Ukraine Briefly

April 29, 2022

Ukraine, Briefly

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• The US is collaborating with its allies to redirect some natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria in response to Russia’s threat to cut off the flow of gas to those nations, the New York Times reported. The economic consequence of Europe’s reliance on Russian energy suppliers has been a constant Western worry since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began. However, one of Germany’s biggest energy firms will buy Russian gas by paying in euros which will then be converted into rubles, meeting a Kremlin demand for all transactions to be made in the Russian currency, according to the BBC. Critics say the payment system will undermine international sanctions against Moscow.

• Satellite imagery showed that Russia deployed trained dolphins near the entrance to a key Black Sea port, ostensibly to shield a naval facility from prospective Ukrainian strikes, NBC News wrote. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden asked Congress to fund a new $33 billion Ukraine aid package Thursday, NBC News added separately.

• Canada’s parliament declared Russia’s military actions in Ukraine a “genocide,” the latest nation to accuse the Kremlin of war crimes in the former Soviet republic, the Hill noted. At the same time, US diplomats told the United Nations that there was “credible information” that a Russian military unit in Ukraine’s Donetsk area “executed Ukrainians who were seeking to surrender, rather than take them into custody,” Axios added.

• According to recent a Microsoft Corporation research, at least six hacker organizations linked to the Russian government have launched hundreds of cyberattacks in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February, including dozens aimed at destroying computer systems, the Wall Street Journal wrote.

This story originally appeared in the April 29, 2022 newsletter, The War Without a Name.