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The Russian central bank lowered the key interest rate from 20 to 17 percent. “External conditions remain difficult and restrict Russia’s economic activity,” the institute said in a statement. “The risks he continues remain for financial stability”. It is also noted that price increases are no longer accelerating as rapidly as in the weeks immediately following the start of operations in Ukraine. The ruble has changed little against both the dollar and the euro. For a greenback you currently need 75 rubles. For one euro, on the other hand, you need 86 rubles.
Von der Leyen in Kyiv. “Hateful Attack on Kramatorsk”
It is Ursula von der Leyen’s day in Kyiv and the starting shot for the fifth package of EU sanctions, which will also affect the two daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin who are included in the list of natural persons: Katerina Tikhonova, 35, and Mariya Vorontsova, 36, are the daughters of the Kremlin tenant and his exwife Ludmila Putina. Great Britain has also decided to sanction them. The United States otherwise sanctioned two Russian stateowned companies: the shipbuilding company United Shipbuilding Corporation and the Russian diamond mining company Alrosa USA. The EU and Australia have announced new arms deliveries.
In a tweet, the President of the European Commission spoke about the rocket attack on the Kramatorsk station: “This morning’s rocket attack on the station used to evacuate civilians in Ukraine is despicable. I am shocked and will personally offer my condolences to President Zelenskyy. My thoughts go to the families of the victims ».
The EU will support Kyiv in the Bucha investigation
From Kyiv, where he arrived with Commission President von der Leyen, Josep Borrell announces that the EU will “support Ukraine’s Attorney General by providing training and donating equipment to ensure safe investigations” into the Bucha massacre because “it there may be impunity”. The independent Russian media outlet Meduza publishes a drone video showing how civilians were killed in Bucha during the Russian occupation of the city. The images compared with the video taken on the ground after the Russian army left was used to show that the position of the corpses matched.
Massacre at the Kramatorsk railway station
On the military front, the rockets hit a train station in Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, killing more than 35 people including four children and injuring 100, according to reports by Ukraine’s railway network president Alexander Kamyshin. The station is used during these hours to evacuate civilians from the bombed areas in the east of the country. TV Ukraine 24 reports on Telegram that one of the rockets that hit the station premises has the inscription “for children in Russian. Ukrainian television released a video showing the partially destroyed rocket with white writing in Cyrillic. It has not yet been possible to determine who wrote the sentence on the rocket. “This is an evil that knows no bounds, if it is not punished it will never end,” denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Moscow denies involvement in the attack and blames Kyiv: The fragments of the missile belong to a TochkaU carrier “used only by Ukrainian armed forces”. Compared to the Ukrainian version: Russian highprecision Iskander missiles were used. Yesterday’s attack on Odessa from the sea and the Crimean peninsula left casualties, according to Vladislav Nazarov of the Ukrainian Army’s Southern Task Force.
The Pentagon: Putin has given up on taking over Kyiv
Russian President Vladimir Putin has given up on taking Kiev. That said US Secretary of Defense Lloid Austin. “He thought that he could conquer Ukraine very quickly and conquer this capital very quickly. He was wrong,” said the Pentagon chief. In the north, according to the British intelligence report, “Russian forces have now completely withdrawn from Ukraine to Belarus and Russia” and “at least some of these forces are being transferred to eastern Ukraine to fight in Donbass”. A massive military operation from the north will last “at least a week.