Today I woke up because of the noise and for some reason I thought that the neighbors were continuing to do repairs. But since today is Saturday I decided to sleep a little longer. When I finally woke up, it turned out that it was an air raid and the work of the air defense.
I decided to listen to the radio and heard a Japanese station. Then I made the QSO with it, then with the Chinese one and the cherry on the cake - the Australian answered me. This lifted my spirits and I was even more pleasantly surprised when a Japanese radio amateur joined our usual communication in Zoom with Colin and two other guys from Ukraine. Two and a half hours flew by unnoticed and I hope we will see him again. The great power of radio brings together completely different people from different countries and cultures, and life is not enough to discuss everything that interests us. Provided that you speak at least one common language, of course.
Since visiting Japan has been a long-standing dream of my daughter and I, I shared my impressions of the meeting with her. She started learning Spanish and recently asked her teacher how many languages she knew. Four, including Polish, the teacher replied. Katya said that she also knew four languages, including Polish.
After lunch, I took part in the UK-EI DX Contest, as its organizers are one of the few who do not accept russians.
A grandiose show was made of the Pope's Francis funeral, but many famous people used it as an occasion for a meeting. It was the first face-to-face encounter between Trump and Zelensky since a disastrous White House meeting in February, when the president and other US officials publicly berated Zelensky for being insufficiently grateful for US support and briefly suspended arms shipments and intelligence sharing. US President Donald Trump questioned whether russian President Vladimir putin wants a peace deal shortly after meeting with Zelensky.
In a Truth Social post sent as he returned from Rome after the meeting, Trump raised the prospect of applying new sanctions on russia after its assault on Kyiv last week, questioning whether putin is interested in peace.
“There was no reason for putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump wrote. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/26/europe/zelensky-trump-talks-pope-funeral-intl/index.htmlJust before US President Donald Trump has said russia and Ukraine "are very close to a deal", hours after his envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in Moscow.
Trump said it had been a "good day" of negotiations, while the Kremlin described the talks - which Ukraine was not present at - as "constructive".
Earlier, Trump said on social media that "most of the major points are agreed to," and urged russia and Ukraine to meet "at very high levels" and "to finish it [the deal] off".
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9dj4402qejoTrump seems to be trying to hide his true intentions with chaos, and Zelensky is constantly trying to anger him, blaming the US for one thing and then another.
In an interview with American journalist Ben Shapiro, Zelensky said, "If putin wins, it will mean the defeat of the United States as a country that leads the world."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvSq2mxAPk0"President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the missile fired by russia over Kyiv on the night of April 24, which hit a residential building, killing 12 people, was manufactured in North Korea. The missile that killed the people of Kyiv contained at least 116 components imported from other countries, and most of them, unfortunately, were manufactured by American companies," Zelensky wrote in a telegram.
https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/news-udar-rf-kyiv-raketa-kndr/33396841.htmlIt would be funny if the fate of my country didn't depend on it.
Ukraine has failed to reach an agreement with investors to restructure its debt under GDP warrants with a group of creditors, including hedge funds Aurelius Capital Management LP and VR Capital Group. The debt is worth $2.6 billion, the FT writes, citing a statement from the Ukrainian government on the Euronext exchange. The FT noted that Kyiv is due to make a payment of about $600 million next month.
https://www.ft.com/content/2b77e33f-1b48-445f-a6e0-cdf2e1a26d28Ukraine has fully covered its external financing needs for 2025 and is ready for various economic challenges. This was largely made possible by budget support from Ukraine's partners, which this year amounts to $16.8 billion. Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko announced this at a meeting of the G7 financial bloc, which took place in Washington during the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
www.obozrevatel.com/ukr/ekonomika-glavnaya/analytics-and-forecasts/ukraina-povnistyu-zakrila-potrebu-u-finansuvanni-zzovni-v-uryadi-poyasnili-de-vzyali-groshi.htmMost likely, this does not apply to military spending, but the reduction in aid by almost half indicates a decrease in funding for the social sphere and the state apparatus (probably all except the power bloc). Now the poor can start begging, and civil servants can collect donations for their services. For example, you have to go to court with your own paper and envelopes, despite the court fee paid.
But the new economic outlook for Ukraine, presented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is based on the assumption that the war will end by the end of 2025. This is stated in the April World Economic Outlook report.
The document states that as a result of the end of hostilities, a partial return of Ukrainian refugees to their homeland is expected, which will contribute to population growth.
In addition, the IMF expects a gradual decrease in the unemployment rate in Ukraine as a result of the end of the war. The report also predicts a significant increase in Ukraine's gross domestic product. In 2025, GDP could exceed $200 billion, and in 2030 - approach $284 billion.
www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2025/04/22/world-economic-outlook-april-2025France has recognized the 2018 decision of the Arbitration Tribunal on the claim of JSC Oschadbank against the russian Federation for over $1.11 billion, which concerned compensation for losses resulting from russia's illegal expropriation of Oschadbank's assets in Crimea following russia's illegal invasion and occupation of that sovereign territory of Ukraine. Oschadbank registered an arrest of russian assets in France worth around €87 million.
https://trueua.info/news/ukrayinskyy-bank-domihsya-areshtu-u-frantsiyi-rosiyskykh-aktyviv-na-sumu-87-mln-yevro
