🇷🇺🇺🇦Foreign Policy reporter Jack Detsch: NEW: Russia's navy is still keeping a distant blockade of the Ukrainian coast in Black Sea & Sea of Azov, preventing 🇺🇦 resupply by sea: UK Defense Intel

🇷🇺 amphibious landing against 🇺🇦 is likely to be "increasingly high risk" due to Ukrainian defense preparation, UK assesses.

https://twitter.com/JackDetsch/status/1510655217037201408?s=20&t=1uVYiE7w22S9XoaU3mD-uA

🇷🇺🇺🇦AFP: NATO chief says not 'too optimistic' on Russian military de-escalation in Ukraine

🇦🇫AFP: The Taliban's supreme leader on Sunday ordered a ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, warning that the hardline Islamist government would crack down on farmers planting the crop

🇷🇺🇺🇦The Kyiv Independent: Explosion reported in Ternopil, a regional capital in western Ukraine

MilWire cofounder Tom Lord:

🇪🇸#Spain: Members of the neo-fascist organizations Juventudes Canillejas & Getafe Nacional displayed a banner in #Madrid supporting #Ukraine which read “#Russia = Guilty” and a banner of #Putin behind on a red background with a skull imposed over his face:

https://twitter.com/potempkinbrain/status/1510665211619037185?s=21&t=-cc8zmM-6KVvwNyKRHjUPA

MilWire cofounder Tom Lord:

🇺🇦🏴Anarchist outfit, #RevDia, fighting for the Resistance Committee under the TDF of #Ukraine, have temporarily halted their recruitment effort in the ongoing war against #Russia|n invasion:

https://twitter.com/potempkinbrain/status/1510633765575483392?s=21&t=-cc8zmM-6KVvwNyKRHjUPA

🇪🇨CGTN: Ecuador's interior ministry announced that at least 12 detainees have been killed, 10 injured, and nearly 90 others were able to escape in prison riots in the southern city of Cuenca Sunday morning, CCTV reports.

🇷🇺🇺🇦RFERL: "What we see is not a withdrawal, but we see that Russia is repositioning its troops," NATO chief Stoltenberg told CNN in an interview on April 3.

"We should not in a way be too optimistic because the attacks will continue and we are also concerned about potential increased attacks," he said.

🇲🇱Al Jazeera: Mali’s army says it has killed 203 combatants in an operation in the centre of the Sahel state, with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country saying it has heard reports of civilian deaths, raising human rights concerns.

🇰🇪Garowe Online: France and UK issue terrorism alerts for Kenya as Ramadan kicks off

🇱🇾The Intercept: U.S. airstrike killed 11 Libyan civilians and allies, human rights groups say

🇷🇺🇺🇦ISW:
- Mariupol: Russia will likely make much of its final capture of the city for propaganda purposes but has not yet done so, which suggests that it has not yet completed the seizure
- Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts: Russian efforts to advance its offensive operations in eastern Ukraine made limited progress in the past 24 hours
- Kharkiv: Russian forces appear to be continuing efforts to concentrate forces to resume the offensive from Izyum toward the southeast but did not launch any large-scale operation in the past 24 hours
- Kyiv: The withdrawal of the main body of Russian forces along both banks of the Dnipro River is likely complete
- Kherson and Southern Advance: Russian forces continued limited offensive operations in the southern axis

🇱🇰WSJ: Public anger is flaring in Sri Lanka over the government’s handling of an economic crisis that has led to rolling blackouts, hourslong waits for basic goods such as diesel fuel, and cooking gas and food inflation hitting 30.2% last month.

🇲🇱AFP: The US State Department said Sunday it was following “extremely disturbing” accounts of killings in central Mali, after the Sahel state's military said it killed over 200 militants in the volatile region. ...

However, the announcement followed social media reports this week alleging that large numbers of civilians had been killed in Moura