Ukraine War

• Russia says it used cruise missiles to destroy an S-300 missile defense system that had been donated to Ukraine by an unspecified European country. Slovakia is the only European country so far to publicly say it sent an S-300 to Ukraine, but Slovakia insists the system it supplied is intact and was not hit—so either Russia’s report is fake news or there is (was) a second S-300 in Ukraine.
• The mayor of the besieged port city of Mariupol says Russian troops have killed over 10,000 people there—burning many of their bodies in mobile crematoriums imported for that purpose—and transferred 33,000 more people who didn’t meet Russian “filtration camp” criteria into improvised prisons in Russia or separatist-held Ukraine. Mariupol’s mayor fears another 10,000 could be killed there.

Donbas Offensive

• Austrian Chancellor Nehammer met with Pres. Putin in Moscow yesterday, becoming the first Western leader to see him in person since he invaded Ukraine.
• Nehammer said Putin seemed unconcerned by reports of atrocities his troops committed in Ukraine, and warned that he fears Putin is planning a battle in eastern Ukraine that “cannot be underestimated in its violence.”
• Indeed, satellite photos show Russian troops and equipment shifting from Belarus and the Kyiv region toward Izium, Ukraine, which analysts think may be Russia’s supply hub for the offensive on the Donbas.
• Pres. Zelensky continues to plead for more and better weapons for the fight in Donbas, where the Ukrainian military is significantly outgunned—and the flatter topography favors Russian tanks and air power.

Meanwhile in Russia

• Russia arrested a foreign national under its fake news law for the first time. Colombian citizen Giraldo Saray Alberto Enrique was charged with spreading “lies” about the war in Ukraine (“lies” being loosely defined as anything other than the official Kremlin lines). Russian authorities are searching for Enrique’s “accomplices.”
• French bank SocGen announced plans to exit its Russian operations…by selling its 99% stake in Rosbank to a conglomerate controlled by billionaire Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin, who’s on Canada’s sanctions list (but not the U.S.’s, UK’s, or EU’s).
• That makes SocGen the first Western bank to announce its exit from Russia, although Italy’s UniCredit, Austria’s Raiffeisen, and the U.S.’s Citi are also pondering exits. Raiffeisen will have a particularly hard time leaving: it made nearly 30% of its net profits from Russia last year—compared to just 2% for SocGen.

Pakistan

• As expected, Pakistan’s Parliament picked Shehbaz Sharif as its interim PM after ousting PM Khan. Sharif is tightly linked to Pakistan’s political establishment: his brother Nawaz was PM for three (non-consecutive, and all incomplete) terms.
• Tens of thousands of Khan supporters turned out to protest his ouster and rail against the U.S. (which Khan claimed was conspiring against him) and the Pakistani military and intelligence cabal (which previously supported Khan but recently lost faith in him, leading to the vote against him).

Other News

• A Polish government panel reiterated earlier allegations blaming Russia for the 2010 plane crash that killed Pres. Kaczynski, his wife, and 94 other Polish officials. However, the panel and its report seem politically motivated to stir anti-Russian sentiment and consolidate support for the Law and Justice Party, which is led by the late Pres. Kaczynski’s twin brother. Two separate reports by independent experts found no proof of foul play in the crash.