The Tarbabys Blog

Business Insider

Putin will ‘likely’ resort to imposing martial law in Russia to support his invasion of Ukraine, US intel chief says

Rebecca Cohen and John Haltiwanger – May 10, 2022

• Russian President Vladimir Putin will “likely” impose martial law in Russia to support the war in Ukraine, a top US intelligence chief warned.
• Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Putin may turn to “more drastic means” to keep his war going in Ukraine.
• She added that the US believes Putin is “preparing for prolonged conflict in Ukraine.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin will “likely” impose martial law in Russia to support the war in Ukraine, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Tuesday.

Haines told lawmakers on Tuesday that Putin may turn to “more drastic means” to keep his war going in Ukraine.

In addition to instituting martial law, Putin may also order more industrial production to make up for lost resources in the war, or order “potentially escalatory military actions to free up the resources needed to achieve his objectives as the conflict drags on, or if he perceives Russia is losing in Ukraine.”

The US spy chief said that the intelligence community does not believe there’s an imminent threat of Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Haines said Putin would only authorize the use of a nuclear weapon if he felt there was an existential threat to Russia. But she underscored that “could be the case in the event that he perceives that he is losing the war in Ukraine, and that NATO in effect is either intervening or about to intervene in that context, which would obviously contribute to a perception that he is about to lose the war in Ukraine,” per the Guardian.

Haines also said in her testimony that US intelligence believes Putin is “preparing for prolonged conflict in Ukraine during which he still intends to achieve goals beyond the Donbas.”

Russia reoriented its invasion of Ukraine to focus on the country’s eastern Donbas region after its forces stalled outside the capital Kyiv and were ultimately forced to withdraw. Putin’s forces have been accused of numerous war crimes against Ukrainians, including indiscriminate bombings of residential areas and the execution of innocent civilians.

The US and its allies have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over the war, while providing Kyiv with billions in military and humanitarian assistance — including lethal aid.

But Haines told lawmakers that Putin is “probably counting on US and EU resolve to weaken as food shortages, inflation and energy prices get worse,” stating that the Russian leader “most likely also judges that Russia has a greater ability and willingness to endure challenges than his adversaries.” The penalties slapped on Russia have rippled across the global economy, which raises questions about how long countries will be able to maintain the political will to punish Moscow.

The Russian ruble took a major hit in the early days of the war, but has made a remarkable recovery. And in spite of the historic economic penalties slapped on Russia over Putin’s unprovoked war, the Russian economy continues to rake in billions from energy experts. Moscow effectively has much Europe in an energy chokehold. In the first two months following the onset of the war, Russia exported $66 billion in fossil fuels, per a recent report from the Centre of Research on Energy and Clean Air.

The EU is especially reliant on Russian energy. Roughly 40% of Europe’s natural gas imports come from Russia as well as 27% of its oil imports. That said, the EU is moving to phase out Russian oil imports, though obstacles remain.

NBC News Today

Harrowing photos offer rare glimpse of wounded soldiers in besieged Mariupol steel plant

Danielle Campoamor – May 10, 2022

Warning: The following contains graphic images.

Photos of badly wounded Ukrainian soldiers trapped in a steel plant in Mariupol give a rare look at the conditions of those fighting Russia’s ongoing attempts to take control of the city.

Lt. Ilya Samoilenko, a 27-year-old staff officer for the elite Ukrainian Azov Regiment, has been trapped in the Azovstal steel plant in besieged Mariupol for more than 70 days.

Samoilenko shared photos with TODAY Parents to put a spotlight on his injured comrades and the doctors trying to keep them alive inside the steel plant’s basement.

“I’m OK, relatively,” Samoilenko told TODAY Parents via the Telegram messaging app. “Hungry, but not starving. Water is not enough. Health … well, I did not lose any more limbs than before.”

Samoilenko said he lost his left arm and right eye four years ago. “It’s a long story, from a previous life,” he explained. He said he also has some shrapnel in his leg.

“I’m still in a fight,” he added. “And there are hundreds of guys like me. We’re standing tall on missing legs. We hold weapons in lost arms. We are in a fight, and we are going to fight until the end.”

With limited access to food, water, medication and equipment, doctors have been treating severed limbs, head wounds, severe lacerations, gunshot wounds and broken bones inside the steel plant. Samoilenko described the doctors as “living heroes” and “legends.”

