*** MILITARY SITUATION ***
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 16 as of 5:30 pm EST
March 16th Map of Russian Operations:
Russian forces face mounting difficulties replacing combat losses in Ukraine, including the possible death of the commander of the 150th Motor Rifle Division near Mariupol. Russian efforts to deploy forces from Armenia, its proxy states in Georgia, and reserve units in the Eastern Military District will not provide Russian forces around Kyiv with the combat power necessary to complete the encirclement of the city in the near term. Russian forces made limited, unsuccessful attacks northwest of Kyiv and did not conduct offensive operations in northeastern Ukraine, toward Kharkiv, or toward Mykolayiv. Russian forces did make limited territorial gains in Donetsk Oblast and around Mariupol and continued to target civilian infrastructure in the city. Russian forces will likely continue to reduce the Mariupol pocket in the coming days, but Russian forces likely remain unable to conduct simultaneous attacks along multiple axes of advance.
Russia is increasingly pulling forces from its international bases and redeploying damaged units that were rotated out early in the invasion of Ukraine to replace mounting casualties. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces are deploying additional Eastern Military District (EMD) reserves to Ukraine as of March 16. The Ukrainian General Staff additionally reported that Russian command “refused” to deploy elements of the 5th Combined Arms Army (CAA) to the Kyiv advance “due to heavy losses in the south.” It is unclear if the Ukrainian General Staff means Ukraine intercepted a request by Russian commanders around Kyiv for reinforcements from the 5th CAA that was denied, or if they are only assessing that Russian casualties in the south are draining reinforcements initially intended for Kyiv. Social media users observed elements of Russia’s 58th Combined Arms Army based in Russia‘s proxy republic in Georgia, South Ossetia, redeploying in likely transit to Ukraine on March 15. Russia has already pulled forces from its base in Armenia and will likely soon redeploy forces from its base in Tajikistan. The Ukrainian General Staff additionally reported that Russia is forming additional battalion tactical groups (BTGs) by consolidating units that suffered losses in the first 10 days of the Russian invasion and graduating cadets from military higher education early to replace officer losses. Russian forces will likely face further difficulties integrating these units into its command and logistics structures.
-Russia is deploying reserves from Armenia and South Ossetia and cohering new battalion tactical groups (BTGs) from the remnants of units lost early in the invasion. These reinforcements will likely face equal or greater command and logistics difficulties to current frontline Russian units.
-President Zelensky created a new joint military-civilian headquarters responsible for the defense of Kyiv on March 15.
-Russian forces conducted several failed attacks northwest of Kyiv and no offensive operations northeast of Kyiv on March 16.
-Russian forces continue to shell civilian areas of Kharkiv, but will be unlikely to force the city to surrender without encircling it—which Russian forces appear unable to achieve.
-Russian forces continued to reduce the Mariupol pocket on March 16. Russian forces continue targeting refugees and civilian infrastructure.
-Ukrainian Forces claimed to have killed the commander of the 8th Combined Arms Army’s 150th Motor Rifle Division near Mariupol on March 15. If confirmed, Miyaev would be the fourth Russian general officer killed in Ukraine; his death would be a major blow to the 150th Motor Rifle Division, Russia’s principal maneuver unit in Donbas.
-Russian warships shelled areas of Odesa Oblast on March 16 but Russian Naval Infantry remain unlikely to conduct an unsupported amphibious landing.
*** ECONOMIC & POLITICAL ***
-Vladimir Putin today sent a chilling warning to the West and oligarchs telling 'scum' traitors that Russians will 'spit them out like a midge that flew into their mouths' - as he claimed Western 'attempts to have global dominance' is coming to an end. The Russian President, speaking in a bombastic televised address from the Kremlin nearly three weeks into Moscow's invasion, warned the West would use 'those who earn their money here, but live over there' as a 'fifth column' to 'divide our society'. 'I do not judge those with villas in Miami or the French Riviera. Or who can't get by without oysters or foie gras or so-called 'gender freedoms.' The problem is they mentally exist there, and not here, with our people, with Russia,' he said. 'The West will try to bet on the so-called fifth column, on traitors... to divide our society.. to provoke civil confrontation... to strive to achieve its aim. And there is one aim - the destruction of Russia.' He claimed that the conflict was merely a pretext for the West to impose sanctions because 'they just don't want a strong and sovereign Russia' and insisted the 'military operation' in Ukraine is going to plan despite his troops' advance remaining largely stalled on the outskirts of Kyiv. But he also told Russians, in words ironically reminiscent of Zelensky's speeches, that 'we are fighting for our sovereignty and the future of our children'.
