Zelenskyy: Hungary returned $82m in Ukrainian cash and gold seized from Oschadbank.
Ukraine brought the staff home earlier, now the money and valuables also returned in full.
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The shipment included:
- $40m cash
- €35m cash
- 9 kg of bank gold
Oschadbank transported the assets from Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank to Ukraine when Hungarian security services stopped the convoy on March 6 in Budapest. 2/
Hungary detained Ukrainian cash collectors for 24+ hours, confiscated the money, and later passed a law allowing seizure of foreign cash shipments.
Orbán claimed, without evidence, the money could fund his political opponents. 3/
Putin’s meat grinder update — Russia lost 35,203 troops in April alone with almost no territorial gains to show.
More than 70,000 Russian troops were killed or wounded in just 2 months of spring. No major Ukrainian city captured. Front lines largely unchanged, United24. 1/
Russia’s “spring offensive” stalled almost entirely in Donetsk.
More than 2/3 of Russian attacks are concentrated there, with losses exceeding 400 soldiers per km² while failing to fully occupy the region. 2/
Kremlin has so little to present that Russia reduced the military part of its May 9 parade.
Fewer vehicles, fewer weapons displays — while Putin even discussed a possible ceasefire around Victory Day. 3/
Ukraine is building a Hague tribunal for Putin, Lukashenko, and Russia’s top leadership — while demanding over $1T in reparations from Russia.
Iryna Mudra, deputy head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office: “Accountability is not a subject of bargaining in peace talks,” EP. 1/
Russia repeatedly demanded immunity.
During talks in 2022 and in its recent 28-point “peace plan,” Moscow pushed for lifting sanctions, ending court cases, and granting amnesty for Russian leadership and war crimes. 2/
Tribunal moves from politics to implementation. Council of Europe ministers will finalize legal creation of the court in Chisinau on May 14-15. It will operate in Hague.
Putin now spends weeks in bunkers, bans officials from using internet-connected phones, and fears assassination after Iran’s supreme leader was killed in a US-Israeli strike.
Russian elites increasingly discuss what happens after him, Times. 1/
Kremlin fears Ukraine could track Putin through Moscow’s surveillance system.
After Israel used cameras to monitor Iranian officials, Russia restricted mobile internet across Moscow, where 250,000 CCTV cameras operate. 2/
Putin’s approval fell from 77% in December to 65% in April — the lowest since the invasion began — as war losses and economic pressure intensify. 3/
In 1973, the Arab oil weapon worked once and broke within months. Iran built one that doesn't break.
Mines, drones, and small boats now hold 20% of global oil hostage in the Strait of Hormuz — and the US Navy has not pried them loose — Gregory Brew, Foreign Affairs. 1/
20% of global oil and 20% of global LNG sit trapped in the Persian Gulf, alongside helium, aluminum, and urea.
US gasoline crossed $4 a gallon and may break $5 by late May. Global oil demand is falling for the first time since COVID. 2/
Since Feb 28, Iran has hit 20+ ships in waters around the strait — Joint Maritime Information Center.
Mines, antiship ballistic missiles, drones, and swarms of fast boats. Decades of investment, deployed with little effort. 3/
Only one ground-launched missile in Europe reaches deep into Russia today. It is Ukrainian.
Russia's Kinzhal hits Warsaw, Berlin, Munich. From Kaliningrad — London, Paris, Rome. Europe's own answer won't arrive until the 2030s — Financial Times. 1/
Trump canceled the Tomahawk deployment in Germany, but the gap predates him. Europe outsourced deep-strike to Washington for decades.
Pistorius, German defence minister, warned the cancellation would be "very unfortunate and detrimental" for Europe. 2/
DPS — missiles with 1,000–3,000km range and pinpoint targeting. They destroy a bomber on the runway, a submarine in port, a drone factory before launch.
Western military official: "You want to be able to strike a Russian drone factory before they send 500 drones at us." 3/