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Politics

President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 16, 2026.
Politics

As Trump turns toward Russia, Zelensky drops his restraint

by Kateryna Denisova

President Volodymyr Zelensky has spent much of the past two years trying to win over Donald Trump. Flattery, constant meetings, and carefully calibrated concessions have become hallmarks of his dealings with the U.S. president. But the strategy has failed, prompting Zelensky to change course and adopt a more confrontational tone. "Frankly, Trump has crossed the Rubicon," a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent, summing up the mood in Kyiv following Washington's latest deals with Moscow

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The trouble with loving Russia: Evan Gershkovich's memoir seeks sentimentality in a lost country

By the end of his pre-trial detention at Moscow's infamous Lefortovo Prison, American journalist Evan Gershkovich had developed a curious rapport with the FSB investigator tasked with proving he was a spy. "Most people break after four months or so, but you're still holding strong — a year in," the investigator told him, and the two raised their cigarettes in a toast to "having tried to find common ground." Gershkovich writes about many such moments in "This Cursed Beautiful Land: A Russian-Am

“This Cursed Beautiful Land” by Gershkovich, and charred trees in Voronezh, Russia, on Aug. 1, 2010.
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