“Ninety percent of our servicemen are wounded,” Samoilenko said. “A lot of people recovered from lighter injuries, and they are back in the fight. Through pain, through struggle, well, you know, you have no choice. When you must fight, you’re rising up — with pain, with physical damage, but you are fighting.”

Related: Hope and defiance: A Ukrainian soldier shares what life is like inside Mariupol steel plant

Over the weekend, all the women, children and elderly Ukrainian civilians believed to be trapped in the Azovstal steel plant with the soldiers were safely evacuated.

There are at least 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers still fighting in the port city of Mariupol.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s attacks in the east of Ukraine have increased. At least 60 people were feared dead after a Russian airstrike on a school in eastern Ukraine on Saturday afternoon.

Related: Jill Biden visits Ukraine border as Russia doubles down on attacks

Russian forces also have increased their attacks on Odesa, another key port city located on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. On Monday, Russian missiles hit a shopping center and a warehouse, killing one person and injuring five more.

Zelenskyy also has described the situation in Mariupol as “extremely severe.”

The soldiers of the Azov Regiment demanded the “immediate evacuation of wounded servicemen in Ukrainian-controlled territories” so they could be “assisted and provided with proper care.”

“The servicemen you see in the photos and hundreds more at the Azovstal plant defended Ukraine and the entire civilized world, with serious injuries at the cost of their own health,” said a Telegram post made by a member of the Azov Regiment.

“Are Ukraine and the world community now unable to protect and take care of them?”

Associated Press

Ukrainians make gains in east, hold on at Mariupol mill

Elena Becatoros and Jon Gambrell – May 10, 2022

• A Ukrainian serviceman inspects a site after an airstrike by Russian forces in Bahmut, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
• In this photo provided by Azov Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard Press Office, an Azov Special Forces Regiment’s serviceman, injured during fighting against Russian forces, poses for a photographer inside the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, (Dmytro ‘Orest’ Kozatskyi/Azov Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard Press Office via AP)
• Destroyed Russian military vehicles lie in a garbage dump in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
• A Ukrainian Su-25 jet flies after an attack on Russian positions in Donetsk region, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
• UNCH staff speak to an elderly Ukrainian refugee woman during a visit by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to a refugee facility housing Ukrainian refugees in Chisinau, Moldova,. (AP Photo/Aurel Obreja)
• A local residence rides a bike past a destroyed Russian military vehicle in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
• A sign that reads “Mines” placed on a road where unexploded devices were found after shelling of Russian forces in Maksymilyanivka, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
• People stand near a destroyed building on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, The Ukrainian military said Russian forces fired seven missiles a day earlier from the air at the crucial Black Sea port of Odesa, hitting a shopping center and a warehouse. (AP Photo/Max Pshybyshevsky)
• Children wait for a meal in the Orthodox Skete in honor of St. John of Shanghai in Adamivka, near Slovyansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
• A man walks past the monument of St. John of Shanghai covered with sandbags in a yard the Orthodox Skete in honour of St. John of Shanghai in Adamivka, near Slovyansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
• In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba speaks during a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine, (Valentyn Ogirenko/Pool via AP)
• A de-miner wearing protective gear works in an area where unexploded devices were found after shelling of Russian forces in Maksymilyanivka, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
• An Ukrainian firefighter works near a destroyed building on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, The Ukrainian military said Russian forces fired seven missiles a day earlier from the air at the crucial Black Sea port of Odesa, hitting a shopping center and a warehouse. (AP Photo/Max Pshybyshevsky)
• Orthodox Sister Evdokia gestures in front of the crater of an explosion, after Russian shelling next to the Orthodox Skete in honour of St. John of Shanghai in Adamivka, near Slovyansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
• A Ukrainian serviceman talks with a local resident after de-mining the residential area after shelling of Russian forces in Maksymilyanivka, Ukraine, (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)In this photo provided by Azov Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard Press Office, an Azov Special Forces Regiment’s serviceman receives treatment inside the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, (Dmytro ‘Orest’ Kozatskyi/Azov Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard Press Office via AP)
• Stepan and Anastasia sit at a public park as the sun sets in Kyiv Ukraine on (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv’s military has made small gains in the east, pushing Russian forces out of four villages near Kharkiv, as his country’s foreign minister suggested Ukraine could go beyond just forcing Russia back to areas it held before the invasion began 11 weeks ago.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba voiced what appeared to be increasing confidence — and expanded goals — amid Russia’s stalled offensive in the east, telling the Financial Times that Ukraine initially believed victory would be the withdrawal of Russian troops to positions they occupied before the Feb. 24 invasion. But that’s no longer the case.

