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Paul Adams

@BBCPaulAdams

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BBC Diplomatic Correspondent. Previously in Washington, Middle East and Balkans. Now a lot of Ukraine.

London
Joined January 2010
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
A former British army explosives expert says “this is a masterpiece of clandestine sabotage.” Importance of this is hard to exaggerate. #KerchBridge
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
7 years
From my brother's Univision colleagues in downtown Miami
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
It's not the best time to be isolating in my Kyiv hotel room with Covid, to be honest.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
A woman in Enerhodar explains how the referendum is being conducted in her mum’s street. "Three soldiers knock on your door, armed with machine guns. One is holding a referendum paper asking if you want to leave Ukraine and join Russia." 1/2
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
BREAKING: Zelensky, after talks with Lukashenko: Ukrainian delegation to meet Russian delegation without preconditions on Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near Pripyat River. 1/2
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
@eapaia @JuliaDavisNews Apologies. This: "You have to answer verbally and the soldier marks the answer on the sheet and keeps it." Similar reports from Kherson. Annecdotal, but guns and ballots usually don't sit well together.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
10 months
The IDF is publishing a significant amount of evidence to back up its claims about the way Hamas used al-Shifa hospital. The denials will doubtless continue, but honest people should take this seriously. To do so does not mean taking sides.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
The scenes inside the wrecked "filtration camp" at #Olenivka are truly awful. A mass of charred bodies and bunk beds. Some died where they lay. Other bodies outside look terribly emaciated. It's a scene of absolute horror.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Kyiv after a long anxious night. Silent but for the sound of crows. Everyone knows it could change in an instant. #ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Possibly one of the most iconic images yet #ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Hunkering down for the Kyiv curfew that will last till Monday morning while authorities hunt down "sabotage and reconnaissance groups." A whole city of 3m people takes cover and waits. Goodnight
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
On a dark, ominous morning, I can hear the sound of Ukraine's national anthem echoing across the rooftops. A country under attack, showing what defiance it can. #UkraineCrisis
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Ukraine’s state energy company #Ukrenergo says there is currently no electricity shortage in the grid. Comes with caveats but it’s a remarkable achievement.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Gutted to have left behind my brave BBC colleagues in Kyiv. They will continue to do extraordinary work in profoundly difficult circumstances.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
BREAKING: Alexander Lukashenko has taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, talks and return. 2/2
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
We’re all in the basement, after one or more explosions in the Kyiv area this morning. Will be another long day. #ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
8 years
Another first. US Vice President has never before been called on to break senate deadlock on a cabinet appointment.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
10 years
If it's true Alan Henning has been killed, think of him like this. http://t.co/WHtglOEBBZ”
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
After the silence and distant explosions of the past few days, and with Kyiv still under curfew, I just heard laughter and voices calling to each other from house to house. In the circumstances, an amazing sound. #ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Huge respect and thanks to delightful staff here at the Kyiv Hyatt. This morning, the basement doubles up as the breakfast bar. #ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Ukraine has so far withstood Russia’s much vaunted offensive. Biding its time, waiting for armour to arrive (first Leopards arrived today) before launching its own offensive in the spring/summer. Western officials say Russia currently has no operational reserve.
@ChrisO_wiki
ChrisO_wiki
2 years
1/ The Wagner Group's huge losses and lack of reserves are said to have left it incapable of defending the territory it has captured, presenting a severe risk if Ukraine launches a major counter-offensive. The situation is described as 'desperate'. ⬇️
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
10 months
Mosab Abu Toha, the Palestinian poet, has been released after being detained by Israeli troops in Gaza. Said to be receiving medical treatment after being beaten in detention. Release comes after @NewYorker reported his case
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Head of Ukrainian Air Defence Forces on today's #Odesa port attack: "The invaders struck precisely at the place where the grain was located."
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
1 year
Fascinating new details emerging about Ukraine's raid on Sevastopol on Wednesday. Kyiv now says special force team landed & "adjusted fire and confirmed destruction of targets" before conducting "successful exfiltration." Classic SF ops.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Western official: a 7th Russian general killed (commander of 49th combined arms army). Also a colonel commanding a Russian brigade deliberately run over and killed by his own troops "as a consequence of the scale of losses that had been taken by his brigade."
