The War Room: Ukrainian forces are holding on as Russian invaders are making what the pentagon describes as only “plodding” progress in the east.

  The Russian have failed to take three key areas in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk despite heavy shelling, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in today’s daily update. That means the Ukrainians are digging in, fighting artillery with artillery, settling in to a conflict that looks like World War I.

  Ukraine says Russia is bringing in troops from the far east of the country to bolster their front line.

  Western governments are rushing in weapons to shore up the Ukrainian defense. At least a dozen US flights carrying artillery, drones, and other equipment are leaving for Ukraine over this weekend. 

  Poland is reported to have sent in 200 Soviet-era T-72 tanks in recent weeks. 

  On the battle front, Ukraine continues to hit targets inside the Russian border. Ukrainian artillery shelling hit part of a Russian oil terminal complex 28 miles from the border, a Russian news agency reported.

  The Ukrainian fighter ace dubbed the “Ghost of Kyiv” after shooting down as many as 40 Russian aircraft was shot down and killed last month, according to The Times of London. Formerly anonymous, he has been identified as Major Stepan Tarabalka, a 29-year-old father of one.

  The Ukrainian government had claimed Tarabalka shot down six Russian planes the first day of the war. The British paper said Tarabalka was shot down March 13th while battling what was described as an “overwhelming” number of enemy forces. His body has not been recovered. 

Economic Warfare: The Russian Central Bank yesterday said that it expects the country’s economy to shrink by up to 10 percent this year under international sanctions.

 As a result, some Russian oligarchs are growing restive under the economic squeeze, The Washington Post reports. “Sweeping sanctions imposed by the West have brought down a new iron curtain on the Russian economy, freezing tens of billions of dollars of many of the tycoons’ assets along the way,” the paper says.

  But it’s not just the money of the elite that’s frozen. They also tell the Post that they are frozen out from any influence of President Vladimir Putin. The Post reports that, “In interviews, several Russian billionaires, senior bankers, a senior official and former officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, described how they and others had been blindsided by their increasingly isolated president and feel largely impotent to influence him because his inner circle is dominated by a handful of hard line security officials.”

The Money Page: The Dow Jones plunged more than 900 points yesterday, wrapping up a rainy April for investors in the markets. The money professionals blame rising interest rates, inflation, poor corporate earnings ,and global unease over the war in Ukraine. .

 The Dow Jones dropped 2.8 percent just yesterday and a total of 4.9 percent since March 31st. The S&P 500 is down 8.8 percent for the month, and the Nasdaq, where the tech stocks live, is down 13.2 percent for the month.

Foot Fault: German tennis great Boris Becker was sentenced yesterday in a British court to 2 ½ years in prison for hiding money from the court in a bankruptcy declaration.

  Becker’s lawyer, Jonathan Laidlaw, had pleaded with the court for leniency. “This defendant has now lost literally everything,” Laidlaw said. Acknowledging that Becker had mishandled his finances, Laidlaw said, “Boris Becker has literally nothing and there is also nothing to show for the most glittering of sporting careers. That is nothing short of tragedy.” 

Disinformation: One of the latest controversies in Washington is the creation by the Department of Homeland Security of something they call a “Disinformation Governance Board.” Homeland Security says it is intended to fight false information threats such as Russian cyber and election misinformation, but critics, many of them on the Republican side, are already saying it sounds like George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.

  The assumption is that this is not to fight exterior threats, but to dampen free speech.

“Rather than police our border, Homeland Security has decided to make policing Americans’ speech its top priority,” Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said on Twitter.

  Ohio’s Sen. Rob Portman said, “I do not believe that the United States government should turn the tools that we have used to assist our allies counter foreign adversaries onto the American people.” 

The Spin Rack: A powerful tornado tore through the Wichita area last night, damaging and even leveling dozens of buildings and structures in the city of Andover. Video shows a twister like something from The Wizard of Oz. — In supporting a near total ban on abortion in her state this week, Ohio legislator Jean Schmidt answered a hypothetical question about a teenager becoming pregnant by rape, saying,  “There’s an opportunity for that woman, no matter how young or old she is, to make a determination about what she’s going to do to help that life be a productive human being.” — Major League Baseball suspended Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer for two seasons for violating the league’s domestic violence policy. Several women have accused Bauer of assault. 

Fox in the Journalist House: CNN has released 82 texts regarding the 2020 election between Fox News host Sean Hannity and former White House  chief of staff Mark Meadows, proving that Hannity is not a journalist but a political operative with a television show.

  Hannity dug deep into claims of election fraud, offering help to Meadows and the Trump team. On election day Hannity promised to help get out the vote. Days later, after Trump lost, Hannity wrote, “I’ve had my team digging into the numbers. There is no way Biden got these numbers. Just mathematically impossible. It’s so sad for this country they can pull this off in 2020. We need a major breakthrough, a video, something.”

  Note that he said “we.” 

-30-