WORLD BRIEFING: April 17, 2024

Ukraine’s top military commander has issued a bleak assessment of the army’s positions on the eastern front, saying they have “worsened significantly in recent days.” Russian forces were pushing hard to exploit their growing advantage in manpower and ammunition to break through Ukrainian lines, the commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, said in a statement over the weekend. “Despite significant losses, the enemy is increasing his efforts by using new units on armored vehicles, thanks to which he periodically achieves tactical gains,” the general said. At the same time, Ukraine’s energy ministry told millions of civilians to charge their power banks, get their generators out of storage and “be ready for any scenario” as Ukrainian power plants are damaged or destroyed in devastating Russian airstrikes. President Volodymyr Zelensky warned again on Monday night that delays in American assistance are deepening the challenges at the front and said the latest information from Ukrainian intelligence suggested that the Kremlin is preparing for some sort of major offensive in late spring or early summer - NYT

Chernihiv in northern Ukraine came under a massive Russian attack Wednesday: 13 dead and at least 60 injured according to Telegram channels. Three cruise missiles reportedly hit the city - the gynecology wing of the Chernihiv hospital. A call has gone out for blood donations. Odesa was also reportedly attacked

Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International recently posted dozens of advertisements for Russia-based jobs indicating ambitious plans to grow in the country, in apparent contradiction to its official pledge to exit the market. The Financial Times has found the offers among more than 2,400 job advertisements posted in Russia by the Austrian lender since December, of which almost 1,500 are for sales management and customer service roles. One of the job postings, issued by the bank’s unit for medium-sized businesses in Russia, said its “key goals are a multiple expansion of the active client base and stable double-digit income growth”. Raiffeisen is “looking for a client manager who will attract clients”, reads another offer, from the division targeting small businesses in Russia. Another one notes that the company is “actively expanding our base of corporate clients” for payroll services. The ads appear to contradict repeated statements by Raiffeisen that it intends to shrink and sell its business in Russia following President Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Two years on, the bank is the western lender with the largest operations in Russia. It is under scrutiny by officials at the US Treasury department and has come under pressure from the European Central Bank to pull out of Russia - FT

Ukraine faces "danger" if the United States does not quickly pass much-needed military aid, former U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton told Current Time, as Russia's advantages in troops and weaponry help the Kremlin edge deeper into its neighbor more than two years into the war. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Current Time, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, Bolton noted that Russia is currently firing five or six artillery shells for each one fired by Ukraine, a rate he said is "not sustainable over a long period of time…I think the best we can hope for until the [November U.S. presidential election] is a stalemate," Bolton added, highlighting the growing isolationism inside the U.S. Republican Party "due to the effect of Donald Trump," the party's presumptive nominee for the upcoming vote. That isolationism, he said, was paralyzing efforts to counter threats from Iran, Russia, and China. The recent Iranian air strikes against Israel, though, might serve as "shock therapy" to many Republicans in Congress, he added. "Ukraine needs aid; Taiwan needs aid," he said. "It is all part of the same endeavor. I'm hoping this week there might be real movement on all these fronts, but particularly on Ukraine aid." - RFE/RL

Brussels police were ordered to shut down a conference for right-wing politicians, including Brexiteer Nigel Farage and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, on Tuesday. People were stopped from entering the National Conservatism Conference a few hours after it began, organisers said - although it continued for those inside. The local mayor said he issued the order to ensure public security. Organizers of the conference said they "overcame attempts to silence" them. They said they plan to continue with the conference on Wednesday, writing: "See you again tomorrow!" on X, formerly Twitter.

Russia is pulling out troops deployed as peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, more than six months after the region’s Armenian population fled in the wake of a lightning military attack by Azerbaijan. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said Russian forces had started to withdraw from the region, according to the Interfax news service, confirming an earlier Azerbaijani media report.

Donald Trump’s key advisers are reportedly plotting new ways to devalue the U.S. currency if he wins the presidential election in November, Politico reported. The move would be an aggressive and risky effort to lift U.S. exports and reduce the trade deficit at the expense of ballooning inflation and endangering the dollar’s global dominance and status as the world’s main reserve currency. The potentially explosive plans are being dreamed up by Robert Lighthizer, a former Trump administration official who also leads economic policy at his America First Policy Institute, three former Trump-era officials told Politico. Lighthizer is a potential Treasury Secretary pick for Trump, but the sources cautioned that the currency devaluation plot might disappear if Trump appointed someone else. It would likely be opposed by Wall Street and its allies, so a Trump-appointed exec would be much less likely to pursue it - Daily Beast