German Lawmakers Vote Overwhelmingly To Send 'Heavy & Complex Weapons' To Ukraine

"On Thursday lawmakers in the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, voted
overwhelmingly to approve sending "heavy weapons and complex machinery" to Ukraine. According to national media it passed with 586 votes in favor, 100 against, and seven abstentions." ZH

Oil Spikes After EU Says Russian Embargo 'Imminent' As Germany Drops Opposition

"After throughout the whole month consistently rejecting a proposed European Union ban on
Russian oil, but while also walking a delicate tightrope of opposing Putin's demand of payments in rubles for Russian energy, Germany is now ready to pull the trigger on an embargo." ZH

Sanctions Force Closure of Russian Tank and Truck Factories

"Russia has lost at least 700 tanks and 1200 armored vehicles destroyed or captured over the
last two months. Some equipment can be drawn from storage depots, but many of the depots are rumored to have no regular maintenance, components like optics have been stripped and sold on the black market, and most of the available vehicles are obsolete. It is reported that the two largest tank factories in Russia have run out of foreign made components." RedState

Russian-Occupied Kherson Names New Leadership Amid Pro-Ukraine Protests, Rocket Attacks

"Occupying Russian forces have appointed a new “military-civilian administration” in
Ukraine’s southern Kherson region amid pro-Kyiv protests and rocket attacks.

Russian soldiers occupied the city of Kherson on the banks of the Dnieper River in early March. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it gained control of the entire Kherson region this week. Russian troops have dismissed Kherson’s Ukrainian leadership, instead appointing former KGB agent Alexander Kobets as mayor and ex-mayor Volodymyr Saldo as regional head." MoscowTimes

 

Russia Bombed Train Stations in Ukraine Just After Top US Officials Visited Kyiv

"Russian airstrikes rained down on Ukrainian rail targets just after top U.S. officials left the
country by train, following a secret meeting with President Volodomyr Zelensky....shortly after the two top Biden administration officials appeared back in neighboring Poland, the head of Ukraine’s state railway system, Oleksandr Kamyshin, reported that a number of airstrikes occurred across the country’s center and west." Vice

Russia Coordinating Cyberattacks With Military Strikes in Ukraine – Microsoft

"A handful of hacker groups aligned with the Russian government have carried out hundreds
of cyberattacks against Ukraine since Moscow invaded, U.S. tech giant Microsoft said in a report Wednesday.

It added that in "hybrid" warfare tactics, Russia often matches cyberattacks with military assaults on the battlefield." MT

Russia Says It Destroyed "Large Batch" Of Western Weapons With Ship-Launched Missiles

"Russia's Defense Ministry (MoD) announced Wednesday that its forces have taken out a large
batch of weapons and ammunition that had been shipped to Kiev by outside Western countries. 

Specifically, Russian warships launched Kalibr missiles from the Black Sea, targeting and destroying a military warehouse said to contain "a large batch of foreign weapons and ammunition, supplied by the US and European countries to the Ukrainian army," according to the MoD statement. While not acknowledged by the Ukrainians or US, it comes after the Kremlin vowed to target Western arms transfers into the country." ZH

 

Shots and drones from Ukraine reported near huge arms depot in Transnistria

"Several shots were fired from across Ukraine’s border with Transnistria into the territory of
the self-proclaimed republic and in the direction of a huge arms depot, its interior ministry said on Wednesday. Two drones were also sighted in the area.

“At 8:45 in the morning on April 27, shots were fired from Ukrainian territory in the direction of Kolbasna village,” the ministry’s statement reads. Transnistrian officials said that no casualties had been reported as a result.

In a separate incident preceding the alleged shooting on Wednesday, “several drones were spotted over the village of Kolbasna” overnight, according to the ministry. The Transnistrian authorities also claim that the drones “had been launched into Transnistrian territory from Ukraine.”