“Now if we are strong enough on the military front, and we win the battle for Donbas, which will be crucial for the following dynamics of the war, of course the victory for us in this war will be the liberation of the rest of our territories,” Kuleba said.

Russian forces have made advances in the Donbas and control more of it than they did before the war began. But Kuleba’s statement — which seemed to reflect political ambitions more than battlefield realities — highlighted how Ukraine has stymied a larger, better-armed Russian military, surprising many who had anticipated a much quicker end to the conflict.

One of the most dramatic examples of Ukraine’s ability to prevent easy victories is in Mariupol, where Ukrainian fighters holed up at a steel plant have denied Russia full control of the city. The regiment defending the plant said Russian warplanes continued bombarding it, striking 34 times in 24 hours.

In recent days, the United Nations and the Red Cross organized a rescue of what some officials said were the last civilians trapped at the plant. But two officials said Tuesday that about 100 were believed to still be in the complex’s underground tunnels. Donetsk regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said those who remain are people “that the Russians have not selected” for evacuation.

Kyrylenko and Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor, did not say how they knew civilians were still in the complex — a warren of tunnels and bunkers spread over 11 square kilometers (4 square miles). Others said their statements were impossible to confirm.

Fighters with the Azov regiment released photos of their wounded comrades inside the plant, including some with amputated limbs. They said the wounded were living in unsanitary conditions “with open wounds bandaged with non-sterile remnants of bandages, without the necessary medication and even food.”

In its statement on Telegram, the regiment appealed to the U.N and Red Cross to evacuate the wounded servicemen to Ukrainian-controlled territories.

The photos could not be independently verified.

Ukraine said Tuesday that Russian forces fired seven missiles at Odesa a day earlier, hitting a shopping center and a warehouse in the country’s largest port. One person was killed and five wounded, the military said.

Images showed a burning building and debris — including a tennis shoe — in a heap of destruction in the city on the Black Sea. Mayor Gennady Trukhanov later visited the warehouse and said it “had nothing in common with military infrastructure or military objects.”

Since President Vladimir Putin’s forces failed to take Kyiv early in the war, his focus has shifted to the eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas. But one general has suggested Moscow’s aims also include cutting Ukraine’s maritime access to both the Black and Azov seas.

That would also give Russia a swath of territory linking it to both the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized in 2014, and Transnistria, a pro-Moscow region of Moldova.

Even if Russia falls short of severing Ukraine from the coast — and it appears to lack the forces to do so — continuing missile strikes on Odesa reflect the city’s strategic importance. The Russian military has repeatedly targeted its airport and claimed it destroyed several batches of Western weapons.

Odesa is also a major gateway for grain shipments, and its blockade by Russia already threatens global food supplies. Beyond that, the city is a cultural jewel, dear to Ukrainians and Russians alike, and targeting it carries symbolic significance.

With Russian forces struggling to gain ground in the Donbas, military analysts suggest that hitting Odesa might serve to stoke concern about southwestern Ukraine, thus forcing Kyiv to put more forces there. That would pull Ukrainian units away from the eastern front as Ukraine’s military stages counteroffensives near the northeastern city of Kharkiv in an attempt to push the Russians back across the border there.

Meanwhile, Kharkiv and the surrounding area have been under sustained Russian attack since the early in the war. In recent weeks, grisly pictures testified to the horrors of those battles, with charred and mangled bodies strewn in one street.

The bodies of 44 civilians were found in the rubble of a five-story building that collapsed in March in Izyum, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Kharkiv, said Oleh Synehubov, the head of the regional administration, said Tuesday.

Russian aircraft twice launched unguided missiles Tuesday at the Sumy area northeast of Kharkiv, according to the Ukrainian border guard service. The region’s governor said the missiles hit several residential buildings, but no one was killed. The Chernihiv region, along the Ukrainian border with Belarus, was hit by mortars fired from Russian territory. There was no word on casualties there.

Zelenskyy said Tuesday that the military was gradually pushing Russian troops away from Kharkiv. The Ukrainian military’s general staff said its forces drove the Russians out of four villages to the northeast of Kharkiv as it tries to push them back toward the Russian border.

