Opens profile photo
Follow
Yaroslav Trofimov
@yarotrof
Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent of The Wall Street Journal. Author of Siege of Mecca. Endorsing nothing.
AuthorHome is where my suitcase isfacebook.com/yarotrofimovJoined April 2009

Yaroslav Trofimov’s Tweets

Pinned Tweet
Ukraine’s top commander Zaluzhny argued last fall that Russia’s “center of gravity” in the war is impunity, a sense among Russians that the war is remote and doesn’t touch their lives. My piece on how recent drone strikes and, now, incursions, upend this.
6
145
It was indeed some weird Chechen joke
Quote Tweet
Something untoward seems to have happened to Adam Delimkhanov, the Chechen commander and Russian MP who boasted of having “destroyed” Mariupol. Kadyrov can’t find him and Chechen units in Maryinka abandon positions to go look for him. twitter.com/maxseddon/stat…
Image
Image
3
34
Though maybe it is some weird Grozny trolling — let’s see.
Quote Tweet
Something untoward seems to have happened to Adam Delimkhanov, the Chechen commander and Russian MP who boasted of having “destroyed” Mariupol. Kadyrov can’t find him and Chechen units in Maryinka abandon positions to go look for him. twitter.com/maxseddon/stat…
Image
Image
1
38
Something untoward seems to have happened to Adam Delimkhanov, the Chechen commander and Russian MP who boasted of having “destroyed” Mariupol. Kadyrov can’t find him and Chechen units in Maryinka abandon positions to go look for him.
Image
Image
Quote Tweet
Embedded video
2:20
Russia's "liberation" of Mariupol looks like this, according to Ramzan Kadyrov's Telegram channel
15
350
Russian official mouthpiece publishes post by ex president Medvedev where he says that Russia next year will celebrate on central Maidan square in Kyiv. No one can take seriously the claim that NATO somehow is responsible for this war. The imperialism is in the open.
Quote Tweet
Дмитрий Медведев опубликовад фото площади Независимости в Киеве с российским флагом. «Майдан незалежності. Скоро – площадь России», — подписал фото замглавы Совбеза РФ. Так он поздравил россиян с Днем России.
Image
20
442
A resident on the Russian cruise missile attack on Krivyy Rih tonight “This is the Russian World for you guys. You’re in your fucking bed, 3.30 am, and you have fucking nothing. No flat. No car. And over there people are dying .”
Embedded video
0:10
73.9K views
27
1,678
A Russian major-general by the way is a one-star, equivalent to a NATO brig-gen.
Quote Tweet
Russian reports that a Ukrainian missile strike on the Zaporizhzhia front killed Maj Gen Sergey Goryachev, chief of staff of Russia’s 35th Army and former top Russian commander in Transnistria (Moldova). First Russian general to die in nearly a year. t.me/voenkorKotenok
2
127
Ukraine has managed to retake several villages in its offensive, and now confirms the liberation of Blahodatne, on the border or Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia — or whatever remains of it.
Quote Tweet
Благодатне. Південь. Вже офіційно
Image
1
196
A video of Chinese-built armored vehicles posted this week by the leader of Chechnya, a backer of Russia's war in Ukraine, is raising new questions of whether equipment from China could be used to support Moscow’s campaign.
70
439
Show this thread
“Who’s going to help now, if not us?” We spent the day with Ukrainian volunteers rescuing people stranded by flooding in Kherson, including behind enemy lines. Not long after noon, one of them came under intense Russian shelling just as he made to go back.
1
77
Having said that, this is one destroyed Ukrainian column on one stretch of the frontline that Russian propaganda has shown from several angles over the past 48 hrs. The offensive has just begun, and it was never going to be easy. The first weeks in Kherson were also grim.
Quote Tweet
These tanks and Bradleys would have made all the difference if supplied a year ago, before Russia had the time to build its Maginot line in Zaporizhzhia. And Russian Ka-52 gunships wouldn’t be able to have a turkey shoot if Ukraine had received F-16s. Lost time = lost lives. twitter.com/oryxspioenkop/…
6
215
These tanks and Bradleys would have made all the difference if supplied a year ago, before Russia had the time to build its Maginot line in Zaporizhzhia. And Russian Ka-52 gunships wouldn’t be able to have a turkey shoot if Ukraine had received F-16s. Lost time = lost lives.
Quote Tweet
#UkraineWar: Ukrainian losses updated with: 3x Leopard 2A6 (1 destroyed, 2x abandoned) 4x M2 Bradley (abandoned) 1x VAB APC (abandoned) 1x Oshkosh M-ATV MRAP (abandoned) More losses will be added tonight (including ~six more M2 Bradleys). Full list: oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack
310
4,486
It wasn’t within Ukrainian at the time, before the UK supplied Storm Shadows.
Quote Tweet
Based on this geolocation, I believe Ukraine has just hit an army headquarters visited by Putin in April. 46.019844, 34.846380 2R9W+WHJ Shchaslyvtseve, Kherson Oblast, Ukraine t.me/operativnoZSU/ @GeoConfirmed 1/2
Show this thread
Image
Image
Image
Image
1
45
Canada's Globe and Mail says Ukrainian authorities have so far declined to renew the accred of Anton Skyba and even asked him to take a lie detector test. Seems shocking - Anton is a great guy, a brilliant photographer and certainly a Ukrainian patriot.
22
160
First the dam, then hitting people trying to flee the flooding with deliberate artillery barrages. No words.
Quote Tweet
Panic at the evacuation point at the sound of incoming fire - difficult to judge distances - maybe 500 metres - enough to scare everyone in the vicinity #kherson #Russia #ukraine
Embedded video
0:09
829K views
55
1,360
Meanwhile, on Russian state TV a Russian general casually proposes destroying the Kyiv reservoir dam to drown millions of people in the Ukrainian capital. “We are not holier than the Pope, are we?”
Embedded video
0:59
126.9K views
161
2,309
Literally, “who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes.”
Quote Tweet
Russia-appointed Kherson oblast governor Saldo, speaking right in front of the flooded streets of Novaya Kakhovka: "Everything is fine in Novaya Kakhovka, people go about their daily business like any day"
Show this thread
Embedded video
0:21
499.3K views
4
198
John Deere, Leopard… same difference. Comrade Colonel, we have successfully eliminated NATO machines.
Quote Tweet
Also is it really a Leopard? Or even a tank? Some military analysts say these are harvesting machines. twitter.com/yarotrof/statu…
5
82
Also is it really a Leopard? Or even a tank? Some military analysts say these are harvesting machines.
Quote Tweet
Russia’s ministry of defense releases this video of an ATGM strike on what it says is a Ukrainian Leopard tank. The video ends after the hit, so it’s not clear what damage has been inflicted, and whether the tank has in fact been disabled.
Embedded video
0:16
13.2K views
14
59
Russia’s ministry of defense releases this video of an ATGM strike on what it says is a Ukrainian Leopard tank. The video ends after the hit, so it’s not clear what damage has been inflicted, and whether the tank has in fact been disabled.
Embedded video
0:16
13.2K views
52
71
To be fair, USSR was also famous for its scorched earth tactics. In August 1941, Soviets blown up the Dnieper Dam, aiming to halt the German advance. Tends of thousands civilians & Soviet soldiers were killed as a result
Image
Quote Tweet
Among the few things that the USSR was famous were huge dams and provision of electricity. Perhaps the successor states will, after destroying villages and dams, decide to go back to pre-1917 gas light and candles.
16
720
Show this thread