Battle for Pokrovsk 'over', claims Russia & Putin ordered spy poisoning 'as show of Russian power'

Day 1,379.

Today, after Tuesday’s inconsequential meeting in Moscow, Ukrainian negotiators are updating European counterparts on Kyiv’s response before flying to meet Steve Witkoff in Miami. We consider why U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau has lambasted European NATO allies for prioritising their own defence industries over American suppliers – comments made just as another billion dollars was added to the PURL fund – and we ask whether, if Pokrovsk has indeed fallen, Russia will now shift its efforts toward Zaporizhzhia oblast. And later, we return to the GRU’s murder of British woman Dawn Sturgess by nerve agent in 2018, as the final report into her death is released.

Contributors

Dominic Nicholls (Associate Editor of Defence). @DomNicholls on X.

Francis Dearnley (Executive Editor for Audio). @FrancisDearnley on X.

Hamish De Bretton-Gordon (Former British Army Tank Commander). @HamishDBGon on X.

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CONTENT REFERENCED:

Trump: I don’t know what the Kremlin is doing (The Telegraph):

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/12/03/trump-i-dont-know-what-the-kremlin-is-doing/ 

Britain can’t let the man Putin hates most die in prison (Sir Tom Stoppard in The Telegraph):

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/19/britain-cant-let-the-man-putin-hates-most-die-in-prison/ 

The West’s Last Chance (Alexander Stubb, Finland’s President, in Foreign Affairs):

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/wests-last-chance 

Top US official berates Europe over cutting American industry out of defense buildup (POLITICO):

https://www.politico.eu/article/christopher-landau-top-us-official-berates-europe-nato-cut-industry-defense-buildup/ 

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