Iona Cleave

About Me

I work full-time as a foreign news reporter at The Sun, covering anything from the Ukraine war, gang violence or the Israel-Gaza conflict - bringing in big exclusives and regularly scooping the daily top story.

I previously worked on the online desk at Agence France-Presse (AFP) and as a general reporter at the Brixton Bugle.

In 2022, I graduated with a distinction in MA International Journalism from City, University of London.

Endlessly nosey, a prolific oversharer, and  pretty terrible with a film camera (but they seem to make nice backgrounds).

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Featured & latest work

The Sun •

Six ways Ukraine can win war and humiliate Vlad by storming Crimea, crippling warships & bulldozing Russians with drones

UKRAINE today marks the bloody second anniversary of Putin's vicious war - but Russia could be defeated in "the next year".

Military analysts told The Sun that there are six major ways Kyiv can break through the "slugfest" and smash Putin's forces - but the West must never lose hope in a Ukrainian victory.

It is a difficult moment for Ukraine. The conflict has ground into a painful war of attrition - a bloody stalemate characterised by ferocious fighting that more resembles 1916 than 2024.
The Sun •

Why Ukraine must retake Crimea annexed by Putin 10 years ago to finally defeat Russia – this is how they could do it

RUSSIA invaded the Ukrainian territory of Crimea ten long years ago today - but it is still the most "decisive terrain" in the battle against Putin.

Kyiv has always had a bold battle plan to recapture the highly strategic peninsula and military analysts told The Sun that "if Crimea falls, Vladimir Putin could too".

A decade ago, unmarked Russian tanks moved into the Crimean peninsula and so began a grinding and painful war that would eventually be fought all across Ukraine.
The Sun •

How Navalny became the face of freedom - before paying the ultimate price

PUTIN'S most feared opponent who the despot locked up - after all but certainly trying to poison - has died.

Activist and opposition leader Alexei Navalny, 47, spent his final years suffering inside a hellhole Arctic prison - paying the ultimate price for daring to take on the Kremlin boss.

Navalny, the most visible and longstanding critic of President Putin, had been locked up for three decades last August on trumped-up charges of treason and extremism - charges he always denied.
The Sun •

Excl: Iran is biggest threat to world order, warns former ambassador

As new battle lines are drawn across the map, Iran is increasingly finding ways to fuse its interest with autocratic regimes to form an anti-Western axis of evil

REIGN OF TERROR Iran is biggest threat to world order – they want to watch the world burn starting with Israel, former ambassador warns

IRAN’S murderous regime is hellbent on destruction far beyond the Middle East - and it poses the greatest threat to world order, warns a former US ambassador.

Mark Wallace told The Sun that obtaining
The Sun •

Excl: I’m a Ukrainian spending Xmas in trenches - we'll celebrate when Vlad is beaten

A BRAVE but war-weary soldier is spending Christmas shivering in trenches and missing fallen comrades - but vowed she will always find the strength to fight on.

Frontline combat medic Inna Korolenko said there will be no time for festive celebrations until Russia is defeated.

On Christmas Eve, Inna wants the world to remember that Ukraine is still at war and currently facing down an unrelenting Russian winter offensive.

Speaking to The Sun, she explained that it's hard to be apart from her fa
The Sun •

Ukraine's apocalyptic battle for city as Putin suffers ‘war's worst losses’

FIELDS of decomposing bodies are building up as Ukraine bravely "holds back the enemy" at a key eastern city.

There is no building left intact in shattered Avdiivka as a desperate Vladimir Putin throws his troops into meat-grinder assaults to try to secure a winter victory.

Since mid-October, Russian forces have been bearing down on the devastated city of Avdiivka - known as the gateway to the major city of Donetsk that lies 12 miles to the east.

The city has become the central battleground i
The Sun •

Excl: Wagner still waging secret war earning £8m-a-month to massacre civilians

RUSSIA'S Wagner Group are still waging a secret war earning £8million a month to reign terror for brutal warlords in Mali.

It’s a standard play for the mercenary army that terrorises, maims and murders on behalf of the Russian state in exchange for blood gold to feed Putin’s war machine, experts told The Sun.

The Wagner Group, which for years was ruled by oligarch and warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin until he met his fiery end in August, has spent decades secretly digging their claws into Africa.

Th
The Sun •

Excl: I’ve been in world’s worst prisons …crime lords behead enemies & burn them alive

FROM beheaded bodies to bloody-thirsty gang lords, a man who has seen inside Honduras and El Salvador's infamous prisons has revealed they are hell on earth.

Marcel Osorto, an investigative journalist from Honduras, told The Sun of the horrors he saw after entering the jails after their "darkest and deadliest days".

Osorto has devoted years to researching organised crime in his country and its neighbouring so-called “prison state” of El Salvador.

He has seen first-hand both the terror and rut
The Sun •

IDF wipe out Hamas chief who held hostages in hospital amid battle for Gaza City

Israel confirmed today it was advancing and operating near all hospitals in northern Gaza where thousands of civilians are sheltering

WARZONE IDF wipe out Hamas chief who held hostages inside children’s hospital as forces battle terror brigade in Gaza City

ISRAEL says it killed a Hamas commander who held a thousand terrified Palestinian civilians hostage inside a children's hospital.

It comes as Israel Defence Forces have been engaged in "significant battles" with Hamas inside bomb-blitzed Ga
The Sun •

Inside battle for Ukraine city where Vlad has 'suffered worst losses of 2023'

AS the world watched the Israel-Gaza conflict unfold, Vladimir Putin threw all he had at a key eastern Ukrainian city.

The meat-grinder battle for Avdiivka has become the newest, most deadly clash to take place across Ukraine's frozen eastern frontlines as Russia suffers its worst losses of the year.

Since mid-October, Russian forces have been bearing down on the shattered city of Avdiivka - known as the gateway to the major city of Donetsk that lies 12 miles to the east.

The UK Ministry of D
The Sun •

Excl: Israel cares more about Gaza civilians than Hamas does, ex-ambassador says

ISRAEL cares more about civilians in Gaza than Hamas ever has, the ex-Israeli ambassador to the UK has warned.

Mark Regev has accused Hamas of trapping civilians within the battlefield and using them as human shields to "protect the terrorist machine".

As the war grinds on for its fifth week, Israeli troops have surrounded Gaza City and moved in - destroying Hamas strongholds and sending tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing from the carnage.

However, Israel says roughly 100,000 civilians
The Sun •

PM Netanyahu vows to 'exterminate bloody monsters' as troops surround Gaza

ISRAEL's prime minister this afternoon vowed to "exterminate the bloody monsters" who unleashed hell on his country.

It comes as Israel's military says it has Gaza surrounded, while Hamas is reportedly blocking terrified residents from escaping the bomb-blitzed enclave.

As the ground offensive looms ever-nearer, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli troops "are ready to act at any moment, to exterminate the bloody monsters that rose up against us."

"Hamas thought we would break
The Sun •

Israel surrounds Gaza Strip... as Hamas 'blocks' civilians from escaping

ISRAEL'S military has surrounded the Gaza Strip amid plans to launch a "coordinated" attack by land, air and sea.

The move comes amid fears that Hamas is blocking terrified residents from escaping the bomb-blitzed enclave.

The Israeli military said its forces were preparing to implement a wide range of operational offensive plans as expectations grew of an imminent invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The IDF said its forces were deployed across the country, increasing operational readiness for the ne
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