What happened in the Russia-Ukraine war this week? Catch up with the must-read news and analysis

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Every week we wrap up the must-reads from our coverage of the war in Ukraine, from news and features to analysis, visual guides and opinion.

Treason, betrayal and grief in Hroza

Fifty-nine people died and six were wounded last week when a Russian missile hit a cafe hosting a wake for a Ukrainain soldier in the village of Hroza. It was one of the worst episodes in Moscow’s bloody war. According to Kyiv’s SBU intelligence agency, it was also a story of treason and betrayal, Luke Harding and Phil Caller reported.

 

 

For seven months last year, Russian soldiers occupied Hroza. They moved into private houses, looted cars and demanded vodka. Most villagers resented their new foreign overlords. A few welcomed them. They included two brothers, Volodymyr and Dmytro Mamon, who grew up in the village and served as police officers. Both, it is alleged, defected to the Russian side.

In early October, the brothers allegedly began collecting information about a funeral. “Volodymyr Mamon gave this information to the Russians,” the SBU alleges.

The SBU says Mamon knew that the locals who had tipped him off about the event would be inside the cafe. He understood they “would surely die”. Chat messages released by the agency suggest Mamon held a grudge against one attender. In one, he asks to be reminded of the name of the cafe “back in the homeland”. In another, he writes: “Tell me when he is dead.”

An icy mood in the Arctic town of Barentsburg

Until recently, the mostly Russian and Ukrainian residents of the Russian-owned town of Barentsburg have had remarkably warm relations with their predominantly Norwegian Arctic neighbours along the coast in the settlement of Longyearbyen. There were regular cultural exchanges, with visiting symphony orchestras and children’s choirs, chess competitions and sport fixtures.

But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the two communities have found themselves on the edge of the west’s last remaining interaction point with Russia. And the mood has turned decidedly icy, Miranda Bryant reported.

 

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