-Interfax is reporting that Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev asked his US counterpart Jake Sullivan in a Wednesday phone call to stop the US and Western supply of weapons going to Ukraine's military. This after for many days now the Kremlin has put NATO countries on notice, saying that any inbound military shipment from external allies of Kiev will be deemed a "legitimate target".
-The crossing of Russian drones into the airspace of NATO countries is emerging as a test of the alliance’s red lines and its support to Ukraine in repelling Russian invaders without triggering a wider war. Ukraine’s military said Tuesday it downed a Russian drone as the unmanned aerial vehicle returned after crossing into Polish airspace. Russia hasn’t commented on the incident. Earlier this week, another drone suspected of belonging to the Russian military crashed in Romania. Allied officials have said they are studying the incident. “We are very closely monitoring airspace and the border areas around NATO,” Jens Stoltenberg, the head of the alliance, said Tuesday. “Our military commanders also have lines to the Russian commanders to help prevent incidents and accidents, and to help prevent them from spiraling out of control if they happen.”
-US to send Switchblade drones and anti-aircraft Stingers to Ukraine. The United States has committed to more military aid to Ukraine, including long-range missile defence and Switchblade armed drones to better defend against Russian aircraft and armour from a distance. According to Agence France-Presse, the new arms and equipment that President Joe Biden announced for Ukraine includes S-300 long-range missile defence systems, ‘kamikaze drones’, anti-aircraft Stingers and ‘saint javelin’ self-guided missiles. Ukraine has had the ability to shoot down Russian aircraft and cruise missiles at relatively close quarters but Washington is now arranging for it to acquire systems that can strike attacking aircraft much further away.
-Axios' Barak Ravid reports Wednesday that "The Biden administration is considering removing Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from a terror blacklist in return for a public commitment from Iran to de-escalation in the region, three Israeli officials and two U.S. sources tell me." The same report said that Iranian leaders consider the IRGC's removal from the FTO to be a key final sticking point if a restored deal is to succeed in Vienna.
-Washington has urged India not to go through with a plan to purchase discounted Russian crude oil, saying the move would amount to supporting Moscow’s “leadership” amid its military offensive in Ukraine after an official in New Delhi said his country would be “happy” to take the offer. Asked about recent reports that India may accept a Russian proposal for cheaper crude, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said nations should consider their role in history when dealing with Moscow during its attack on Ukraine, though noted the move would not run afoul of Western economic penalties.
-A Pew research poll published on Tuesday found that while only around half of Americans consider the conflict in Ukraine a threat to US interests, more than a third would support American intervention, even if it risked full-on nuclear war with Russia. Democrats and Republicans were equally likely to consider the risk worthwhile. According to the poll, 62% of Americans said that they would oppose “taking military action even if it risks a nuclear conflict with Russia.” However, 35% said they’d still support military action. Results were almost equal on either side of the partisan divide, with 36% of Republicans and 35% of Democrats willing to risk atomic war with the nation with the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads.
-Explosions were reported in Baranavichy, Luninets, Stolin, Hantsavichy, Slutsk & Kletsk cities of Belarus. The audio of the explosions does not sound like artillery, but it does sound like sonic booms. There has also been reports that "aviation is "active" at the moment" and people who reported the explosions indicated that they happened in the sky somewhere, not on the ground which may explain the sounds as sonic booms from aircraft.
According to a military source, the systems are the Soviet/Russian-made S-300, which like the US-made Patriot system, is a fully automated, ground-based radar-and-missile launcher unit that can detect, track and fire at multiple incoming aerial threats at long distances.