Zelenskyy also used his nightly address to pay tribute to Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of an independent Ukraine, who died Tuesday at 88. Zelenskyy said Kravchuk showed courage and knew how to get the country to listen to him.

That was particularly important in “crisis moments, when the future of the whole country may depend on the courage of one man,” said Zelenskyy, whose own communication skills and decision to remain in Kyiv when it came under Russian attack helped make him a strong wartime leader.

___

Gambrell reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Yesica Fisch in Bakhmut, David Keyton in Kyiv, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Kelvin Chan in London and AP’s worldwide staff contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Reuters

Ukraine to halt some Russian gas flows, claims battlefield gains

Jonathan Landay – May 10, 2022

KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -Ukraine prepared to suspend the flow of some Russian gas to Europe through a key transit point on Wednesday, as it claimed battlefield gains over invading Russian forces, including the recapture of four villages around the second city of Kharkiv.

Ukraine has remained a major route for Russian gas to Europe even after President Vladimir Putin ordered what he called a “special military operation” on Feb. 24.

Mounting Western sanctions are seeking to ban or phase out the use of Russian energy, a major source of funds for Putin’s war effort and a vulnerability for Europe, especially Germany.

Blaming the interference of Russian occupying forces for the suspension, Ukraine’s gas operator said it would redirect gas from the Sokhranivka transit point, which is in an area occupied by Russian forces, to another in a Ukraine-controlled area.

Since Russia was forced to abandon an assault on the capital Kyiv at the end of March, its main force has been trying to encircle Ukrainian troops in the eastern Donbas region, using the city of Izyum near Kharkiv, in the northeast, as a base.

Ukrainian troops have mostly held out against assaults from three directions, and top U.S. intelligence officials say the war is now at a stalemate.

Putin appeared to be preparing for a long conflict, and a Russian victory in the Donbas region might not end the war, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in Washington on Tuesday.

But the counterattack near Kharkiv could signal a new phase, with Ukraine going on the offensive and supply lines into Russia now potentially vulnerable.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian successes were gradually pushing Russian forces out of Kharkiv, which has been under bombardment since the war began.

“But I also want to urge all our people … not to spread excessive emotions. We should not create an atmosphere of excessive moral pressure, where victories are expected weekly and even daily,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.

GATHERING BODIES

In the villages of Staryi Saltiv and Vilkhivka near Kharkiv, Ukrainian servicemen gathered the bodies of Russian soldiers who were killed in the fighting, according to Reuters witnesses.

Russian forces were trying to prevent Ukrainian troops from moving further towards the border in the Kharkiv region and were trying to fully take over the town of Rubizhne, Ukraine’s general staff said early on Wednesday.

Ukrainian border guards reported Russian forces were shelling Sumy and Chernihiv regions close to the border.

“Enemy aircraft twice launched non-guided missiles on border areas of Sumy. There were also two instances of mortar shelling in Chernihiv region,” they said on their Telegram channel.

In the south, Ukrainian armed forces said they struck nine enemy targets, with enemy losses of 79 servicemen and 12 pieces of equipment, including armoured vehicles and howitzers.

Russian fire was concentrated on the Mykolaiv region where private homes were damaged as well as farms and power lines to one town.

Russian forces continued to pummel the Azovstal steelworks in the southern port of Mariupol with artillery, tanks and aircraft bombing, Ukraine’s general staff said, trying to capture the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the ruined city.

Ukraine says tens of thousands of people have been killed in the city under two months of Russian siege.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports of fighting.

Scores of civilians have been evacuated from the steelworks in recent days, but an aide to Mariupol’s mayor, Petro Andryushchenko, said at least 100 remained inside.

The number of Ukrainians who have fled their country is approaching 6 million, according to the United Nations, which says the refugee crisis is the fastest growing since World War Two.

Russia denies targeting civilians and rejects Ukrainian and Western allegations of war crimes.

(Additional reporting Tom Balmforth in Kyiv; Writing by Rami Ayyub and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Stephen Coates, Robert Birsel)

Business Insider

Ukraine mocked Russia’s ‘Victory Day’ by holding a ‘parade’ of captured Russian tanks

Natalie Musumeci – May 9, 2022

• Ukraine’s military mocked Russia’s “Victory Day” by holding what it said was a “parade” of “trophy” tanks.
• The Ukrainian Defense Ministry tweeted that its forces were “ruining the holiday for the occupiers.”
• Every year, Russia celebrates Victory Day with a grand military parade in Moscow’s Red Square.

