Kremlin Tightens Grip on Kherson With Forced Switch to Ruble; Explosions in Kyiv

In a sign that Vladimir Putin’s stranglehold on portions of Ukraine may be intensifying, the puppet government installed in Russian-occupied Kherson said that as of May, payment systems in the region will switch to Russian rubles from Ukrainian currency. The move was first reported by the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, which quoted the deputy head of Kherson’s Russia-controlled “civilian-military” administration, Kirill Stremousov, as saying the full transition to Russian currency will take up to four months. It might not happen at all: The deputy head of Kherson Regional Council, Yurii Sobolevskyi, thinks Russia will have a tough time imposing its currency on the occupied city. “They really want it, but understand, everything they do, everything goes wrong with them,” he told a Ukrainian website. “And given the way these people behave, I think that most of those rubles, they will steal before they deliver to the Kherson region.”Kherson is a strategically located port city on the banks of the Dnieper River where that vital waterway flows into the Black Sea, in between Odessa and Russian-occupied Crimea. Russian forces took control of the city on March 2 and intermittent protests by residents since then have been quashed. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Russian forces used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a pro-Ukraine rally in the city. President Biden asked Congress on Thursday for an additional $33 billion to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion, a clear signal that America is prepared to mount a long-term campaign to bolster Kyiv and weaken Moscow as the bloody war enters its third month with no sign of abating. Underscoring the ongoing volatility across Ukraine, missile strikes were reported today in the capital, Kyiv, during an official visit of the UN secretary-general, António Guterres. The sound of explosions prompted a key advisor to President Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, to tweet, “Postcard from Moscow?” The intended target of those missile strikes was not immediately clear.The situation in Kherson, meanwhile, is unstable. On Wednesday a series of explosions set off a fire at a television tower in the Kherson region and at least temporarily knocked Russian channels off the air, according to Ukrainian and Russian news organizations. RIA Novosti said missiles and rockets were fired at the city from the direction of the Ukrainian forces to the northwest. Despite Ukraine’s counterattacks in Kherson, the Russian military and now administrative entrenchment there tends to lend credence to the aim stated by the Russia’s defense ministry earlier this month that the new goal of its ongoing war against Ukraine is to seize Ukraine’s east and south to connect all three major territories occupied by Russia — Donbas, Crimea, and Moldova’s Transnistria. The AP reported that Ukraine’s military said several areas in the Donbas have come under intense fire in the past day, and satellite images showed new damage from bombardments on the last known pocket of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol. Earlier this month Mr. Podolyak said, “It is clear Russia has prioritized another tactic — to control large occupied territories.” A small territory it already controls is Transnistria, on the eastern flank of Moldova. Shots were fired near a large Russian-guarded ammunition dump in the breakaway Kremlin-backed rogue state on Wednesday. Moldova’s foreign minister, Nicu Popesc, said the incident “took place in Ukraine, a few kilometers from [the village] of Cobasna, which is right on the border.”According to the website EU Observer, the Cold War-era ammunition depot in Cobasna contains some 22,000 tons of rusting materiel and could touch off a regional environmental disaster were it to go up in smoke. Mr. Popesc said the situation around Cobasna is calm, but could it be the calm before the storm? The site also reported that Transnistria has forbidden men of fighting age from leaving the country and canceled a military parade that was set for May 9. There are already about 1,500 Russian troops stationed in Transnistria as part of a cease-fire agreement reached in July 1992 following the region’s declaration of independence two years prior. The Moldovan capital, Chisinau, exerts no control over the breakaway enclave. In the meantime, the Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, has announced that she will provide Ukraine with experts to clear areas left by the Russian invaders, AP reported. Humanitarian aid will also be sent to Ukraine from Chisinau, the Moldovan president said. Tensions have been high in recent days in the Russian enclave of Transnistria, with regional authorities reporting explosions and fire from Ukrainian territory. Moldova spoke of provocations from the Russian side in order to create a favorable climate for a Russian invasion of the country.Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelensky, said earlier this month that he believes Russia might launch an attack from Russian-controlled Transnistria on Ukraine or Moldova. “The situation is complicated, lots of military vehicles, thousands of tanks” in Transnistria, he said.Earlier this week Russian airstrikes destroyed a strategic bridge in southeastern Ukraine, severing railway traffic from neighboring Romania — which also borders Moldova. On Thursday Russian state media said that Romania’s defense ministry denied reports of a transfer of military equipment to the Ukrainian border. Romania has been a member of NATO since 2004.

Kremlin Tightens Grip on Kherson With Forced Switch to Ruble; Explosions in Kyiv

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