April 25, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

US President Joe Biden has signed a bill approved by Congress on more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine.

The first “new” package of US military aid worth one billion dollars will include: 155 mm artillery rounds; 105 mm artillery rounds; 60 mm mortar rounds; RIM-7 and AIM-9M air defense missiles; Stinger man-portable air defense systems; small arms and additional ammunition, including 12.7 mm ammunition to combat UAVs; HIMARS missiles; M2A2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles; International MaxxPro HMMWV armored vehicles; logistics support vehicles; tactical vehicles for towing and transporting equipment; TOW, Javelin and AT-4 ATGMs; JDAM precision air munitions; airfield support equipment; various ammunition, mines and equipment.

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby has said that the US will immediately allocate a package of military aid to meet Ukraine's urgent defense needs, and then will focus on ensuring Kyiv's long-term strategy for repulsing the rf’s aggression.

Head of the Defense Committee of the Bundestag Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, after the US Congress had approved aid to Ukraine, called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to provide our country with long-range Taurus missiles.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Norway Eirik Kristoffersen has said that supporting Ukraine in its confrontation with russian aggressors is a priority for Norway this year.

“We are creating long-term financial commitment plans (for Ukraine)”, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

The United Kingdom intends to provide Ukraine with Paveway IV laser-guided aerial bombs.

UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps is calling on NATO member states to increase annual defense spending from 2% to 2.5% of GDP.

“...We welcome any country that takes additional steps to support our Ukrainian partners and strengthen the Transatlantic Alliance”, said Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the United States Department of State Vedant Patel regarding the package of military aid to our country from the United Kingdom.

The chief diplomat of the EU Josep Borrell believes that 90% of the revenues from the rf’s blocked assets should be directed to the European Peace Fund for the purchase of weapons and ammunition for Ukraine, and another 10% of the revenues should be added to the EU budget to finance reconstruction programs of our country.

Ukraine has received EUR 1.5 billion in transitional financing from the European Union under the Ukraine Facility program.

Ukraine and Denmark have signed a memorandum of understanding on long-term cooperation and reconstruction, which provides for the allocation by the Danish government of about EUR 40 million to support the private sector involved in the reconstruction of our country, as well as EUR 380 million to support critical infrastructure that uses renewable energy.

The European Parliament has approved the updated plan for the completion of large trans-European projects, which includes, in particular, development of infrastructure for more convenient connections with Ukraine.

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The US Senate has supported the bill on the transfer of the rf’s frozen assets to Ukraine. The bill contains provisions on the confiscation of russian assets, prohibition of their unfreezing, ensuring compensation to Ukraine and their use for reconstruction of the country.

The United States will continue to expand sanctions against the rf’s energy sector and related infrastructure, including the “vostok oil” and “yakutsk lng” projects, the country's US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Jeffrey Payette said.

The United Kingdom will send Typhoon fighters to Poland to protect Polish airspace.

The Ministry of Agriculture of Finland believes that the G7 countries should ban the import of lumber from the rf.

France is asking the EU to set up a new sanctions regime to target russian disinformation and election influence operations worldwide. The initiative has already been supported by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Poland.

Authorities of Lithuania have proposed to the OSCE Bureau of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to exclude the rf’s and the rb’s observers from the mission to observe the country's presidential elections.

In Latvia, the decision to abandon the study of russian as a second foreign language in schools from 2026 has been approved.

In Bulgaria, a special commission found out that over the past three to four years, 343 candidates from the rf who sought to obtain Bulgarian citizenship submitted falsified documents.

A PM of the House of Commons of the British Parliament from the Scottish National Party, Drew Hendry, in a written appeal to the government of the United Kingdom, suggested adding titanium supplied from the rf to the list of sanctioned metals.

The German company Hugo Boss has agreed on formalities for the sale of all 19 of its stores in the rf and will close its business in russia in the third quarter of 2024.

According to the forecast of the russian ministry of economy, at least until 2027, the rf must sell gas to China at a 28% discount. In general, due to the policy of strengthening the USA’s double sanctions, russian businesses are preparing for a sharp complication of trade relations with China.

In the rf, bread prices began to rise sharply, since the beginning of the year they have increased by up to 30% in moscow, moscow region, st. petersburg, leningrad, sverdlovsk, and kemerovo regions. As of mid-April, selling prices for wheat flour bread average 62.6 rubles for 1 kg, and for rye-wheat bread – 55.4 rubles for 1 kg. Producers raised selling prices for the most common varieties by an average of 10–15%.

According to rosstat, producers raised prices for mutton by 30-40 percent during the year, depending on the type of product.

Pork in the rf rose in price by 16.8%, beef – by 27.5%, poultry – by 33.3%.

The russian state company avtodor” has increased toll road fares by 8%, on certain sections – by 15-25%.

Up to ten russians who violate the migration requirements of Latin American countries are removed from each Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Mexico, said maia lomidze, executive director of the association of tour operators of the rf.

The flow of personnel in the rf has reached a record level over the past 30 years: according to estimates by the higher school of economics, 65% of employees changed jobs in 2023.

In 2023, the number of terrorist acts in russia increased 3.5 times, said prosecutor general of the rf krasnov.

russian military courts actively convict servicemen of the armed forces of the rf. The total number of cases since the “partial” mobilization is 7,400, with the largest number of cases in moscow region – 496.

russians suddenly rushed to buy books with LGBT propaganda in marketplaces. The demand for banned books increased by 30-40% in the period from April 15 to 23 compared to the data for April 1 to 8. The prices of the authors' books on several sites soared to 4–8 thousand rubles per copy, during the day to 5 thousand, and by the end of the day to 8–11 thousand.

In the rb, for January–March 2024, the prices for food products increased by an average of 2.3%. Sweet pepper (+34.63%) and carrots (+26.55%) were the most expensive. The price for eggs rose significantly in gomel region – by 4.36%, in vitebsk region – by 2.5%, and in minsk region – by 1.8%.

From October 1, pension deductions to the social security fund of the population will become mandatory for craftsmen, self-employed persons and owners of agricultural estates. Citizens will make these deductions to the social security fund, just like individual entrepreneurs, in the amount of 29% of their self-determined income, but not lower than the minimum wage, which is currently 626 rubles in the rb.

According to the resolution of the ministry of antimonopoly regulation and trade of the rb, the prices for travels by trains of city lines, regional lines of economy class and business class will increase in the near future. The cost of baggage transportation on city, regional and interregional routes will also increase. Last time the railway fares became more expensive was in June of last year – in some cases, fares were raised by more than 40%.

The court of the city of orsha included the “automarket belarus” group of vk with 70 thousand users into the list of “extremist materials”.

The ministry of information of the rb allowed TV channels to broadcast the European Football Championship without the consent of UEFA. With its document, the ministry of information included the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and Euro 2024 itself, which will be held in Germany, in the list of rights holders from “unfriendly” countries, whose consent is not required to broadcast their content.