Source: NY Times

On Wednesday President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia came up with a way to get his opponents to help prop up his currency, by demanding that “unfriendly countries” use rubles to buy the Russian oil and gas that is still flowing.

“I have made a decision to implement in the shortest possible time a set of measures to switch payments for … our natural gas supplied to the so-called unfriendly countries to Russian rubles,” Mr. Putin said on Wednesday.

Sanctions aimed at the Russian central bank effectively froze hundreds of billions of dollars of assets. The actions immediately drove down the value of the ruble as people frantically rushed to turn their rubles into a more stable currency, like the dollar or the euro.
...

Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the action means that every time a Western country buys a barrel of oil it would be “propping up his domestic currency.”
“If you’re invoiced in rubles, you’ve got to go out and buy rubles,” he said. “I don’t know if there is workaround.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/23/business/stocks-oil-inflation-ukraine#putin-russian-oil-gas-rubles

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The Russians have said this demand also applies to current contracts for Russian oil and gas that is still being delivered to countries in western Europe.

Source: Washington Post

MAKARIV, Ukraine — Top Ukrainian government officials said Tuesday that this strategic town west of the capital, Kyiv, had been liberated from Russian forces.

Media all around the world reported the news, the latest indication that the Ukrainians were waging counterattacks and defeating the Russians in key locations, preventing them from encircling and seizing the capital.

But a visit by a team of Washington Post journalists to Makariv on Wednesday found the town still contested. Russian forces were still in control of roughly 15 percent of the town, an area they have held for nearly three weeks with little shifting of the front lines, according to the town’s mayor. There were no signs that any of the roughly 15,000 residents who fled were returning to the town.

As the Post journalists entered the town, Ukrainian soldiers ordered them to leave, warning them of incoming Russian Grad rockets. Minutes later, the sound of shells falling was heard, with black plumes of smoke rising over the town. Soon more blasts followed.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/23/russia-ukraine-war-news-biden-live-updates/#link-VBZGQTNS4BATVBSEHXXJHYPVR4

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"But a visit by a team of Washington Post journalists to Makariv on Wednesday found the town still contested."

Why post this?

Because the truth matters.

I understand the importance of staying positive and keeping moral up and announcing positive news as Ukraine repels the brutal Russian invaders.

The Ukrainian government issues positive reports to boost morale and to tell the world they are still fighting and can ultimately win, I understand that.

But at some point truth matters too. It's important to accurately portray the war in our media to drive home to all of us sitting comfortably in our homes thousands of mile away how desperate and hard fought the war really is to ensure that Ukraine gets the level of support from NATO and the US that it actually needs.

As the Russians brutally shell the remaining 150,000 innocent civilians surrounded and trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol, inaccurate reports of advances in a small village 60 miles from Kyiv that has been reduced to rubble, abandoned by all its inhabitants and still contested by not only the shelling but also the physical presence of the Russian invaders are, I feel, ultimately counter-productive. The truth ultimately surfaces.

The Washington Post's journalists who courageously went into the heart of this contested village deserve commendation for their physical bravery and their integrity in reporting the facts on the ground that they observed first-hand.

I filed this article under "No shit, Sherlock"

Much more on Russia's in place policy of regarding "nuclear arms as utilitarian rather than unthinkable" at the link.

My take on this is that the longer the war drags on and the more men and resources Putin loses the more likely he will fall victim to the "sunk cost" fallacy like gamblers often do. Namely, as he loses more and more he will keep doubling down and raising the stakes.

I can't help but feel that the earlier NATO makes it clear it will become directly involved militarily unless fighting stops, the sooner this war will be brought to a diplomatic end and the less chance there will be of nuclear escalation.

France24.com video from the deputy mayor of Mariupol at link.

By media, I mean both "main stream" commercial sources and social media.

I am truly curious to hear my fellow DUers' opinions on this.

Thanks for any and all responses.

Ukraine is, in NATO's words, a "a NATO Enhanced Opportunities Partner".

"Palamar said he and his fellow fighters would not surrender in Mariupol."

And what then becomes of the tens of thousands, actually probably hundreds of thousands, of civilians cut off and trapped in Mariupol with those fighters?

They are expected just to get slaughtered by the Russians?

Habeck conceded in a Friday interview with ARD television that, where energy policy is concerned, a moral dimension "does not really exist."

Grow a soul, you bastard.