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
"You have to answer verbally and the soldier marks the answer on the sheet and keeps it." Similar reports from Kherson. Annecdotal, but guns and ballots usually don't sit well together.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Day 8. Come on Covid. Don’t you know there’s a war on? #covidinkyiv
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Air raid siren now sounding here in Kyiv for first time.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Ihor Zhovkva, Ukrainian presidency advisor, tells @BBCNewsnight Ukraine is ready to discuss neutrality (and hence dropping NATO membership for now) with Russia. But will require strong security guarantees from neighbours (including Russia) and other powers, eg US, GB, Turkey. 1/2
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Rescue workers still combing through apartment block in the centre of #Zaporizhzhia . No word yet on casualties but this appears to be one of the worst attacks on this city so far
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
9 years
Allow me to share my own memories of Palmyra from 30 years ago. A magical place, now in desperate danger http://t.co/kCCVvn5m4T
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Just the most stunning photo from @lynseyaddario #ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Kuleba says Russia has dropped all ultimatums, as result of defeats in battle. "Now they just want to talk."
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security Council posted this just now. #Kerch
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Whatever the outcome of this needless war, it’s already been an unmitigated disaster for the Russian military. The first real enemy it’s come up against and the results have been catastrophic. Getting harder and harder to see what a “win” looks like
@sumlenny
Sergej Sumlenny, LL.M
3 years
Russian General-major Vitaly Gerasimov, deputy commander of Russian 41st army, was liquidated near Kharkiv, Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate said. This is Russia’s second general KIA within the last 11 days.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
8 years
"We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted." #Chilcot
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
11 months
Netanyahu says his actions in #Gaza “will change the Middle East”. How? Killing 1000s of Palestinian civilians won’t do that. Nor will flattening parts of Gaza or reoccupying it. Destroying Hamas won’t even do that. Hard to see what new paradigm can be created.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
The destruction of building housing Al Jazeera and AP in Gaza a short time ago.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
6 years
John Sawers, former head of Britain's MI6, says "rogue elements" theory of death of #Khashoggi "simply doesn’t hold water." Critical also of Trump response: "It further undermines respect for America when it panders to such a blatant fiction."
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Explosions in Kyiv and Kharkhiv. Russian troops landing in Odessa and Mariupol. Crossing the border from Belarus. To those who said western warnings were exaggerated, this appears to be exactly the wide-ranging scenario they were warning about. #Ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
This afternoon, a man I’ve known only as “Jimmy” over three months of constant WhatsApp conversation, messaged me to say “Liberation” and “I am no more Jimmy”. His real name is Alexei. “Everyone is crying since the morning.” Today is why he stayed. #Kherson
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
This is a lie and/or delusion, one of so many employed by the Russian government to justify an appalling and utterly unprovoked war. We’ve just driven across a vast chunk of Ukraine and seen an entire country preparing, with grim determination, to repel the invaders.
@RussiaUN
Russia at the United Nations
3 years
#Nebenzia : What does pose a threat to the people of #Ukraine is 🇺🇦 nationalists who in fact hold them as hostages and use as a human shield. There is evidence, disseminated by ordinary Ukrainians, proving that nationalists deploy heavy equipment in residential quarters.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
8 years
If I had a sofa handy, I'd be watching the Trump press conference from behind it. It's terrifying.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
First the dancing. Now Paddington Bear. What else? Zelensky’s Eurovision Song Contest winning entry? An extra time winner in the Euros? Tour de France yellow jersey?
@franklinleonard
Franklin Leonard
3 years
Confirmed. Volodymyr Zelensky is the Ukrainian voice of Paddington Bear.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klytschko: “The situation for Kyiv, without overestimating, is threatening. The following night…morning will be very difficult. The Russian troops are very close to the capital. The military and police are neutralising sabotage groups in the city.”
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Zelensky's spokesman: "We are aware that Russian delegation arrived in Gomel [Belarus]. We've indeed discussed talks there, but then Russia issued an ultimatum that Ukrainian military should lay down the weapons, so there will be no Ukrainian delegation there." #Ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
1 year
After talks with Germany's Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, President Zelensky suggests Germany is edging closer to supplying long-range #Taurus missiles. "The decision-making process in Germany is moving forward."
