Cephalotrocity

The Lithuanian solidarity campaign Radarom! has been held for the third time in Lithuania on the eve of the third anniversary of the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, raising €1 million in less than a week.

Drones attacked Russia's Krasnodar Krai on Feb. 10, reportedly targeting the Afipskiy oil refinery, a key facility processing 6.25 million tons of oil annually, claimed Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation.

The refinery, located roughly 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the front line, is a strategic logistics hub for diesel fuel and aviation kerosene used by Russian troops, Kovalenko said.

Editor’s note: This is issue 12 of Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak’s weekly "Ukraine Reforms Tracker" covering events from Jan. 27–Feb. 2, 2025. This newsletter was until recently titled “Ukrainian Economy in Brief." The digest highlights steps taken in the Ukrainian parliament related to business, economics, and international financial programs.

The band Ziferblat was selected to represent Ukraine at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest following their victory at the national selection process on Feb. 8.

Announced during Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s visit to Kyiv, the program is a collaboration between the UK, Ukraine’s government, UNICEF, and the World Bank.

Through the funding, the support will “help Ukraine to meet the varied needs of the population, and accelerate Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic pathway,” the statement read.

Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Feb. 7 that inflation remains a major challenge for the country’s economy and directed the government to develop measures to lower it in 2025.

The Russian Central Bank recently said that it sees "no signs of a sustainable slowdown in price growth" despite maintaining a high key interest rate of 21%.

cross-posted from: https://ponder.cat/post/1543134

And of course inb4 "See I told you USAID was faking everything in Ukraine, see they're funding the media to tell all these lies about the Russians being bad, 'invading' Ukraine or something."

Canadian-Russian director Anastasia Trofimova's documentary Russians at War has faced criticism for what many perceive as an attempt to whitewash Russian soldiers involved in Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

The documentary has been criticized for lacking a concrete counter-narrative to Russian propaganda, failing to address documented Russian war crimes, and does not offer a definitive critique of Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime