discussed on Friday with Donald Trump in Alaska. meanwhile, Russia attacks with drones and bombs. Photos by @alessiomamo.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

‘It’s a robot war’: eastern Ukraine faces onslaught of Russian glide bombs, rockets and kamikaze drones

Putin has escalated strikes on Donetsk region and is likely to demand Ukraine hands it over in talks with Trump

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Jul 31

My story with @alessiomamo.bsky.social on the race to save Ukraine's early medieval stone baba sculptures from the frontline

The Guardian @theguardian.com · Jul 31

‘Ukraine doesn’t forget its cultural landmarks’: the team risking their lives to rescue statues from the frontline

‘Ukraine doesn’t forget its cultural landmarks’: the team risking their lives to rescue statues from the frontline

Operation has retrieved 11 babas from southern Ukraine, where Turkic nomadic people flourished in medieval times

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Jul 29

I spoke to the Guardian's Today in Focus podcast about the anti-government protests in #Kyiv last week and the latest from the frontline, where Russia is going forward. Politics is back, the war grinds on, it's democracy vs autocracy. thanks @helenpidd.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2...

Protests against Zelenskyy as drones torment Ukraine - podcast

Luke Harding talks to people in Kyiv protesting against the Ukrainian president’s recent changes to the country’s anti-corruption bodies, and analyses where the war against Russia is heading next

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Jul 29

thank you Ian!

Reposted by Luke Harding

Christoph Müller @chris-mueller64.bsky.social · Jul 28

youtu.be/fydeKWlsocA?...
„NATO should join Ukraine“
Thank you for this good interview, Luke -
@lukeharding1968.bsky.social

#nato should join #ukraine - quotes #LukeHarding

YouTube video by Talk4Ukraine

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Jul 27

My dispatch from Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk oblast is the Guardian's Sunday Read. I met Valentyn Velykyi, the last person to leave the shattered village of Maliyivka, occupied yesterday. "That idiot Putin wants it all," he told me. Pix: @alessiomamo.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

‘That idiot Putin wants to take it all’: Russia’s kamikaze tactics fuel a slow advance in Ukraine

Latest wave of displaced citizens curse ‘imperial ambition’ that has led to an estimated one million Russian casualties

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Jul 24

I wrote a piece about comedy in Ukraine. The stand-up scene is flourishing! A lot of dark humour about bomb shelters (“even if you tell a bad joke, people will stay”) and Joe Biden (“He’s very similar to Ukrainians. He looks like he can die at any second.”) www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

‘War is very funny for the first couple of years’: how Russia’s invasion transformed Ukraine’s comedy scene

Standup has become an escape for many as the conflict drags on, and comics see dark humour as part of their mission to ‘stop people going crazy’

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Jul 23

Here's some background on Ukraine's street protests and how a dispute between agencies turned into a political crisis: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Ukraine protests: why are civil society activists angry with Zelenskyy?

A law that changes the country’s anti-corruption agencies has led to the first serious protests against his government

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Jul 23

More protests are expected tonight outside Zelenskyy's presidential office in Kyiv, after he approved a controversial bill weakening two anti-corruption agencies. Europe is unhappy. Civil society is furious. Ukraine's political crisis is growing. My Guardian piece www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Zelenskyy defends bill stripping anti-corruption bodies’ independence amid protests

Move by Ukrainian president widely opposed and may prove a setback to hopes of country one day joining the EU

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Jul 21

It was another terrible night in Kyiv. My latest report with photos by @alessiomamo.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Russian strikes hit Kyiv metro where hundreds were sheltering

At least one person killed in attacks on central Kyiv that also damaged shops, houses and a kindergarten

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Jul 16

I interviewed the deputy head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency. The US has not told Kyiv what weapons will be sent as part of Trump's package worth "billions of dollars" & there is confusion as to how many Patriot batteries will arrive. Probably not "17" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Ukraine awaiting details on ‘billions of dollars’ worth of weapons promised by Trump

US president said to have discussed providing Patriot missiles and long-range Tomahawks but no agreement has been reached

www.theguardian.com

Luke Harding @lukeharding1968.bsky.social · Jul 14

Thank you Fionna!