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Matthew Luxmoore

@mjluxmoore

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Correspondent at the Wall Street Journal

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I spoke to @msnownews about Iryna Terekh, the former furniture maker who is now CEO of Ukraine’s largest private defense company and is overseeing production of the drones that are battering Russia. Link for the story is in my bio. by @mjluxmoore

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2 months ago

London it’s a wrap (in 60 boxes). Next: Berlin 🇩🇪 by @mjluxmoore

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4 months ago

Russia’s war against Ukraine has already shown the world a new type of warfare dominated by aerial drones. But on the ground, remotely controlled vehicles are the latest technological evolution.⁠
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At the link in our bio, WSJ takes you to the front lines of Ukraine's ground drone revolution.⁠
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📷: Amanda Bailly for @wsjphotos by @mjluxmoore

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5 months ago

I took a (very bumpy) ride on a Ukrainian ground drone for our new WSJ video about how these remotely controlled vehicles are revolutionising warfare and saving lives of soldiers trapped in enemy territory. Watch our team’s full dispatch via the link in my bio.

#ukraine #ugv #ukrainewar #miltec by @mjluxmoore

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5 months ago

One week since Hungarians unseated Orbán in one of the most surreal and consequential elections I’ve ever covered. The ubiquitous propaganda billboards are now gone, and Péter Magyar is preparing to take over parliament. Still can’t believe he did it - or the scale of Orbán’s loss. Thanks to @emastrauss and @robertlaszlobacsi 🇭🇺 by @mjluxmoore

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6 months ago

Some outtakes from our recent trip to Barentsburg with @andreagjest and @stuartthomsonfoto. Shot for a video dispatch filmed to accompany the text piece linked in bio
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#svalbard #arctic #barentsburg #polarnight by @mjluxmoore

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8 months ago

We traveled 4 hours by snowmobile during the polar night in Svalbard to reach the Russian Arctic mining town of Barentsburg for this WSJ dispatch (link in bio).

It took half an hour to don all of our layers for the trip in -20 degrees Celsius, including avalanche beacons and a comms system that can alert Norwegian emergency crews to send a helicopter for us.

With stunning shots by @andreagjest.

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BARENTSBURG, Norway—This coal mining town about 800 miles from the North Pole is part of Norway, a founding member of NATO. And yet, the salaries here are paid in rubles, TVs broadcast Russian government channels and Russian SIM cards are used in phones.

The local school, located on a street named after a famed Russian explorer, has three dozen children learning the Russian curriculum. The Russian tricolor flag is ubiquitous.

Barentsburg is part of the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard—a geopolitical oddity created by a 1920 treaty that gave Norway sovereignty over the territory but granted access to many countries, including Russia, China and the U.S., on the condition that all sides refrain from using it for military purposes.

Now, concerns here are mounting that Russia’s growing military footprint in the Arctic and President Trump’s threats to annex Greenland risk upending decades of tense calm in the High North. Unlike in Greenland, which Trump falsely contends is “covered with Russian and Chinese ships,” Russia and China have a real presence in Svalbard—and are deepening their cooperation.

The mayor of the Norwegian town of Longyearbyen—around four hours from Barentsburg by snowmobile—swept his hand over a map of the Arctic Circle on a recent morning. Almost two dozen white boxes to the east, southeast and across the Arctic Ocean from Svalbard marked the locations of Russian military bases.

“People spend a lot of time discussing what Trump will say next,” said the mayor, Terje Aunevik, referring to the town’s 2,600 residents, two-thirds of whom are Norwegian citizens. “But we stick to our strategy: Keep calm, be predictable and work with allies.”

That strategy, a pillar of Norway’s policy toward the Arctic for decades, has come under strain. taken in Svalbard by @mjluxmoore

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8 months ago

When 1,500 paramilitaries descended on a city in northeastern Lithuania last month, @eveit and I were there to document their rapid takeover of government buildings and critical infrastructure.

It was all part of a huge military exercise organised by the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union to prepare for what many in Lithuania now fear: a Russian invasion.

Watch our video dispatch, filmed by @eveit, as we follow the LRU and go inside the homes of its members to understand why regular Lithuanian citizens take up arms and dedicate their free evenings and weekends to prepare for war.

Link in bio.

While LRU leaders and Lithuanian officials say there is no imminent threat of a Russian invasion, the group, backed by the country’s military, insists the small Baltic nation can’t take chances.

“We’re preparing because you cannot just sit on the bench,” said Lt. Col. Linas Idzelis, the LRU’s commander. “Everybody needs to know their role in a formation and have the skills to fight.”
#lithuania #ukraine #vilnius #nato by @mjluxmoore

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a year ago

The happiest day of my life on film camera by @tompoc__

For someone who writes for a living it’s strange to be at a loss for words. But there are many more photos to come, and plenty of time for me to figure out how to describe the perfect day in one caption 🤍 by @mjluxmoore

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a year ago

I’d never presume to compare myself with Chekhov (!) but I was flattered to appear on Yale writing coach Charles Euchner’s blog on the craft of storytelling, and the opportunity to speak at length about the nuts and bolts of putting together my WSJ long-form narrative about the harrowing experience of a Russian soldier in Ukraine, published in July. You can read my interview and watch the video clips at the link in the first comment. by @mjluxmoore

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a year ago

Interviewing Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov last month for our story on the secret communications channel that has enabled Ukraine and Russia to swap over 10,000 POWs over the past 3.5 years of war - an unprecedented success for two countries actively at war, and a sign of hope in the event a peace deal is eventually reached.

With Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson. Photos by @maslovsaslov. Link in bio
#Ukraine #POWs #Peace taken in Kyiv, Ukraine by @mjluxmoore

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a year ago

The prison in east Ukraine where I first met Mikhail Simdyankin, a Russian soldier who left a good life in St. Petersburg to join Moscow’s brutal war machine in Ukraine, and was lucky to survive.

We hear a great deal about the Ukrainian side of this war. But we very rarely hear the experience of the average Russian soldier. Simdyankin told me his harrowing story over several interviews in three different locations. It was hard to believe - but it’s completely true.

Link to article in bio. First and last photo mine, rest by @maslovsaslov. by @mjluxmoore

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a year ago