Inside Putin’s Plan to Cripple Ukraine This Winter
The Daily

Inside Putin’s Plan to Cripple Ukraine This Winter

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 19, 202629 min
  • Politics

President Trump said he was making an energy deal with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and waiving new sanctions on Moscow. Now, he’s feuding with Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia is taking advantage of the moment by relentlessly striking Kyiv, killing civilians and cutting off power for more than a million people. Constant Méheut, who is covering the war for The New York Times, explains why Mr. Putin appears so confident that Russia can bomb Ukraine into submission. Guest: Constant Méheut, a correspondent covering the war in Ukraine for Th...

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It's pretty difficult to report from Russia. Often I'm the only New York Times reporter in the country.

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B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 24%A2 34%B1 27%B2 13%C1 3%
  • 84% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 150 words a minute: a natural pace.
  • 140 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

I'm Valerie Hopkins. I cover Russia for the New York Times. It's pretty difficult to report from Russia. Often I'm the only New York Times reporter in the country. When I'm talking to Russians, people sometimes ignore me or worse. Okay, he didn't want to talk. It's not always easy approaching Russians as an American.

0:28

Sometimes these discussions are uncomfortable, but they're important because Times readers really benefit from hearing what ordinary Russians think. Very often it's different

0:39

from the expectations people might have. I keep working in Russia because what happens here matters and our audience deserves to get a broad perspective of the world that they live in.

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