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
There are reports, seemingly confirmed by a Ukrainian official, that Russian tanks are already in Kharkhiv, Ukraine's second largest city. This is all happening so fast.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
It's not often in this business that you get to report some genuinely good news. But I'm delighted to say that Mohammed Aisha, the sailor stuck off the Egyptian coast for 4 years, is on his way home to Syria. To all those who offered your help, many thanks.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Two explosions in Kyiv just now. The second was close to the city centre. We’re one week on from last Monday’s nationwide barrage.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Frantic rescue work goes on here in the centre of #Kyiv . We’ve seen a body bag being carried away and one elderly lady rescued from her balcony. Mayor Klitschko is here, says 5 strikes this morning. 28 drones flew towards the city. 1 confirmed death.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Eyewitness in Kherson reports similar process underway. Russian national guardsmen collecting votes out in the street.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
5 years
Iran says it has arrested an Iranian employee of British Council “who was working with the UK espionage agencies and who was responsible for the design and management of a project of change and cultural influence.” Few details yet.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
The #Kyiv building hit by a "kamikaze" attack drone this morning. 120 years old. The section in red is gone. 3 people died here.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Another explosion just now. Closer this time. But not clear where any of this is happening.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
6 years
UK confirms Russian plane was searched at Heathrow yesterday. Security Minister Ben Wallace: "It is routine for Border Force to search aircraft to protect the UK from organised crime & from those who attempt to bring harmful substances like drugs or firearms into the country."
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
"How many foreign secretaries does it take?" Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's anger on display at her first press conference since returning to the UK after 6 years of captivity in Iran.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Kuleba on Putin: "He went completely mad in his obsession to destroy Ukraine, to deprive us of the right to exist." Russian anti-war protestors are "the voice of sanity."
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
On the day when 35+ countries agreed to send even more weapons to Ukraine, how long can this level of support be kept up? Great analysis from ⁦ @dandeluce
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
US ambassador to UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield: "The United States has assessed that members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine."
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Western official: "The Ukrainian Armed Forces commanders in the south and east are throwing problems at the Russian chain of command faster than the Russians can effectively respond. And this is compounding the existing dysfunction within the Russian invasion force." #Ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
We’re not there yet, but I’m starting to have flashbacks to the Holiday Inn in Sarajevo. That was almost 30 years ago. How is it coming to this again? #Ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
1 year
@BBCSteveR Thanks for clearing that all up, @BBCSteveR
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
10 years
Shejaiya, during a brief ceasefire. Horrendous scenes of destruction. http://t.co/J1nXiumfVq
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
A gentle soul just brought me my breakfast and said she thought everything would be ok. I didn't have the heart to say that the Russians could be here in Kyiv within days. Even now, I'm not sure Ukrainians realise quite what's happening. #Ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
If confirmed, this gives a terrifying impression of the scope of Russia's attack on Ukraine in the past few hours. #Ukraine
@TanyaKozyreva
Tanya Kozyreva
3 years
The map of air strikes in Ukraine this morning
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Ukraine’s war time president is even cooler than you thought.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Just heard former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko saying that Molotov cocktails have been renamed “Bandera smoothies”.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
1 year
And if you still think the Ukrainians did it, you haven’t been paying attention to the mountain of evidence that, since last year, had been pointing the other way.
@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
1 year
Despite the limited military utility of blowing up the dam (Ukraine was certainly interested in river crossings as part of its military planning), Russia was willing to trigger an environmental disaster that hurts people as much - perhaps more - in areas Moscow calls “Russian”
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Embarrassing security breach for Ministry of Defence. Secret HMS Defender and Afghanistan documents found in the rain at a bus stop in Kent.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Belarus says it's not a party to this conflict, but Ukraine's Commander in Chief says 4 ballistic missiles were fired from there. Will need to be remembered when the reckoning comes. #Ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
1 year
Vadym Skibitsky, of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, briefs on counter-offensive at this year’s @PinchukFund conference in Kyiv. Crimea still very much in Ukraine’s sights.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Ukraine's ambassador Kyslytsya, directly addressing his Russian counterpart, says Ribbentrop denied all knowledge of concentration camps & racial external examination policies in WW2, but was found guilty at Nuremberg. "We all know what happened to him on the 16th Oct. 1946."
