Economically:

The Ruble Rises, Globalization Falls:

• A Hungarian energy company is discussing the gas-for-rubles scheme with Gazprom.
• Austria says that it cannot reduce its dependency on Russian gas.
• Moldova may be left without Russian gas from May 1.
• Scholz says that “I believe that the period of globalization, when everything was very cheap, is coming to an end”
• Lavrov: “Russia’s special operation in Ukraine is designed to end the US course of world domination.”
• Peskov: “The new world order, the new financial system worldwide is in the course of establishment”

Europe:

• The World Bank estimates that Ukraine’s economy will shrink by 45% this year.
• Putin met with the agro-industrial complex, saying that he will support business activity there to support farmers, fisheries, food producers, and open new enterprises and create new jobs.
• EU’s sanctions propose banning Russian coal in a phased manner (ban delayed until August) and closing land and sea borders for Russian carriers. Russian ships cannot enter EU ports.
• EU proposes banning the export of semiconductors, machinery, and transport equipment to Rusia
• EU may also restrict potash salt imports from Russia.
• The Russian Ministry of Finance fulfilled its obligations on Eurobonds to foreign holders ($649 million), paid in rubles.
• UK only has a few weeks reserve of sunflower oil, leading the companies that use it to look for alternatives.
• Signs in Dutch supermarkets - “Expensive? Shut up! Glory to Ukraine.”
• “The losses that the Austrian economy suffers from sanctions against Russia amount to billions of euros" - Austrian Chancellor
• 58% of West Germans and 38% of East Germans support the halt of Russian oil.
• German citizens: “In general, prices have increased by about 10-15%, both for shops and cafes. There is no vegetable oil, they take away more expensive olive oil. We have started to ration out the flour, people are very afraid of a shortage (and rightly so)”

Elsewhere:

• Indian oil refiner Bharat Petroleum buys 2 million barrels of Russian oil.

Diplomatically and Politically:

Ukraine/Russia war:

• A new mayor is elected in Mariupol.
• Residents in Mariupol appear to be very angry at Zelensky and the neo-Nazis, and accepting of the pro-Russian forces and their aid. They say that Ukrainian tanks and mortars shot at residental areas despite the Russians being nowhere near them.
• Russia continues to deliver humanitarian aid, this time in Kharkov region.
• Melitopol, under Russian control, sees a demand for rubles - in some gas stations you can now pay with rubles.
• Russia and Ukraine do a prisoner swap, 86 for 86. = Ukrainian authorities say that all men who left Ukraine after hostilities broke out will be detained upon return.

Other countries interacting with the war:

• Zelensky urges South Korea to provide Ukraine with weaponry.
• Germany Foreign Ministry says that there are “hardly weapons left in the warehouses of the Bundeswehr that can be sent to Ukraine”
• Australia and UK gives armored vehicles to Ukraine.
• Germany gives weaponry to Ukraine, which will arrive in… 30 months.
• NATO is giving new heavy weapons to Ukraine as the fighting has become more concentrated, says British Foreign Secretary.
• Lotta countries continue expelling a lotta Russian diplomats.
• Russia expels 45 Polish diplomats.
• Google removes Russian Defense Ministry website from its search results.
• Russia is suspended from the Humans Right Council.
• Pentagon: “The United States believes that China and Russia have significant military capabilities and seek to change the rules-based world order.”
• Head of the Pentagon says that he’s been trying to contact his Russian colleague Shoigu, but he isn’t answering.
• US gives Ukraine 1000 Stingers and 5000 Javelins.
• Hungary will not interfere in the war and so will not give military aid to Ukraine.
• Chinese journalists find no evidence for Russian atrocities near Kiev. They report that the Russians gave the locals food.
• Turkey will not let NATO warships into the Black Sea.
• China’s Foreign Ministry: “If Washington is serious about resolving the Ukraine conflict, it should stop adding fuel to fire by imposing sanctions.”
• China’s ambassador to the UN called for a full investigation into the Bucha incident before accusing and punishing Russia.
• Russia hosts a major economic forum attended by a large Iranian delegation, seeking to expand trade and economic cooperation.

Elsewhere:

• Russian citizens expressed a record low interest in leaving the country, with only 8%, compared to 16% the year before.
• Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted and replaced with an opposition leader; Khan has declared that the efforts to remove him were a US plot. Lots of violent protests across Pakistan, and mass resignations from parliament. = Ukraine may receive EU candidacy status as soon as June.
• Iran announces oil production has reached pre-sanction levels.

Militarily:

Ukraine in general:

• Russia continues to destroy oil depots, in Kazatin, near Dnipro, near Chuguev, near Mykolaiv, near Zaporozhye
• Czech Republic sends trains with tanks on them to Ukraine.
• Ukrainians continue to surrender.
• Lots of videos and photos of surrendered Ukrainians who explain that many may want to surrender, but are forced not to because of Azov, which has implanted Nazis into their ranks and force the soldiers to receive tattoos and shoot them if they retreat or try to surrender.
• US confirms that they are providing Ukraine with intelligence for combat in Donbass.

Western Ukraine:

• Russian missiles hit military equipment in railway station in the Zhytomyr region.

Eastern Ukraine:

• LPR clears Popasna.
• LPR is fighting near Zamulovka, on the front east of Kharkov.
• LPR is fighting slowly but surely towards Severodonetsk, essentially the last major stronghold before they control their entire oblast.
• An accumulation of foreign military equipment in a railway stations near Kharkov was destroyed.
• DPR destroys a Ukrainian command post.
• Russian Defense Ministry claims that Ukrainians have mined a storage facility containing 120 tons of chlorine near Kharkiv. They plan to blow it up and then blame Russia.
• Russia advances from Izyum towards Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, continuing their encirclement of the Donbass front from the north. Even Ukraine admits that “everything is advancing”.
• DPR breaks through the defense line near Bakhmut.
• Fragments of Ukrainian missiles after a rocket attack on a railway station in Kramatorsk. 27 people killed. Russia denies involvement, and provides proof via the missiles' identification numbers.
• US reports that 10,000 Russian soldiers have arrived on the Donbass front recently.
• Russian Ministry of Defense: “Russia has almost finished preparing for the offensive operation in Donbass”
• Russia puts general Alexander Dvornikov in charge of the military campaign in Donbass.

Southern Ukraine:

• 267 Ukrainians surrender in Mariupol.
• 160 more Ukrainians surrender from the Azovstal plant.
• Two Ukrainian helicopters again try to rescue the Azov leadership from Mariupol and are again shot down.
• A journalist states that NATO officers from France, Germany, Britain, and Sweden are stuck with Azov in Mariupol, and are trying to organize a corridor for their exit.
• Russian Defense Ministry states that intercepted radio communications prove that there are foreign mercenaries in Mariupol.
• DPR uses more serious weaponry and vehicles against Azov in the industrial zone, as there is little risk of hitting residential areas or civilians now.
• DPR says that the center of the city and almost all adminstrative buildings are under their control. The remaining neo-Nazis are concentrated in the Azovstal plant and the Ilyich plant - the seaport has been cleansed.
• A training center in Ochakiv, near to Mykolaiv, was destroyed by Russian missiles.
• A railway station is destroyed in Mykolaiv.
• Extremely large explosion in Mykolaiv - the governor thought it might have been nuclear and checked the radiation levels.
• Russian Navy hits critical infrastructure in Odessa and Kirovograd.

Dipshittery and Cope:

• CEO of the Russian division of Yandex resigns, saying “I will not return. I cannot work in a country that wages war against its neighbours.” Leaves to go to Israel.
• The district of Herford, Germany, has stopped issuing license plates containing the letter Z.