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Reader Q&A: international correspondent Luke Harding answers your questions now

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Welcome to the Conversation

Luke Harding, author and award-winning foreign correspondent is replying to your questions now. He has covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and most recently Ukraine.

Luke on the road using a satellite telephone in Afghanistan in the early 2000s
Luke on the road using a satellite telephone in Afghanistan in the early 2000s Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

Key events

What impact will North Korea's support have on the Ukraine war?

Stakeman asks: Do you think the huge influx of North Korean soldiers (circa 50k?) will make a big difference on the frontline boundary battles given that we hear Ukraine drones are picking them off?

Luke:

double quotation markYes. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says North Korea is sending another 50,000 troops, in addition to the 12,000 who took part in the 2024-2025 battle for Russia’s western Kursk region. Their arrival will enable the Kremlin to send additional forces to the eastern Donbas, Putin’s main target, where intense battles continue.

Over the past year and a half North Korean soldiers have experienced modern warfare. They have learned about surveillance and kamikaze drones, which saturate the frontline. This hard-won knowledge could be employed in a future peninsula conflict with South Korea.

Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un speak and gesture with their hands on the steps, surrounded by aides
Vladimir Putin and close ally Kim Jong-un in Beijing. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says North Korea is sending another 50,000 troops. Photograph: Alexander Kazakov/AFP/Getty Images

Will you ever go back to Russia?

BenHSm asks: Do you think you will ever have the possibility to go to Russia again? And if you could, would you?

Luke:

double quotation markI was stopped at Moscow airport in 2011 and deported from the country. In 2022 Russia’s foreign ministry put me on a list of banned individuals (which also includes several of my colleagues from the Guardian.) There’s no prospect of my returning to Russia while Vladimir Putin’s regime remains in power, and his war in Ukraine continues. Nor would I want to.

But Putin isn’t eternal and at some point Russia may reckon with his decades of delusion and misrule. One fantasy: I return to Moscow as an old man and knock on the door of the Lubyanka, the FSB and KGB’s HQ. I would like to see the FSB’s secret dossier on me and to write a book in the style of Timothy Garton Ash’s marvellous memoir The File.

Luke Harding on overcoat and scarf in Red Square, Moscow, Russia on November 2010
Luke in Red Square, Moscow shortly before his deportation – he dreams of returning and seeing his FSB dossier. Photograph: Fedor Savintsev/The Guardian

Has Russia's relationship with the UK changed?

Philippeblades asks: A couple of days ago the Russian ambassador to the UK was withdrawn after seven years. How much should we read into this?

Luke:

double quotation markRussia abandoned traditional diplomacy a long time ago. Its emissaries abroad operate as suit-wearing trolls. Their job is to repeat Kremlin lies – for example, that neo-Nazis run Ukraine – to an international audience. Relations between London and Moscow have been awful for well over a decade. Russian state TV calls the UK “Foggy Albion” and periodically threatens nuclear annihilation. I don’t think we should read too much into the ambassador’s departure. But Russia’s dislike of Britain is very real.

Andrey Kelin in a suit and tie, gesturing while holding a pen
Andrey Kelin, Russian ambassador to the UK, left last month as tensions with have ratcheted up. Photograph: Jeff Overs/PA

Who is your biggest journalistic influence?

leeabroad asks: The days of reporters like Robert Fisk and Marie Colvin going to places and breaking stories that make news around the globe are long gone. Patrick Cockburn is nigh on 80. Who was or is your biggest journalistic influence? Who are the journalists today whose courage and reportage you most respect?

Luke:

double quotation markWhat a wonderful question. I admire my Ukrainian colleagues who continue to document the invasion of their country, often at terrible personal cost. Several have been killed and injured. There are many brave international reporters in Kyiv too, who have become dear friends. In terms of influence, I would name two great correspondents, James Cameron and Ryszard Kapuscinski. Both were superlative writers and observers. Cameron’s books - among them An Indian Summer and Point of Departure - are literary gems. And Kapuscinski’s Imperium - about the fall of the Soviet Union - is a masterpiece.

Polish writer and journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski is shown working at his typewriter in January 1986 at an unknown location
Polish writer and journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski. His book Imperium, about the fall of the Soviet Union, ‘is a masterpiece’. Photograph: Associated Press

Should the UK have taken the murder of Alexander Litvinenko more seriously?

sberney asks: Do you think the UK government should have taken the murder of Alexander Litvinenko more seriously and not have invited Putin to the 2012 Olympics in London?

Luke:

double quotation markYes. I covered Litvinenko’s case from Moscow and London and am good friends with his widow Marina. I also wrote a book, A Very Expensive Poison, which was adapted by Lucy Prebble into a successful stage play. Over the past two decades Russia has carried out various dark deeds. They include sending assassins to kill Litvinenko and Sergei Skripal, shooting down MH17 and in 2014 annexing Crimea. Typically the west’s response has been unimaginative and lacklustre. After Litvinenko’s poisoning Gordon Brown’s government expelled a few diplomats and David Cameron - as you mention - invited Putin to watch judo at the London Olympics. All of this emboldened Russia’s leader. He thought Europe was weak. This led directly to his decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The grave of murdered ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko aka ‘Sasha’ is seen at Highgate Cemetery in London. Putin was emboldened by the west’s ‘unimaginative and lacklustre’ response
The grave of poisoned ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in Highgate Cemetery. Putin was emboldened by the west’s ‘unimaginative and lacklustre’ response. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Welcome to the Conversation

Luke Harding, author and award-winning foreign correspondent is replying to your questions now. He has covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and most recently Ukraine.

Luke on the road using a satellite telephone in Afghanistan in the early 2000s
Luke on the road using a satellite telephone in Afghanistan in the early 2000s Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian