March 2 (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday that she, Vice President William Lai and Premier Su Tseng-chang will each donate one month's salary to aid humanitarian relief efforts for Ukraine as it seeks to repel an invasion by Russia.

The war has generated widespread sympathy in Taiwan for Ukraine's people, due to the threat the island says it faces on a daily basis from giant neighbour China. Beijing views Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up its military pressure to assert those claims.

Tsai, whose government this week send its first batch of aid in the form of 27 tonnes of medical supplies, told a meeting of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party that the determination of Ukraine's people has moved the world and Taiwan's people too.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/taiwan-president-donate-salary-ukraine-relief-efforts-2022-03-02/

Zelensky urges Jews to shout as Russia ‘erases’ Ukraine: ‘Nazism is born in silence’

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday urged Jewish people around the world to speak up as he accused Russia of of seeking to “erase” Ukrainians, their country and their history.

“I am now addressing all the Jews of the world. Don’t you see what is happening? That is why it is very important that millions of Jews around the world not remain silent right now,” said Zelensky, who is himself Jewish.

“Nazism is born in silence. So shout about killings of civilians. Shout about the murders of Ukrainians.”

In a video address, the Ukrainian leader said a Tuesday missile strike on a target at the site of a Holocaust massacre shows that “for many people in Russia our Kyiv is completely foreign.”


https://www.timesofisrael.com/zelensky-urges-jews-to-shout-as-russia-erases-ukraine-nazism-is-born-in-silence/

"just 18 out of 150 guys survived”

Exclusive
Kyiv independent
Illia Ponomarenko

Seven days into the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it remains unclear how many casualties Russia has sustained.

The Ukrainian government said on March 2 the “indicative” number of Russia’s losses stands at 5,840 people. Russia has only admitted it had any losses four days after it started the war, and had not given any numbers.

But multiple videos and pictures from battlefields suggest that invading forces have sustained severe casualties.

And yet another piece of evidence obtained by the Kyiv Independent sheds more light on the fate of Russia’s 35th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Much more:

https://kyivindependent.com/national/exclusive-voice-message-reveals-russian-military-units-catastrophic-losses-in-ukraine/

Buzzfeed News
Sarah Emerson BuzzFeed News Reporter
Richard Nieva BuzzFeed News Reporter

Responding to claims that its Maps were being used to coordinate Russian military activity in Ukraine, Google on Tuesday began removing user-submitted locations within the borders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. The company is removing new content such as photos and business information “out of an abundance of caution,” a Google spokesperson told BuzzFeed News.

Across social media platforms on Tuesday, people accused Google Maps of hosting content allegedly used to target airstrikes on cities such as Kyiv and Kharkiv.

“The tags in Google Maps were created on Feb 28th, and people noticed that the tags match the places the missile strikes today,” one of these individuals, Oleksandr Balatskyi, told BuzzFeed News in a Twitter DM. People claimed that the tags, or user-generated pins, began appearing yesterday with titles such as “ФЕРМЕРСЬКЕ ГОСПОДАРСТВО,” or Ukrainian for “farm,” and “СІЛЬСКЕ ГОСПОДАРСТВО,” or Ukrainian for “agriculture.”

BuzzFeed News could not independently verify the existence of specific pins, or the claim that Russia’s military added them to Google Maps. Dozens of Twitter users have shared the same set of screenshots showing pins labeled “ФЕРМЕРСЬКЕ ГОСПОДАРСТВО” in Kyiv, though it is unclear when they were created and by whom.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahemerson/russia-google-maps-tags-ukraine?origin=web-hf

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a decree that prohibits taking more than $10,000 worth of foreign currency in cash and “monetary instruments” out of Russia.

The move comes in response to the crippling sanctions Western nations have imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, which this week tanked the ruble and sent Russians flocking to banks and ATM in fear for the fate of their savings.

Other measures Putin ordered this week included obligating Russian exporters to sell 80% of their revenues in foreign currency, prohibiting Russian residents from providing nonresidents with foreign currency under loan agreements and from depositing foreign currency into foreign bank accounts.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-signs-decree-to-prohibit-leaving-russia-with-more-than-10000-in-foreign-currency/ar-AAUu3Ha

10,000 rubles isn't worth enough to buy a bus ticket to Lithuania, I suspect

Images have emerged of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko standing in front of a battle map that appears to show a planned invasion of Moldova, along with Ukraine.

Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was reportedly addressing his security council Tuesday while standing in front of a battle map of Ukraine.

The map appeared to show troop movement plans and infrastructure targets in Ukraine, as well as targets in Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria.

Some of the Russian lines of attack in the map have already taken place, while others are yet to occur, including an incursion into Moldova — a former Soviet country and Ukraine’s neighbor to the south — from the port city of Odessa.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/596409-belarus-president-stands-in-front-of-battle-map-indicating-moldova

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will vow to make Vladimir Putin “pay a price” for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in his first State of the Union address, rallying allies abroad while also outlining his plans at home to fight inflation and the fading but still dangerous coronavirus.

In addition to recounting U.S. and allied economic sanctions against Russia, Biden planned to announce that the U.S. is following Canada and the European Union in banning Russian planes from its airspace in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine, according to two people familiar with his remarks’ They spoke only on the condition of anonymity before the speech.

Biden planned in his Tuesday night remarks to highlight the bravery of Ukrainian defenders and the resolve of a newly reinvigorated Western alliance that has worked to rearm the Ukrainian military and cripple Russia’s economy through sanctions. He was set to deliver an ominous warning that without consequences, Russian President Putin’s aggression wouldn’t be contained to Ukraine.

“Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson – when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos,” Biden was to say, according to advance excerpts released by the White House. “They keep moving. And, the costs and threats to America and the world keep rising.”

https://apnews.com/article/biden-state-of-the-union-4d6eb9fed9a46bb4efb63ea4e015725c

AP via NBC Washington

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin announced Tuesday that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

Raskin said he tested positive on Monday, after taking a test for members of Congress who planned to attend the State of the Union address Tuesday night.

In a statement, Raskin said he has been fully vaccinated and has received a booster shot. He wrote that flu-like symptoms “have been pretty mild so far.”

Raskin, a Democrat, said he will work from home and quarantine this week. He also said he will use proxy voting procedures that have been used by other members since the pandemic began.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/coronavirus/maryland-rep-jamie-raskin-tests-positive-for-covid-19/2986831/

Time via MSN

In a video that went viral on Twitter Sunday night, a massive explosion rips through what appears to be a Russian convoy, scoring a direct hit on a surface-to-air missile system.

The black-and-white footage, posted to the account of the Ukrainian armed forces, is one of several that have emerged on social media in recent days showing the devastating impact of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian hardware. As the drone’s payload explodes in the video—which appears to be a cellphone recording of a screen in a Ukrainian drone facility—people at the facility can be heard gasping in awe before breaking out in cheers and applause.

The video racked up more than 3 million views on Twitter in two days. “Have fear, enemies! There will be no peace for you on our earth!” the Ukrainian armed forces wrote in the video’s caption.

The star of this video and others circulating on Twitter is the Bayraktar TB2 – a type of Turkish drone that the Ukrainian military has increasingly deployed against Russian forces in recent days. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian military said that Bayraktar drones had destroyed one tank and two surface-to-air missile systems overnight. In other videos shared on Twitter, Bayraktar drones, in use by the military since at least 2021, are shown blowing up what appears to be a Russian fuel convoy and a group of supply trucks.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-s-secret-weapon-against-russia-turkish-drones/ar-AAUtZco