Washington will also send Ukraine 100 Switchblade drones, essentially camera-equipped, remote-controlled flying bombs that can be directed by an operator to find and then, when ready, plunge onto a target, exploding on contact. Dubbed “kamikaze drones,” Switchblades can extend the range of attack on Russian vehicles and units to beyond the sight of the user. That gives them an advantage over the guided heat-seeking missiles that Ukrainians have used against Russian tanks.
-The United States, Britain, France, Albania, Norway and Ireland have requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Thursday due to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Ukraine, diplomatic sources said. “Russia is committing war crimes and targeting civilians,” the British diplomatic mission to the UN said on its Twitter account. “Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine is a threat to us all.” Earlier in the day, Russia asked to again postpone a UN Security Council vote on a resolution it drafted about the “humanitarian” situation in Ukraine.
-Russia is only “pretending to negotiate” with Ukraine and is engaging in a “dramatic process of long-lasting brutality”, France’s foreign minister has said. “There is only one emergency: the cease-fire, the cease-fire, the cease-fire. ... It is only on this basis that you can negotiate, because you don’t negotiate with a gun on your head,” Jean-Yves Le Drian told French newspaper Le Parisien in an interview on Wednesday. Le Drian added that France would consider Russia responsible for any use of chemical or bacteriological weapons in the war in Ukraine.
-Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton warned China could use Russia’s conflict with Ukraine as a “distraction” to launch its “own acts of aggression” as thousands of US troops deploy to Australia. In a speech to Australia’s United States Studies Centre on Wednesday, Dutton said Australia and the US were “in lock-step in our commitment to regional stability,” before claiming that China could use the conflict in Ukraine as “a useful distraction and an opportunity to pursue their own acts of aggression and coercion.” “This threat emanates chiefly from Beijing, which has its own openly stated territorial ambitions, and which recently entered a ‘no-limits’ cooperative partnership with the Kremlin,” Dutton alleged.
-Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have charged five people with acting on behalf of the Chinese secret police to stalk, spy on and harass U.S. residents critical of Beijing, officials announced Wednesday. The defendants were charged in three separate cases brought by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York as part of the Justice Department’s new strategy to counter nation-state threats.
-US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) is undeterred by the backlash over his suggestion earlier this month that someone should assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. In fact, he’s ramping up his violent political rhetoric amid the Ukraine crisis. “I hope he will be taken out, one way or the other,” Graham told reporters on Wednesday in Washington. “I don’t care how they take him out. I don’t care if we send him to The Hague and try him. I just want him to go.” Graham confirmed that he sees murdering Putin as a desirable option for removing the Russian president, just as he implied in a March 3 Twitter post in which he asked, “Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military?”
-A Kremlin spokesperson has said that comments the US made calling Putin a war criminal were “unacceptable” and “unforgivable rhetoric,” reports Reuters citing Russia state-owned TASS News agency. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today that Biden’s comments characterising Putin as a war criminal were “unacceptable and unforgivable rhetoric,” according to TASS.
-The FT reports that Ukraine and Russia "have made significant progress on a tentative 15-point peace plan including a ceasefire and Russian withdrawal if Kyiv declares neutrality and accepts limits on its armed forces." According to the report, the proposed deal which was said to be under discussion since Monday would center on Kiev renouncing any plans to joint the NATO military alliance while further vowing not to allow any foreign military bases or weaponry as part of any "protection" deal from NATO allies such as the US, UK or Turkey, according to FT's sources.
-Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has been speaking at a press conference after a meeting of the alliance’s defence ministers. Nato countries are united in backing the alliance’s position that it will not establish a no-fly zone in Ukraine despite its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, repeatedly calling for one, Stoltenberg said. There will be “no deployment of air or ground capabilities in Ukraine and that is the united position of our allies,” he told reporters.
-The UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague has ordered Russia to stop its invasion, saying it had not seen any evidence to support the Kremlin’s justification for the war, that Ukraine was committing genocide against Russian-speakers in the east of the country, Julian Borger writes. The court ruled by 13 votes to two for a provisional order that “the Russian Federation shall immediately suspend military operations that it commenced on 24 February 2022 in the territory of Ukraine”. Only the Russian and Chinese judges on the court voted against the order.