Ukraine’s government mocked Russia’s celebration of “Victory Day” by holding what it said was a “parade” of tanks that Ukrainian forces captured from Russian troops amid Moscow’s war with the eastern European country.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a tweet on Wednesday that the Ukrainian military’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade “held a parade of trophy Russian tanks, ruining the holiday for the occupiers,” in reference to Victory Day.

“Maybe aggressors think that by arming #UAarmy with Russian trophy equipment, it will affect the turn of NATO-style armament? New clever plan,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry taunted in the tweet.

Russia’s annual Victory Day, held on May 9, commemorates the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Every year, Russia marks the occasion with a grand military parade in Moscow’s Red Square.

This year, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day speech passed without a single direct mention of Ukraine or a declaration of all-out war, despite Western officials’ warnings that Putin may escalate the conflict around the holiday.

In his speech, Putin ripped NATO expansion, accused the US of aggression, and called Ukraine and its leaders Nazis — claims he previously used to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

When Putin announced his invasion of Ukraine, he said he was seeking the “denazification” of Ukraine, a country whose democratically elected leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish.

“The West was preparing for the invasion of Russia. NATO was creating tensions at the borders. They did not want to listen to Russia. They had other plans,” Putin said in his Victory Day speech. “You are fighting for the motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of World War II, so that there is no place in the world for executioners, punishers, and Nazis.”

Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and the war has since left thousands dead on both sides, including many Ukrainian civilians.

In recent weeks, Russia has focused its attacks in Ukraine on the eastern Donbas region after Russian troops failed to take the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

Ukrayinska Pravda

Impossible to return to the liberated villages of Kharkiv Region: there are many mines and trip wires; fatalities reported

Valentyna Romanenko – May 9, 2022

Police urge people not to return to their houses in the liberated settlements of Kharkiv Region: it is extremely dangerous.

Source: Serhii Bolvinov, Head of the Investigative Department of the National Police in Kharkiv Region, on Facebook

Details: In recent days, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated a number of settlements in the Kharkiv region. Many residents of these places have a clear desire to return home. For the time being, this is extremely dangerous, says Bolvinov.

First, because of the continuation of hostilities and the close proximity to the front line, and second, because of the huge number of unexploded ordnance and mines left behind by the fleeing army of invaders.

Quote: “Unfortunately, yesterday during demining under the bridge in the village of Tsyrkuny, the bodies of two civilian women were found, who were blown up by a trip wire.

For your own safety, do not return to the liberated settlements! Please spread this information to those who intend to do so. First we liberate, then demine and after that, return.”

Reuters

Ukraine calls for moves to unblock ports and prevent global food crisis

Pavel Polityuk – May 9, 2022

An agricultural worker drives a tractor spreading fertilizers to a field of winter wheat in Kiev region

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s president said on Monday that trade at the country’s ports was at a standstill and urged the international community to take immediate steps to end a Russian blockade to allow wheat shipments and prevent a global food crisis.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy made the comments after speaking to European Council President Charles Michel, who was visiting Odesa – the major Black Sea port for exporting agricultural products where missiles struck tourist sites and destroyed buildings on Monday.

“For the first time in decades and decades, in Odesa there is no regular movement of the merchant fleet, there is no routine port work. This has probably never happened in Odesa since World War Two,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.

“And this is a blow not only to Ukraine. Without our agricultural exports, dozens of countries in different parts of the world are already on the brink of food shortages. And over time, the situation can become, frankly, frightening.”

Ukraine was the world’s fourth-largest exporter of maize (corn) in the 2020/21 season and the No.6 wheat exporter, according to International Grains Council data. But nearly 25 million tonnes of grains are now stuck in Ukraine, a U.N. food agency official said on Friday.

“Immediate measures must be taken to unblock Ukrainian ports for wheat exports,” Zelenskiy said earlier on his Telegram messaging channel.

He did not specify what measures he was seeking. NATO countries including the United States have ruled out armed intervention for fear of triggering a wider war.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who visited Kyiv on Sunday, said his country would help Ukraine work out options on how to export stored grain.

SILOS OF BLOCKED GRAIN

Michel, who chairs summits of the European Union’s national leaders, wrote on Twitter that he had seen silos full of grain, wheat and corn in Odesa that was ready for export but blocked.