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Just after dawn in Kyiv. Air raid sirens sounding. At least one muffled explosion. #ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Our post-Cold War complacency has just taken another hit. With an invasion of a sovereign nation & a man in the Kremlin giving way to his most violent urges (& muttering darkly about nuclear weapons), it feels more dangerous than anything this child of the Cold War can remember.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Western official: What began as Putin's war of choice has become his war of necessity. "My fear is that in order to win that conflict, he would resort to any means necessary." If it comes to urban fighting, real concern over the use of indiscriminate force. #Ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Kherson is the first city to fall into Russian hands. Mayor posts on FB: “I did not give them any promises. I just have nothing to promise. I am only interested in the normal life of our city! I just asked them not to shoot people.” #ukraine
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Fascinating thread. For all the military might being deployed, the optics of destroyed/stranded Russian convoys, confused and ashamed POWs and a citizenry defiantly and imaginatively resisting is compelling. The cost already much higher than Kremlin anticipated?
@ThreshedThought
Mike Martin MP
3 years
So let’s try and take a trip into Putin’s mind.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
1 year
This is sobering.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Why this morning’s attack on the #KerchStraitBridge is going to make life a lot harder for Russian forces in #Kherson
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
9 years
Calais police say 350 migrants found in cars and lorries in just 4 hours this morning. http://t.co/d4jpCfz8Cb
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
4 months
Not for the first time, Israeli settlers seem to have had no difficulty stopping and ransacking a Jordanian aid convoy bound for Gaza.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
10 years
Pulling an injured woman from the rubble in Shejaiya. She was alive. Just. Explosions nearby. http://t.co/UFCKSxl4Mm
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
NATO Sec Gen Stoltenberg. Preliminary findings: explosion in Poland likely caused by a Ukrainain air defence missile. "No indication that Russia is preparing offensive military operations against NATO."
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
More sirens in Kyiv. Streets now increasingly deserted. It’s a ghost town near the hotel.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
8 months
Whatever you think of the merits or demerits of South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ, it's a devastating summary of where we are. Both sides deserve to be listened to closely. Both sides.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
From Ukraine’s post office. Already. #Kerch
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Tragic, desperate scenes here in #Dnipro . Rescue workers and volunteers alike frantically searching wreckage for survivors. Urgent calls and human chains to remove rubble.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
President Zelensky wants it to be known he and Ukraine's core leadership are still in town. "We are all here defending our independence, our state. And it is going to be this way. Glory to our defenders! Glory to Ukraine!”
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
10 years
Last time I saw Asmah's hand, it was sticking out of the rubble in Shejaiya. Doctors say it's a miracle she's alive. http://t.co/GXkJF5nKo9
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
More defiance this morning from President Zelensky. He could so easily have chosen to leave. And check out the outlandish backdrop: Gorodetsky House. I’ll post a couple of closeups. #Ukraine
@ZelenskyyUa
Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський
3 years
Не вірте фейкам.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
10 years
Neighborhoods east of Gaza City are having a very bad night. Lots of Israeli shelling and rockets fired from the air.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Russia blocks Instagram and gives users 2 days to "transfer their photo and video materials to other social networks and notify their contacts and subscribers." That's not long to disconnect from the modern world. A world of digital autarchy looms.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
9 years
Will ISIS finish the job someone began a long time ago? #Palmyra http://t.co/LtX2irMi3C
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
2 years
Ukraine’s meme machine in overdrive after yesterday’s events in #Sevastopol
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
10 months
@muhammadshehad2 The first hostage doesn’t look like he’s being brought in for treatment. And these videos aren’t the sum total of the IDF’s evidence. There are also the tunnels.
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
11 months
Predictably ferocious editorial from #Haaretz newspaper. Lays blame for Saturday’s disaster firmly at feet of the most experienced politician in Israel, PM Binyamin Netanyahu
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Kuleba calls for complete oil and gas embargo on Russia. "This oil and gas...contains Ukrainian blood."
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@BBCPaulAdams
Paul Adams
3 years
Sacred cows being put aside? Dramatic change of heart from Germany
@ZelenskyyUa
Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський
3 years
Germany has just announced the provision of anti-tank grenade launchers and stinger missiles to Ukraine. Keep it up, Chancellor @OlafScholz ! Anti-war coalition in action!
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