-Ukraine’s position at peace talks with Russia is quite specific, with demands including a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops that must be discussed in direct talks between the two countries’ presidents, a Ukrainian negotiator said on Wednesday. “Our position at the negotiations is quite specific - legally verified security guarantees; ceasefire; withdrawal of Russian troops. This is possible only with a direct dialogue between the heads of Ukraine and the Russian Federation,” negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said a meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskiy would only take place to seal a specific agreement, Reuters reports. There are “no obstacles” to a meeting between the Russian and Ukraine leaders, Lavrov told reporters
-After January's shockingly strong beat in adjusted retail sales, which however was more than offset by a plunge in unadjusted retail sales, moments ago the dept of commerce reported that February retail sales slowed sharply from the January euphoria, with the headline retail sales rising just 0.3% after January's 4.9% surge, and missing expectations of a 0.4% print. Core retail sales excluding autos were even uglier, rising just 0.2%, and missing expectations of a 0.9% rise. And while gasoline station sales soared, the disappointment in most other segments suggests that we are starting to get demand destruction across the board.
-The prime ministers of Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia returned to Poland this morning after travelling to Kyiv on Tuesday to show their solidarity with Ukraine. The Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, and his Czech and Slovenian counterparts, Petr Fiala and Janez Janša, met with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, in Kyiv on Tuesday night. Polish television showed images of a convoy of vehicles leaving the station in the city of Przemysl, close to the Ukrainian border, where the leaders arrived by train, AFP reported.
-The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had a telephone call with Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s security council, Wednesday. During the call, Sullivan warned him “about the consequences and implications of any possible Russian decision to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine”.
-An advanced US-made killer drone that acts as a guided 'smart' missile capable of locking in on targets including tanks and artillery from miles away is on the table among options that the White House is considering authorizing to be sent to Ukraine's military to fight the Russian invasion. The AeroVironment manufactured "Switchblade" drones are already in use by US Special Operations Command and act essentially as "robotic smart bombs" - as in they are one-use only 'kamikaze drones' - but are ultra low priced compared to larger conventional drones in the Pentagon arsenal, with the smaller version of the drone costing as little as $6,000. "The Switchblades are essentially robotic smart bombs, equipped with cameras, guidance systems and explosives. They can be programmed to automatically strike targets miles away, and they can be steered around objectives until the time is right to strike. The company says the 600 can fly for 40 minutes and up to 50 miles." The 600 version, the more advanced and larger of the two variants, is said to be capable of taking out tanks and armored vehicles, and artillery. Wired magazine has previously described the small drone as a "six-pound foldable mashup of missile and drone."
-Speaking during a visit to Abu Dhabi, Boris Johnson said there was no prospect of Ukraine joining Nato any time soon.
-Russian forces killed 10 people standing in line for bread, US embassy says. Russian forces shot and killed 10 people standing for bread in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, the US embassy in Kyiv said. The attack took place this morning as a group of people queued for bread in Chernihiv, a city that been shelled repeatedly over the last week. Video geolocated by CNN confirmed that a shell or rocket hit a group of people on Wednesday morning, while a local reporter on the scene said at least 10 people had been killed in the attack.
-In a televised speech to government ministers, Putin went further than before in acknowledging the pain that Western sanctions were inflicting on the economy, but insisted that Russia could withstand the blow. There was no sign of any softening in his bitter invective against the West and Ukraine, the Reuters news agency reported. “In the foreseeable future, it was possible that the pro-Nazi regime in Kyiv could have got its hands on weapons of mass destruction, and its target, of course, would have been Russia,” Putin said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said today that the west “would not succeed” in what he called its attempt to achieve global dominance and dismember Russia. “If the west thinks that Russia will step back, it does not understand Russia,” he said on the 21st day of Russia’s brutal and bloody war on Ukraine. Putin also claimed that keeping Russia in check was a long-term policy of the west, and that its economic sanctions against Russia were “short-sighted”, Reuters reported.
-Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is sending economic ripples across the Middle East as panic spreads about the availability and prices of essential goods such as wheat, sunflower oil and fuel, that are typically imported from the two warring countries. Prices of bread and other foodstuffs in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon have been increasing as concern over their availability mounts.
-Zelensky was greeted in his virtual address with standing ovations by a full body of lawmakers from the House and Senate before before and after the speech. It was broadcast live on all major US networks, and as fully expected he made an emotional appeal for a US-backed No Fly Zone over Ukraine to stop Russia. "I am addressing President Biden, you are the leader of the nation, your nation. I wish you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace," Zelensky said. The speech was laced with American patriotic references - clearly also an appeal to the broader US public - to Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Martin Luther King Jr, and an urge for Americans to "remember" the heroism and leadership etched on Mt. Rushmore. The speech further had a consistent theme that Russia had not just attacked Ukraine's people and values - but that it was attack on "basic human values" and thus the West itself. He specified that 1,000 Russian missiles and drone strikes had rained down on the country since the invasion began on Feb.24.
-Poland’s deputy prime minister and the head of the country’s ruling party has urged for a "peace mission" in Ukraine led by the NATO bloc, proposing an operation geared toward humanitarian aid but backed up by "armed forces." Jarosław Kaczyński – deputy PM, leader of the Law and Justice Party and a top decision-maker in Warsaw – made the suggestion during a sit-down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev on Tuesday. "I think that it is necessary to have a peace mission – NATO, possibly some wider international structure – but a mission that will be able to defend itself, which will operate on Ukrainian territory," Kaczynski told reporters after the meeting, which was also attended by officials from fellow NATO states Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
-The global economy is in disarray as the war in Ukraine unleashed a commodity shock with increasing risks of stagflation. Adding to the turmoil is an outbreak of COVID-19 in China that may unleash another supply chain crisis. News from China over the last day shows a new outbreak of the highly contagious omicron variant has infected more than 5,000 people, the most since the early days of the pandemic in early 2020. China's zero-tolerance approach has shuttered factories and placed some 51 million people into some form of lockdown. As of Tuesday, omicron variant infections have been reported in 21 provinces and municipalities nationwide, including the capital of Beijing. According to CNN, five cities are in lockdown, including Changchun, Jilin, Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Langfang. Lockdowns have forced factories to idle production and risk snarling production from Apple iPhones to Amazon Echo & Alexa devices to Toyota SUVs to smart television to all sorts of other electronic devices. Disruptions to exports may induce shortages and drive up inflation, just as the Federal Reserve embarks on hiking interest rates to control inflation at four-decade highs. Bloomberg Economics warns that a prolonged lockdowns in China could unleash supply chain disruptions worldwide.
-Russia's central bank announced that it will suspend purchases of gold from banks due to overwhelming demand from households, Reuters reports. The purchasing pause will take effect Tuesday with no end date set. "Currently, households' demand for buying physical gold in bars has increased, driven, in particular, by the abolition of value-added tax on these operations," reads a statement from the central bank.
-Russia appears to have carted out secretive 70s-era missile tech to evade air defenses in Ukraine. In the 1970s, similar devices were known as “penetration aids,” and they looked like darts that would detach from a ballistic missile when the missile detects it has become the target of air defense systems, the New York Times’ John Ismay reports. “Each is packed with electronics and produces radio signals to jam or spoof enemy radars attempting to locate the Iskander-M, and contains a heat source [much like a flare] to attract incoming missiles,” a U.S. intelligence official told Ismay. “Because they’re highly secret,” Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of Strategic Studies told the Times. “If you know how they work, you can counteract them,” he said. “That suggests to me that the Russians place some value on keeping that technology close to home and that this war is important enough to them to give that up.”
