@AP Ukraine Correspondent. Before: Iraq, Lebanon. Author. RTs ≠ endorsements. (selected writings: https://nitter.cf/t.co/NusB8oPILe)
Ukraine
Joined January 2009
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UPDATE: I will be joining @AP's Kyiv bureau as Ukraine correspondent.
It's the most challenging assignment I've had so far, but I am lucky to be part of a dedicated and courageous team. A true privilege.
Our latest, the 1st since I assumed the new role:
apnews.com/article/russia-uk…
Samya Kullab retweeted
NEW: Volodymyr Zelenskyy Bloomberg interview by @DarynaKrasno and our Kyiv team
+ Says Trump is pushing Ukraine to capitulate to Russia. “I believe steps have been taken to convince Ukraine to capitulate”
+ Says he’s offered to stop striking Russian oil refineries if the US provides Patriot air defences. “My latest model was: We don’t target Russian diesel, you give us missiles for Patriot systems to protect our facilities”
+ Says the US is threatening to cut off support if Ukraine doesn’t stop its refinery strikes. “They just want us to stop attacking diesel. And if we strike that, they will disconnect us from something”
+ Says the US is slowing deliveries of Patriots already paid for via the PURL scheme. “We have paid for the weapons. A part of the supplies has been authorized, while the rest haven’t been. And this is not a technical issue”
+ Says he thinks the US situation may improve after the mid-terms. “Politics is very aggressive during election time. I think it is agony now, but after elections, life will continue and I believe it will be calmer”
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Samya Kullab retweeted
Good job by @FRHoffmann1 here tackling the issue of U.S. Space-Based Ballistic Missile Early Warning and Ukraine. missilematters.substack.com/…
Samya Kullab retweeted
Thanks to @gideonrachman from citing @CrisisGroup in this (rightly) worrying @FT piece.
We should note that we draw on the excellent @UCDP and @PRIOresearch for our headline figures on conflict trends.
ft.com/content/3a56575e-ecfb…
Samya Kullab retweeted
For the first time this year, data centers have become targets for bombardment in global conflicts.
Our analysis shows at least 27 such attacks in 2026.
Experts worry the targeting of data centers opens a Pandora's box that cannot be closed.
nbcnews.com/tech/security/da…
Samya Kullab retweeted
Based on the information currently available to us, we cannot confirm that Starshield’s full capabilities have been restored.
Four (4!) days after we submitted our inquiries, we have yet to receive a response from the Pentagon or SpaceX. We hope to receive confirmation that unlimited speeds have been restored and that Starshield is operating as it did previously, providing reliable communications essential to protecting our people amid intensified Russian aerial attacks.
Samya Kullab retweeted
From the moment he walked into the room for our interview it was clear Zelenskyy was done with equivocating & was determined to speak his mind. His allies will fret but this was a bravura display of speaking truth to power
With @hallbenjamin
ft.com/content/4d79b52f-1f0d… via @ft
Samya Kullab retweeted
“Russia’s offensive has grave implications for Ukraine’s survival… and potentially the course of the war.” There’s been too much long distance happy talk from Kyiv’s allies. My bleak report from Odesa as Russia chokes off exports and bombs away
ft.com/content/cc96ac01-7929… via @ft
Samya Kullab retweeted
The most bombed McDonald's in the world is in my old neighborhood. It has withstood at least nine bombardments.
It is also Ukraine's first McDonald's, opened in 1997 to hours-long lines.
Since then, it has become an island of normalcy in the wartime:
nbcnews.com/tech/security/mc…
Samya Kullab retweeted
My piece on the Colombian mercenaries - and their paymasters in the Emirates - is out as the cover story of the Financial Times magazine today. It's the culmination of months of interviews and data tracking with @just1nlynch ft.com/content/32592ab6-4385…
Samya Kullab retweeted
"Dressed in civilian clothes, the pilots sit beneath harsh fluorescent lights, eyes fixed on computer screens, as if working late over spreadsheets.
"But the grids on their monitors are target lists and satellite maps. As they plot each flight before takeoff, a separate unit launches the aircraft more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) away. Control then passes to the pilots in Kharkiv, who fly it for up to four hours more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) behind Russian lines.
"Some who were driven from their hometowns by Russia’s invasion now revisit familiar streets through a drone’s lens, passing old schools and childhood haunts, searching the places where they once played for concealed Russian troops and ammunition depots.
"A whiteboard tracks an ongoing competition among the unit’s 10 drone crews. The current record stands at 17 consecutive hits."
Good field report by @samya_kullab on Ukraine's middle-strike campaign and drone pilots involved:
apnews.com/article/russia-uk…
Samya Kullab retweeted
A rising number of babies are being born prematurely in Ukraine, particularly in regions near the front lines, where some areas have seen rates nearly double since the conflict started with Russia’s invasion in 2022 -- @AP's @samya_kullab & @VasilisaUKR
apnews.com/article/ukraine-r…
Samya Kullab retweeted
Comprehensive account of how Israel killed journalist Amal Khalil and wounded her colleague Zeinab Faraj, by @AP @sewella and Bassam Hatoum
apnews.com/article/lebanon-i…
Samya Kullab retweeted
“Some Israelis may believe that the fragmentation of Lebanon is a desirable outcome—not unlike the collapse of Syria during its civil war,” writes @mahamyahya. “But a Lebanon plunged into abject chaos benefits nobody.”
foreignaffairs.com/lebanon/l…
Samya Kullab retweeted
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told us yesterday that Kyiv braces for reduced deliveries of Patriot air defense missiles as Washington’s global priorities shift. @samya_kullab and I write for @AP apnews.com/article/zelenskyy…
Samya Kullab retweeted
Shelly Kittleson often worked without formal assignments from editors and on a shoestring budget, taking shared taxis to lawless corners of Iraq where militia rule outweighs government control:
@samya_kullab profiles the journalist kidnapped in Iraq
apnews.com/article/iraq-kidn…
Samya Kullab retweeted
.@samya_kullab speaks to some of the Iranian Kurds who fled Iran nearly 50 years ago when they were children or young adults and have spent most of their lives in northern Iraq waiting for a return that may never come
apnews.com/article/iran-war-…
Samya Kullab retweeted
Every morning for the past 15 days, Abbas Haydar has walked through his village near Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, trying to imprint “every building, every crevasse, every flower” in his mind.
Sometimes he wandered aimlessly; at others, he stopped to take photographs on his phone. “I wanted there to be a record that it was ours — our home and our land — before it was too late,” he said.
The sum of all fears for Lebanon
@rayajalabi @JamesShotter @janinaconboye @AditiHBhandari
ft.com/content/9ef95667-0a78…
Samya Kullab retweeted
Larijani’s replacement will be appointed by IRGC. With every assassination U.S. and Israel engineering greater radicalization of Iran’s leadership. It will makes for a bleak future for Iran, Iranians, the region and ultimately makes it far more difficult for U.S. to disentangle itself from endless conflict in the region.
Samya Kullab retweeted
Strong interview by the great @margbrennan with Iran‘s Foreign Minister @araghchi - highly recommend @FaceTheNation
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the regime is not in a war of survival, telling @margbrennan the regime is “stable and strong enough.”
“We don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans, because we were talking with them when they decided to attack us, and that was for the second time,” Araghchi says.