“This badly needed food is stranded because of the Russian war and blockade of Black Sea ports. Causing dramatic consequences for vulnerable countries. We need a global response,” he wrote.

Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports since the invasion on Feb. 24 has added to volatility in international financial markets, sending commodity prices higher.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week the problem of food security cannot be solved without restoring Ukrainian production to the world market.

Ukrainian agriculture officials say the exportable surplus is around 12 million tonnes, and agriculture analysts have said Ukraine’s stocks are so high that there will not be enough room to store the new harvest when it comes.

Ukraine has sown about 7 million hectares of spring crops this year, or 25-30% less than a year earlier, Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said on Monday.

He said Ukraine had exported 1.090 million tonnes of grain in April, but that the sowing was not of the same quality as last year and the sowing area for corn was smaller.

Moscow says its “special operation” in Ukraine is designed to disarm and denazify its smaller neighbour. Ukraine and the West say this is a false pretext for an unprovoked war of aggression by Russia.

(Addition reporting by Max Hunder in Kyiv and Ronald Popeski in Winnipeg; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Himani Sarkar)

The Telegraph

Russia admits it faces economic collapse over Putin’s war

Louis Ashworth – May 9, 2022

Russia’s economy has plunged into its worst crisis for almost three decades as the country is battered by Western sanctions, a leaked copy of the Kremlin’s own forecasts shows.

The Russian finance ministry is predicting a 12pc collapse in GDP this year, the biggest contraction since 1994 when it was shifting towards capitalism under Boris Yeltsin, the first post-Soviet president.

A collapse would wipe out around a decade of economic growth.

The leak will pile pressure on Vladimir Putin, who on Monday presided over a scaled-down version of Russia’s annual Victory Day parade marking the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Russia has been hammered by heavy sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, which are about to be ratcheted up further as Brussels discusses a ban on oil from the country.

It has left the Kremlin teetering on the edge of a default after it last week narrowly avoided a failure to pay foreign debts for the first time since the Bolshevik revolution a century ago.

The Kremlin has yet to issue a public economic outlook, but the finance ministry’s figures – seen by Bloomberg – are more pessimistic than the central bank’s forecasts of a contraction between 8pc and 10pc this year.

The International Monetary Fund expects an 8.5pc decline. The dire figures emerged as Mr Putin appeared at a Victory Day parade in Moscow.

The president did not use a speech to formally declare war against Ukraine or announce a larger-scale mobilisation, continuing to refer to the conflict as a “special operation”.

Krishna Guha, an analyst at Evercore, said Mr Putin “is wary of risking domestic support for the war through mass conscription”.

Meanwhile, European officials are locked in talks over how to press ahead with a mooted buying ban on Russian oil and gas.

The European Commission is reportedly mulling offering more money to landlocked eastern European countries to build support for a ban, which is facing stiff opposition from Hungary.

Britain and the UShave already vowed to ditch Russian oil, and European countries are also seeking to wean themselves off gas supplies from Moscow. Russia’s central bank has repeatedly slashed interest rates in recent weeks after raising them at the onset of conflict.

The cuts, aimed at driving spending, came despite a surge in inflation to 17.7pc.

Speaking in late April, governor Elvira Nabiullina warned of a severe recession, soaring prices and severe disruption to Russia’s labour market. She said the Russian economy would likely then remain stagnant in 2023.

Official figures showed Russia’s economy grew by 3.7pc in the first quarter, but Ms Nabiullina said this was a temporary boost driven by people stocking up on the goods.

Russia’s economy shrank by 3pc during 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and 7.8pc in 2009 amid the global financial crisis. Business surveys suggest activity is continuing to contract as sanctions cause demand to dry up.

Bosses are increasingly pessimistic about the conditions they face as they whittle down work backlogs amid falling orders.

Companies are firing staff and trying to cut costs as they grapple with soaring cost inflation, according to the latest purchasing managers’ index data from S&P Global.

Several of the world’s biggest shipping companies are boycotting Russia, piling further inflationary and supply pressure on the country.

Survey data tracked by Goldman Sachs suggests Russian economic activity is stabilising at about 10pc below pre-invasion levels.

“Overall, mid-term developments will depend on how effectively Russia can substitute imports and redirect (energy) exports,” said analyst Clemens Grafe.