Ivan Verstyuk

Look at this math: Ukraine has an army of 1.2 mln. 2 mln Ukrainian men under house arrest as military reserve. Russia has an army of 1.75 mln. Does mobilization campaign since April 1. Meanwhile, Ukraine is obliged to 850K army by Alaska pact. Does this look like a peace?

Ukraine has started seeding the grains - despite really cold weather which will affect the harvest negatively. Moreover, after Zelensky's pledges for more food support for Middle East and Syria, Ukraine might lack the seeds to re-do the spring agro campaign. Fuel expensive too.

Judging by how active Georgian diplomacy is, Georgia will soon be joining BRICS or a wider BRICS-based alliance. This country is seeking for a strong foreign policy partner to follow. It could be Azerbaijan, Kazahstan or some other country with a positive economic trajectory.

Europe is still not able to admit own mistakes and live upon this. I'll give you an example: Britain quit the EU following the 2016 referendum under the Conservative government, but this still hasn't been properly accepted even by Conservatives themselves. An important lesson.

FTSE 100 index is 0.69% up - money gets stockpiled in the UK again. In game here these factors: fears of a Vance-Orban pact on European future and Ukraine war. Also, a necessity to show stock market growth to support Starmer while Farage is getting more and more popular.

Price of natural gas was -0.5% at 5 am BTS this morning. That's a good level for Ukraine's Naftogaz to start purchasing it, for replenishing the reserves to be used for the next heating season. For that, Naftogaz - a state-owned market-making energy fund - needs another EU loan.

It feels like -15 degrees in Kyiv, so cold. Cold weather with ice we had yesterday night, now it's also windy. April has been like a real winter for Kyiv and surrounding areas for many years now, maybe a decade. That's the climate change that Ukraine is having.

Today is important for Budapest, Hungary and Viktor Orban. Welcoming the visit of Vice President JD Vance, Orban has a chance to secure himself another prime-ministerial term in Hungary. Of course, this will be met with all the madness that old-style liberalism is capable of.

Euro gains 0.27% against the US dollar - as Europeans want to see the strict deadline for the Middle East crisis, which is comparable to how Ukrainians want to see the Big War ended. But wars don't end that simple, unfortunately. Ending wars is sometimes beyond expectations.

Russian government is promoting the idea that veterans should be obtaining business education and launch own start-ups. However, it's quite hard to imagine a war veteran going through the commercial regulation bureaucracy right after demobilization. OSINT.

This is a Russian propaganda advertisement, where they're trying to promote the "sacred, inter-generational nature of the military service". This way, sons are obliged to follow their fathers' steps - even if that includes obligatory military service. OSINT.

Russian Ministry of Defense is now summoning men for the mandatory military service. Spring mobilization campaign started on April 1 as the crisis in the Middle East keeps evolving into a direction that Kremlin doesn't really like. OSINT.

This is a burnt house along the Moscow - Tver road. See the quality of real estate. In that part of Russia, this is a common thing to dwell in a house like this one. Poorly constructed, poorly heated, poorly maintained. Photo by the Russian Emergency Service. OSINT.

In the village of Grigoryevskoe, Russian serficemen are attending a ceremony to see how people react to their public presence. Not just Ukrainians, but also Russians are getting tired of the full-scale war in Ukraine for the reasons of wide-scale mobilization of people. OSINT.

@Matt_Pinner Mr. Musk is too much of a radical. I don't think Mr. Trump will ever allow Mr. Musk to run for presidency.

Would you vote this man into office?

@euronews Now Ukraine will have to give away most of its food reserve to prevent Syria from starvation. A so-so diplomatic 'victory' for Zelensky.

Ukraine's Zelenskyy arrived in Damascus in a surprise visit on Sunday, for his first official visit to Syria after the fall of the pro-Russian al-Assad regime. ➡️ l.euronews.com/c2my

It's really hard nowadays to get things done. Many say what is right, but almost nobody is doing what is right. That's why deeds are left to the armies, while politicians are being "strategic", not in the greatest of ways. That's the sad reality which we have here in Ukraine.

Embassies of the EU countries in Lebanon, the US embassy in Jordan are now probably overwhelmed with work, all of the official communication done through them. Ukraine is a winner of that situation - it doesn't have embassy in Syria, though gets official visit there.

With 2 mln men on an illegal status for the reason of their refusal to serve in the army, Ukraine's central bank policy is as hars as it's never been. High inflation doesn't drive the unemployment down, because those unemployed men can't seek jobs - they might be arrested.

In this article, I explain why global supply chains matter that much and how Ukraine, U.S., Argentina and many other countries would be better off if supply chains were properly understood, planned and commercialized. @i.t.verstyuk/ukraine-should-change-its-foreign-trade-policy-3c3af34cf87a" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">medium.com/@i.t.verstyuk/…