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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Russia, Ukraine, and much more for
@NewYorker
. DMs open; write for Signal. Between Two Fires now in paperback: tinyurl.com/yc77u32y
joshuayaffa.comJoined January 2012
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Joshua Yaffa’s Tweets

Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Just one story among many from my piece on the painful and fraught question of wartime collaborators, in this week’s issue of
@NewYorker
:
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The New Yorker
@NewYorker
A resident of Izyum, Ukraine, believes his spiteful neighbor sold him out to invading Russian forces; he was detained and brutally tortured. “I would like her to bear responsibility for my suffering,” he said. nyer.cm/k4iW9FG
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
The process has clear echoes with the aftermath of WWII, when, as Tony Judt writes, “The majority of people in the lands recently occupied by the Germans were more interested in putting uncomfortable or unpleasant memories behind them and getting on with their fractured lives.”
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Yet again among the most visceral, feeling-of-being-there reports from the war comes from
@Moskwitsch
. A pleasure and our good luck to read his stories in English (for those of us still perfecting our German)
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Christian Esch
@ch_esch
I spent several days (and very cold nights) in Kherson with my colleague @alexsarovic. We saw a city both celebrating and going through a humanitarian catastrophe. Heard stories of torture and plundering, but also found some who regret they did not leave with the Russians...
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Big respect to
@louiseelisabet
for tracking down this story on the ground and a further reminder why there’s no replacement for actually doing that work (and to not be afraid of stories that are more complicated than first seen):
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Louise Callaghan
@louiseelisabet
Remember the story about Yuri Kerpatenko, the conductor from Kherson who was killed by the Russians for refusing to take part in a concert put on by the occupiers?
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Interesting idea from
@pevchikh
that I’d like to see discussed/debated: should there be a “way out” for figures close to Putin to avoid Western sanctions and if yes, what should it look like? And would it have intended effect of splitting loyalties?
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Maria Pevchikh
@pevchikh
18/22 But if we're talking about the real ‘mother of all sanctions' there must be a twist. To each and all of these people, one thing needs to be offered - A WAY OUT, a set of actions they need to take to be immediately taken off the list, saving most of their wealth and assets
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
people writing (correctly!) that these images will never be aired on state TV. Of course that's true. But it's 2022, people in Russia are online, following Telegram channels, sharing links. Stuff gets around and state can't always ignore or refuse to provide counter-narrative.
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Russia's military command announces withdraw from right bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson—a glaringly obvious euphemism for retreat from the city. A potentially huge moment in the war, expect another round of finger pointing and dog-eat-dog infighting.
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Meduza
@meduzaproject
ДАННОЕ СООБЩЕНИЕ (МАТЕРИАЛ) СОЗДАНО И (ИЛИ) РАСПРОСТРАНЕНО ИНОСТРАННЫМ СРЕДСТВОМ МАССОВОЙ ИНФОРМАЦИИ, ВЫПОЛНЯЮЩИМ ФУНКЦИИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА, И (ИЛИ) РОССИЙСКИМ ЮРИДИЧЕСКИМ ЛИЦОМ, ВЫПОЛНЯЮЩИМ ФУНКЦИИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА. meduza.io/news/2022/11/0
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Joshua Yaffa Retweeted
Max Fras
@maxfras
Russian man fearing mobilisation goes to fortune-teller Fortune-teller Tarot says his conscription will be 'seriously delayed' Happy man returns home Receives an immediate mobilisation notice Returns to fortune teller, beats him up Gets arrested, mobilisation delayed
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Joshua Yaffa Retweeted
Michael Kimmage
@mkimmage
I very much look forward to moderating this Monterey Conversation between two superb journalists,
@yaffaesque
and
@clarissaward
, whose work ranges from print journalism to live television reporting.
@MIIS_MIR
@CNN
@NewYorker
@CarnegieCorp
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Carnegie Corporation
@CarnegieCorp
Distinguished journalists @clarissaward of @CNN and @yaffaesque of The @NewYorker will discuss the complexities of covering the war in Ukraine. 🗓️: Nov 9, 11am ET Register here (free): middlebury.zoom.us/webinar/regist #RussiaUkraineWar #warjournalism #mediastudies #journalism
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
On Viktoria Andrusha, one of the more incredible and impressive people I met in eight months of war:
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The New Yorker
@NewYorker
“I’ve come to understand that happiness, joy, love are contained in the smallest things,” said a Ukrainian teacher who was held captive for months. Yet she doesn’t regret her choices, and would again do the same, even knowing she would end up a prisoner. nyer.cm/kT5rh9E
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
“Now that’s some content!” Hard to argue with that I guess? Insane Ukraine video #38,467 (surely an undercount at this point)
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Mike Eckel
@Mike_Eckel
🔥crazy video of a Russian cruise missile, reportedly over Zaporizhzhya today, being shot down.
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
I go to Goodwine on every trip to Kyiv and have bought wine from Vika. Every loss in this war is a tragedy—this one a personal reminder that death these days is not distant or unfamiliar, but rather, as a Ukrainian friend put it, one or two handshakes away
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Mattia Nelles
@mattia_n
This is Vika, one of the people killed today by an Iranian suicide drone in Kyiv. The 34 year-old was a sommelier at Goodwine. She was the only female sommelier there. “She sincerely loved wine and her work... We loved Vika madly," her employer Goodwine wrote on Facebook…
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Key passage on passivity of Russian officials and inclination to indoctrinate themselves, as Bondarev puts it. I wonder about Bondarev’s own journey in this regard, but as I said, this is a very interesting read regardless.
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
For this week's
@NewYorker
, I spoke to officials in Washington and Kyiv, tracing the story of how U.S. military support has come to play a decisive role in the war. Early wariness has given way to trust and openness—with real impact on the battlefield.
newyorker.com
Inside the U.S. Effort to Arm Ukraine
Since the start of the Russian invasion, the Biden Administration has provided valuable intelligence and increasingly powerful weaponry—a risky choice that has paid off in the battle against Putin.
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
More stories like this please
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Garrett M. Graff
@vermontgmg
THREAD: In @SenatorLeahy's new memoir, there's a wild story in it that I haven't ever seen before—a rare glimpse into the shadowy way that the intel agencies interact with Members of Congress. It feels ripped from a political thriller movie...: phoenixbooks.biz/book/978198215
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Reporting from Ukraine these days is stopping in a village to ask 25-year-old Vanya and his uncle for directions, then learning he was held for 16 days by Russian soldiers in Kupyansk, where they beat him until he couldn’t stand and hooked up electroshock cables to his ears.
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Not disputing this is Russia's war. But that passive support number is telling: so 3/4 won't actively resist the Putin regime, but nor will they all that actively support it. And hence its great (latent/potential) weakness.
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Andrew A. Michta
@andrewmichta
A key insight by Arkady Moshes at @HelSecForum: This is not #Putin’s war but Russia’s war against Ukraine. Without active support of 25% of the Russian population and 75% of the Russian population’s passive acceptance this war would not have happened. @Marshall_Center @FIIA_fi
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
original story here: newyorker.com/news/dispatch/ Greek, like Derekh, were both experienced and well-respected soldiers, sent to the front to lead units with recruits who joined after the invasion. But as I heard many times, skill can't always protect you from the unlucky math of war
newyorker.com
The Fight to Survive Russia’s Onslaught in Eastern Ukraine
The war has become, as one Ukrainian soldier put it, a game of “artillery Ping-Pong.”
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
I learned today that a Ukrainian soldier, call-sign Greek, who I interviewed this summer about the death of another soldier, Vitaliy Derekh, was himself killed near Bakhmut, in the Donbas. Was sober about the horror of war but committed to the fight. So much death, loss, tragedy.
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
As far as I can tell, the first time a Russian official of significance has actually come out and explicitly called for nuke use, as opposed to wink-wink dancing around the issue.
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Felix Light
@felix_light
CHECHEN LEADER KADYROV: RUSSIA SHOULD CONSIDER USING LOW YIELD NUCLEAR WEAPON IN UKRAINE AFTER LYMAN DEFEAT - Reuters
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Thank you
@MarkGaleotti
!
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Mark Galeotti
@MarkGaleotti
Selected by Mark Galeotti, the author of the forthcoming “Putin’s Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine.” My 5 recommendations on #Putin and power for @WSJ, by Philip Short, @timothymfrye, @yaffaesque, @zygaro and... Vladimir Sorokin (Day of the Oprichnik!) wsj.com/articles/five-
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Quotes like these (and that fantastic
@faridaily_
piece from yesterday) make me more mystified/horrified/fascinated by the apparent crippling passivity of the Russian elite. They just watch and wait. A truly historic level of paralysis.
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Shaun Walker
@shaunwalker7
“Nobody knows what happens next, it’s clear there is no grand strategy,” said one Moscow source, a well-connected political insider. “If one thing doesn’t work, we will try something else, and nobody knows where it will lead. Decisions are taken in the head of one man.”
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Very interesting detail: looks like check has come due for some in Russian elite, who, in classic postmodern Putinism fashion, were used to protecting themselves and their families from any real consequences/implications of state policy to which they paid lip service. No more.
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Joshua Yaffa
@yaffaesque
Read this piece and ask yourself: at certain moment of acute insanity/doom will a) Russian elite say enough is enough and collectively act against the Putin system, or b) stay silent with each trying to protect him/herself, following the proverbial ship to the bottom of the sea?
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