Economically:

• The Vatican Bank transferred 10 million euros to buy rubles from the Central Bank of Russia in payment for gas
• Dmitry Medvedev says that "the era of regional currencies is coming" because confidence in reserve currencies is melting away, "abandoning the dollar and the euro does not look like a fantastical prospect".
• Polish cabinet approves law to ban Russian coal imports by May, and Russian oil imports by the end of the year
• The Russian Union of Grain Exporters has asked the central bank to see if they can request foreign buyers of Russian grain to make payments in rubles under export contracts, Kommersant reported on Wednesday, citing a copy of document.
• Also: "State Duma speaker suggests expanding list of Russian goods exported for rubles"
• Finland’s national railway operator has said it will resume services between Helsinki and Saint Petersburg in Russia on March 30, less than a week after having halted the service.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the process of switching to ruble payments for Russian gas export deliveries will take time and won’t begin immediately this week, despite the March 31 deadline set by presidential order. Russia blinks?
• German authorities have put into effect an emergency plan for the case of energy supplies termination from Russia, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said at the press conference in Wednesday.
• Michael Hudson: "US dollar hegemony ended last Wednesday"

Diplomatically:

• Kherson receiving humanitarian aid from Russia
• Negotiations between the Foreign Ministers of Russia and China begin in China.
• "Security cooperation between China and Russia and their joint measures to counter hegemony have no borders" - Chinese Foreign Ministry
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit New Delhi on Thursday for a two-day trip, India’s foreign ministry says.
• Polish Prime Minister called Russophobia "mainstream"
• Progressive US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has voiced support for the International Criminal Court’s probe into possible war crimes in Ukraine.
• Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations about the naval mines that have been set adrift in the Black Sea.
• Ukraine’s president is scheduled to address Australia’s parliament on Thursday evening.
• The US Department of State has issued a travel advisory warning that Moscow “may single out and detain US citizens in Russia” and repeating earlier warnings for Americans not to travel to the country.
• Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi will talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin later on Wednesday, Draghi’s office has said, without providing further details. :AyyyyyOC:

Militarily:

• The General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces says that the "withdrawal" of Russian troops around Kiev and Chernigov is actually just a rotation of troops and was designed to mislead Ukraine.Biden saying the same thing. Of course, this being phrased as a broken promise about "helping the peace discussions" as a good faith gesture rather than just a military manuevre, so it allows them to maintain the "those crafty dupliticious Russians!" narrative. Feint attacks within feint attacks. Putin did a similar thing in Syria so it's not unimaginable. It makes sense to me, though - there's no reason why Russia should display its battle plans to the world - they could have just said nothing at all and kept the military meetings private - so the reason why they're doing so is because they know it'll be responded to by the Ukrainian military (and other countries) and they can then plan for that reaction. The fact that we know anything at all about "Phase 1" or "Phase 2" is itself telling, before you even get the content of the plans.
• Large explosions in Kiev and the vicinity. Note: it's been increasingly difficult to get photos and footage out of Ukraine because the government banned filming Russian strikes. So what we do get is, for the most part, too blurry to draw any conclusions other than "shit's on fire"
• Large explosions and shelling in Kharkov.
• Fuel depot destroyed in Khmelnytskyi, as well as industrial buildings.
• Oleksandr Markushyn, the mayor of Irpin, a Kyiv suburb that Ukrainian forces claimed control of on Monday, has told residents of the area not to return just yet. “Do not come back yet. The city is still not safe. We still hear gunshots and shelling, Grads [multiple rocket launchers] are even still being deployed"
• Russian shelling most if not all the Ukrainian cities on/close to the DPR/Ukraine front.
• DPR continues to clean up the western side of Mariupol.
• Ukrainian missile hits Donetsk city nine-story building, losses don't look particularly severe
• More footage of Russian missiles hitting Ukraine and such, there's been a lot of this over the last few... well, weeks, I guess. They aren't geolocated so they could be anywhere, on the front or away from it.
• Footage of a Nazi from the Aidar battalion asking for forgiveness before the civilians of Donbass, whom they terrorized for more than 8 years.
• LPR forces capture Terny in the DPR
• Ukrainians using synagogues as weapon and ammo stores
• Russian forces capture an American Humvee used by Ukraine
• Ukrainian armed forces are (according to Russian sources, but the Ukrainian sources sure as hell aren't gonna admit this so believe what you want) getting extremely concerned about their troop desertions, and that caught deserters will be shot.

Dipshittery:

• Samsung is reported to have removed the letter "Z" from the names of its smartphones in some European countries. Folding screen smartphones no longer have the "Z" that has been the brand name of the series since the launch in 2020. For example, Galaxy Z Fold3 is now simply called Galaxy Fold3. The same goes for the Galaxy Flip3.

• Ukraine’s UN ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya has told the UN Security Council that the “demilitarisation of Russia is well under way” due to “unprecedented” personnel and equipment losses.