-The United States has about 100,000 service members operating in Europe, the largest number in nearly two decades, as the Pentagon shifts forces in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The last time troop levels were this high in Europe was in 2005, according to U.S. European Command records. "In the face of Russian aggression, the United States has recently deployed additional forces and now has approximately 100,000 U.S. service members in Europe,” EUCOM said in a statement Tuesday. Germany still has the most U.S. troops, with 38,500, according to the latest EUCOM figures. After that comes Italy with 12,000. Poland and the United Kingdom have 10,000 each. Romania has 2,400 U.S. troops, while Spain has 2,500. As of Tuesday, the U.S. had 2,500 troops spread out across the Baltics and 1,500 in Slovakia, which borders Ukraine, according to EUCOM figures.
-The Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo has been transformed into a warzone after the arrest of a top cartel boss. Burning vehicles littered the streets, and heavy gunfighting was reported causing the U.S. consulate to go on lockdown and the U.S. border crossing to be temporarily shut down on Monday. The chaos erupted late Sunday when Juan Gerardo Trevino, or "El Huevo," the leader of one faction of the Northeast Cartel, the successor group to the Zetas Cartel, was arrested. He is also a U.S. citizen, a Mexican government official told Reuters. Trevino is on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) list of most wanted cartel members. Trevino faces a U.S. extradition order for drug trafficking and money laundering. In response to the arrest, cartel members hijacked and burned vehicles and attacked law enforcement and military personnel. "During the night of Sunday, there were shootings, burning of trucks, and a grenade attack on the U.S. consulate," Mexican newspaper El Occidental said. Bloomberg reported the U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo was closed to the public due to an "emergency situation," U.S. citizens "should avoid the area or seek shelter." U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar said, "I have raised our grave concerns about these incidents and the safety and security of our employees directly with the government of Mexico."
-The U.N. Security Council extended the mandate for the 19,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in South Sudan for a year Tuesday, while demanding an immediate end to fighting in the country and political dialogue to advance a plan to prevent the world’s newest nation from returning to civil war. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 13-0, with Russia and China abstaining, both calling the measure unbalanced for focusing too much on human rights in the east African nation.
-The Pentagon may add troops in Somalia to control the growing al-Shabaab terrorist organization, the head of U.S. Africa Command told senators Tuesday. In the final weeks of his presidency, President Donald Trump ordered “the majority” of American troops to leave Somalia, sending some members of the U.S. military to neighboring countries, including Kenya and Djibouti, and continue their counterterrorism mission from outside the country. Gen. Stephen Townsend said that al-Shabaab, an Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group in eastern Africa, is “among the world’s fastest-growing, wealthiest, and deadliest terrorist groups” that poses a threat to Americans, and that a U.S military presence relegated to neighboring countries is insufficient to combat it. Lawmakers on Tuesday expressed support for boosting the American troop presence in Somalia. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he opposed the Trump administration’s order to withdraw nearly all American troops from Somalia and rely on over-the-horizon capabilities for counterterrorism.
-And Russian troops are allegedly looting stores and killing civilians in southern Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reports from the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. “They just brazenly come in, without any shame, and take whatever they want,” a 64-year-old woman told the Journal.
-CNN says Russia needs MREs from China, which would seem to reflect the Kremlin’s apparently very bad supply and logistics situation, as former U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling explained in a Twitter thread Monday evening.
-For the second time in weeks, Tesla Inc. raised prices on its vehicles following a historic commodity surge. Bloomberg reports the cheapest Model 3 in the US is $46,990. In a note to clients, Credit Suisse analyst Dan Levy said Tesla raised prices on all its vehicles between 3% to 5% this week. This is the second time in weeks that Tesla has raised prices. The increase comes after a historic surge in commodity prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Western sanctions isolate the commodity-rich Russia from the rest of the world, threatening metal supplies. Bloomberg's industrial metals index surged to record highs. There's no word on which metal(s) is impacting Tesla the most, but if we had to guess it's probably metals for its batteries that have skyrocketed in price, such as nickel. "Those new price increases today come just as the price of nickel is surging due to the crisis in Ukraine leading to embargoes and sanctions on Russia, the world's third-biggest producer of nickel – a material critical to high-energy-density battery cells found in some electric vehicles," Electrek said last week. On Sunday, Tesla's Elon Musk, clearly frustrated with the commodity shock, tweeted, "Tesla & SpaceX are seeing significant recent inflation pressure in raw materials & logistic."
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