Since the predominantly Russian-speaking region became de facto independent from Moldova following a war in 1992, Russian peacekeepers have been stationed there." RT

Russian foreign minister warns ‘do not underestimate threat of nuclear war’

"There is a “real danger” that a World War 3 could break out over Ukraine, warned Russia ’s
foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, claiming that deliveries of western weaponry to Ukraine meant NATO was “in essence engaged in war with Russia”.

He added that the threat of a nuclear conflict was “serious… real,” adding that “we must not underestimate it." MS

Russia's Gazprom to halt to gas supplies to Poland, Bulgaria

 "Russia's Gazprom told Poland and Bulgaria it would halt gas supplies from Wednesday.
Polish officials had said Russia is suspending natural gas deliveries to Poland beginning Wednesday morning after that country refused a demand to pay for its supplies in Russian rubles." France24

Oil Depots in Russia ‘Blown Up’ As Blinken, Austin Visit Zelensky in Kiev to Tout U.S. Weapons Shipments

"Two oil storage facilities around 150km into Russia from Ukraine’s border went up in flames
early Monday morning, just hours after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev to tout some $713 million in new US weapons shipments and military aid. A fire broke out on Monday morning at an oil depot in Bryansk, a large Russian city around 150km from Ukraine, and 370km south-west of Moscow. Another fire was recorded in the Fokinsky district of the city, the causes of which have not yet been established, Moscow daily Kommersant has reported. Bryansk is home to over 400,000 people, and is an important regional hub.

Was this a deliberate provocation by the US or did the Ukrainian military stage it to try and draw the US even further into the war?" IW

im Jong-un Tells North Korea to Be ‘Fully Prepared’ for Nuclear War at Massive Military Parade

"North Korea celebrated the anniversary of the founding of its first military on Monday with a
massive military parade featuring “cutting-edge military hardware” and a speech by communist dictator Kim Jong-un in which he warned his soldiers to be “fully prepared” for nuclear war.

Kim’s call for using the country’s illegal nuclear weapons program to “decisively accomplish” any “unexpected second mission” against the enemies of communism follows weeks of rhetorical escalations out of Pyongyang, including sister Kim Yo-jong threatening South Korea with a nuclear strike and the debut of what North Korea called the “Hwasongpho-17,” allegedly a new model of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)." Breitbart

Azov Battalion Claims Video Shows Civilians Underground Who Have Not Seen ‘Sky Nor Sun’ In Weeks

"The controversial Azov Battalion has released a video which it says shows its fighters in

Mariupol, which Russia claims to have “liberated”, underground with sheltering civilians.

Uploaded to the Azov Battalion’s YouTube channel and shared by the National Guard of Ukraine — which incorporates the battalion — on its verified Twitter account, the video purportedly shows Azov fighters distributing supplies to civilians holed up underneath the Azovstal steelworks complex, which remains under Ukrainian control. A girl in the video claimed she and her family had seen “neither the sky, nor the sun” since late February, with Mariupol having come under siege only a short time after the Russian invasion commenced. The city has been a point of interest throughout the conflict, in part because of its status as a stronghold of the Azov Battalion — formerly an unofficial paramilitary force with neo-Nazi links which the mainstream media do not deny, despite general dismissal of the Russian characterisation of their “special military operation” against a Ukraine led by a Jewish president and Jewish prime minister as a “de-Nazification” mission." Breitbart

 

Guterres Makes Controversial Visit To Moscow

"Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in the UN
chief's first visit to Moscow since the Russian invasion began, where he's also due to meet with President Vladimir Putin. The trip has been met with controversy given Guterres didn't go to Kiev first." ZH

Russia says it will halt hostilities to let civilians leave Azovstal

"Russia’s defense ministry said its troops would halt hostilities to allow civilians to leave the
besieged steel plant Azovstal in Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol from 1400 Moscow time (1100 GMT) on Monday.

The ministry said any civilians trapped at the facility could leave in whichever direction they chose." MS