The Moscow Times : TMT Weekly , Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited London, Paris and Brussels to rally fresh aid in a surprise trip — only his second foreign trip since the start of the war and more

 

Dear reader, Welcome to The Moscow Times' weekly email digest, where we bring you the best of our reporting, opinion pieces and photo galleries every week. Here's a roundup of some of the week's top stories: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited London, Paris and Brussels to rally fresh aid in a surprise trip — only his second foreign trip since the start of the war — as the war’s one-year anniversary loomed.  The next day, Kyiv reported that Russia launched a “massive” barrage of missile and drone attacks across the country. International investigators said there were "strong indications" that President Vladimir Putin personally approved the supply of the missile that shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014. Sergei Furgal, the former governor of the Khabarovsk region whose arrest sparked mass protests, was sentenced to 22 years in a maximum-security prison for double murder. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe to receive our newsletter every Friday. Amid Ukraine War, Kremlin Orders Nationwide Bomb Shelter Overhaul According to current and former officials who spoke with The Moscow Times, Russia is carrying out systematic inspections and repairs on its crumbling Soviet-era bomb shelter infrastructure. Read more. ‘I Couldn’t Stay Silent’: Anti-War ‘Flower Protests’ Spread to 60 Cities Across Russia The ongoing tributes to victims of the Dnipro attack are the first nationwide anti-war protests since demonstrations against the country’s “partial” mobilization in September. Read more. As Russia’s Losses in Ukraine Spike, Those Tracking the Deaths Are Overwhelmed An independent media outlet tallying the number of Russian military fatalities in Ukraine advertised this week for volunteers because — for the first time since the start of the war — it did not have enough people to process the incoming reports of deaths. Read more. 5 Graphs Explaining Russia’s Wartime Economy As Russian officials play down the economic impact of President Vladimir Putin’s order to invade Ukraine, the emergence of end-of-year data from 2022 in recent weeks has painted a mixed picture of the economy’s performance. Read more. Many residents of eastern Ukraine are either unable or unwilling to leave their homes, enduring biting winter freezes and often shellings. See more in our gallery. Opinion How 2022 Wiped Out a Decade of Progress in Russian Science By Alexandra Borissova Saleh Like a timebomb, the lack of new deliveries to replace existing equipment is not yet particularly noticeable, but in just a few years it will force entire fields of Russian scientific research to cease activity. Read more.  The Ukraine War and a Loss of Nuance By Ronald Suny In a country where open defiance of the government has become dangerous, people protest the war with flowers placed stealthily at the feet of Taras Shevchenko or Nikolai Gogol. Read more.  The Targeting of Russian Environmentalists Must End By Arshak Makichyan If the Ukrainian army and international sanctions on Moscow are unable to stop Putin, the climate crisis will. At that point, environmental groups — should they still exist — will be called upon to perform a vital function. Read more. Podcast 🎧 MT’s Michele A. Berdy explores trips, aimless travels, and all-inclusive tourist packages in the Russian language in the latest episode of “The Word’s Worth.” Before we go... The Moscow Times has been independent for our entire 30-year history. That means we rely on support from our readers to continue producing original, high-quality reporting like the stories you've received in this email. Contribute today By making a donation today — or setting up a recurring donation — you are helping ensure that we can keep reporting on Russia at a time when the world needs accurate news from this country more than ever. Thank you for supporting our work!