Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to assert total and long-term control on the neighboring country of Ukranian in the midst of war. The Kremlin is taking extreme measures to make Ukrainian towns look and operate like Russia, from the introduction of Russian currency to the complete shuttering of Ukrainian broadcasting. Prior to the start of the war, Putin wrongly argued that the country was a creation of the Soviet Union and part of Russia. It seems that Putin is trying to make his claims a reality as the invasion stretches into its third month. Russian state media announced last week that it would replace the Ukrainian hryvnia with the Russian ruble. The currency transition is expected to take four months. The first Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces was Kherson, located 200 kilometers east of Odesa near the Black Sea. The ruble has made a comeback after falling to less than one penny in the early days of the invasion, as the Kremlin tries to prop it up. Emily Ferris, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank in London, told NBC News that using the Russian ruble is a way of emphasizing Russia's dominance over everyday life. The pro-Russian puppet leader replaced the mayor of Henichesk, a seaside town in the occupied Kherson region. The former mayor of Henichesk, Oleksandr Tulupov, was last seen on March 9, posing for a photo in a town park with friends. It is not clear what the future holds for Tulupov. The outlet reported that the Russians hacked into Henichesk's government website and said that Tulupov resigned. He was replaced by a new mayor who spent the last eight years in Russia-annexed Crimea. The mayor of Kherson was relieved of duty and replaced by a Russian deputy from Putin's party, according to The Guardian. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that most of the elected mayors in towns and villages that have been occupied by Russia have been replaced by Russian military appointees. Following Russia's invasion of the country, statues of Vladimir Lenin are popping up across the country despite a recent countrywide effort to remove Soviet monuments from public places. The majority of the statues and monuments of the Soviet Union were removed from the city of Kyiv after the revolution in the country. There was a giant figure of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin outside the main council building in Henichesk last month, according to The Guardian. One week later, the Russians put up another statue of Lenin in Nova Kakhovka, in Kherson Oblast. Anne Applebaum told The Guardian that modern Russia stands for nothing except corruption, nihilism and Putin's personal power. Keep reading.
—The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 30, 2022
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