Ukraine…Russia Day 1,527…No Russian Advances…Ukraine a Growing Military Power…After Putin Talk in Russia

The Ukraine IS on its way to becoming a potent European military power….

It has held Russia to a stalemate across Ukraine…..

It is exporting drones, miiisles and military advice….

This while money keeps coming into Ukraine….

The Russian economy IS hurting and across social media there are conversations about Post Putin leadership of Russia….

The Guardian…..

• Ukraine is making a surplus of up to 50% in some types of weapons and military cooperation “is already under way” with countries in the Middle East, the Gulf, Europe and the Caucasus, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. Deals involve the production and supply of drones and missiles as well as software and technology, said Zelenskyy, adding that Kyiv has handed a proposal to the US for cooperation on drones, defence systems and other types of weapons for use in the air, on land and at sea.

• Another oil facility deep inside Russia – at Perm, 1,500km (900 miles) from Ukraine – was on fire Wednesday after what Ukraine’s president said was his country’s latest long-range drone attack. Nasa’s satellite fire monitoring system showed a hotspot over an array of tanks and a large surrounding area near Perm. Ukraine’s SBU security service said it struck the Transneft pumping station as part of efforts to target Russia’s revenue-earning energy infrastructure. Plumes of black smoke towered over the southern Russian oil town of Tuapse on Wednesday and residents wore face masks after multiple Ukrainian drone strikes on a major oil refinery in the coastal town.

• Eight people were injured in an attack on the Kharkiv region, the regional prosecutor’s office said. In the Sumy region, officials said a 60-year-old woman died as a result of an attack. In the southern Odesa region, Russian forces struck Izmail, damaging a hospital and infrastructure. A Ukrainian strike killed three passengers of a minibus and wounded eight people in the Russian border region of Belgorod, the local governor said on Wednesday. Ukraine denies targeting civilians.

• Russia’s annual Victory Day parade will be held on 9 May without military hardware for the first time in almost two decades, Pjotr Sauer writes, ostensibly because of fears of a long-range attack by Ukrainian drones. Since the invasion, the parades have been scaled back, with observers suggesting Russia’s battlefield losses meant it did not have enough tanks and armaments to mount a decent show. Last year’s grand parade, for the 80th anniversary of Victory Day, did feature tanks, rocket launchers and drones.

• Ukraine has asked Israel to seize a vessel it claims is carrying grain looted from Russian-occupied Ukrainian soil, Pjotr Sauer writes, as a rare diplomatic spat between the two countries rolls on. Ukraine said the cargo vessel Panormitis, sailing under a Panamanian flag, was en route to dock in Haifa.

• The vessel’s Greece-based management company has denied it is carrying any grain from occupied Ukraine. Israel has said evidence submitted by Ukraine is being examined. The Israeli outlet Haaretz reported on Sunday that Israel had been buying grain allegedly looted by Russia from occupied Ukrainian territory for at least two years. In a statement to Haaretz, an EU spokesperson said it was considering sanctions on Israeli individuals and entities aiding Russia.

• The Russian economy contracted by 0.3% in the first quarter, marking its first quarterly contraction since early 2023, preliminary data showed on Wednesday, as the war, western sanctions and high interest rates took their toll. Russia’s economy had been growing since the first quarter of 2023 in what analysts have described as unsustainable, unproductive growth fuelled by production for military purposes that does not improve the economy in the long term. Reuters analysts write that reports of falling profits or losses by Russia’s major companies show that with the key interest rate at 14.5% and little foreign investment, Russian companies are struggling to invest and grow.

• Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump floated a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine in a phone call on Wednesday. The US president said Putin offered help with ending the conflict in Iran but Trump said he preferred for the Russian president to be “involved with ending the war in Ukraine”. Speaking to reporters afterwards, Trump seemed to confuse the Ukraine war with the Iran war, Pjotr Sauer writes.

• Kim Jong-un has praised North Korean soldiers who blew themselves upwith grenades in order to avoid capture while fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia’s western Kursk region, confirming the existence of the extreme battlefield policy, Luke Harding writes. In 2024, North Korea sent about 14,000 troops to join Russia’s war against Ukraine. According to South Korean and Ukrainian officials, more than 6,000 were killed in intense fighting…..

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Hegseth says $400M in Ukraine support released after McConnell’s angry op-ed

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday said $400 million in Ukraine support was released after Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) penned an angry op-ed criticizing the stall in funding.

“The department recognizes that $400 million was allocated for European capacity building, and as of yesterday, it has been released,” Hegseth said in response to a question about the aid from Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.)….

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McConnell originally blamed the delay on Elbridge Colby, the under secretary of Defense for policy, who he accused of stonewalling lawmakers inquiring about the delayed funding after reportedly suspending arms shipments to Ukraine last year.

The former Senate Republican leader said it wasn’t the first time that happened….

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“Colby also determined that security assistance to Ukraine and America’s NATO allies in the Baltics was ‘wasteful’ and removed these long-standing efforts from the fiscal 2026 budget request,” McConnell noted in his op-ed.

The Senate late last year passed the $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026, which provided $400 million for Ukraine in 2026 and another $400 million in 2027 through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

The funding was intended to pay for the production of high-priority weapons by American companies for Ukraine’s armed forces…