April 19, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The European Council (all 27 leaders) strongly condemned russia's air and missile attacks against the civilian population and critical infrastructure of Ukraine and called on member states to speed up the delivery of all necessary military aid to our country, including artillery ammunition and missiles.

“It is very important that we keep our own promises. I can assure you that all participants, all interested parties are doing their best and making efforts to speed up this process”, – President of the European Council Charles Michel believes that the delivery of military aid to Ukraine is “not a matter of months, it is a matter of days and weeks”.

“...Don't forget this: there is the aggressor and there is the attacked... The international community has to say how we see the end of this war (in Ukraine)”, EU diplomat Josep Borrell said about the Peace Summit in Switzerland. Borrel also believes that it is necessary to take the Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems “from our hangars, where they are kept “just in case”, and send them to Ukraine, where the war is raging”.

Helmut Rauch, CEO of Diehl Defence has announced the delivery of another IRIS-T SLM air defense system to Ukraine within a few weeks.

The German government has launched the “Immediate Action on Air Defense” initiative, aimed at providing Ukraine with even greater support in air defense as soon as possible.

Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte at the summit of EU leaders in Brussels, offered to buy Patriot air defense systems from countries that have them and do not transfer them to Ukraine.

Prime Minister of Latvia Evika Siliņa believes that it is now crucial to help Ukraine protect its airspace from russian strikes so that its defence is no worse than Israel's.

“...if Allies face a choice between meeting NATO capability targets and providing more aid to Ukraine, my message is clear: send more to Ukraine”, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg emphasized. At the same time, he pointed out that the members of the Alliance generally have a sufficient number of air defense systems to transfer some of them to Ukraine.

As part of the aid package announced on April 17, Denmark will spend 200 million Danish kroner ($28.5 million) on the purchase of weapons and military equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine directly from Ukrainian manufacturers.

Next week, Ukraine will receive the second tranche of EUR 1.5 billion of macro-financial assistance from the EU under the Ukraine Facility program.

South Korea will allocate humanitarian aid to Ukraine in the amount of 200 million US dollars this year as part of the promised aid package.

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Microsoft Corporation has said that over the past 45 days, russian online campaigns to influence the upcoming US presidential election have intensified. russia-linked accounts spread controversial content aimed at American audiences, including criticism of US support for Ukraine.

Prime Ministers of Belgium and the Czech Republic, Alexander De Kroo and Petr Fiala, are demanding the introduction of new sanctions against the rf due to the latter’s attempts to interfere in the elections in the European Union.

Chairman of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Netherlands Martin Bosma has written a letter to the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, demanding a response to the threat of russian influence on the upcoming elections to the European Parliament.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has called on the European Union to become more active in the field of defense in order to resist threats from authoritarian states.

Federal Prosecutor General of the FRG Jens Rommel has arrested two suspects who planned sabotage operations in Germany on behalf of the russian intelligence service to undermine military support for Ukraine.

The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) of France has opened a judicial investigation into the death of French-Irish journalist, operator of the American TV channel Fox News Pierre Zakshevsky, who was killed by russians on March 14, 2022 in Ukraine while covering a full-scale russian invasion.

The European Court of Human Rights rejected the russian singer filip kirkorov’s complaint against the ban on entering Lithuania. The Court also found the application inadmissible due to the applicant's frank statements in support of aggressive actions and the fact that he calls himself “putin's representative on the stage”.

Ministers of Finance and heads of Central Banks of the G7 countries will increase the sanctions pressure on the rf. “We remain committed to implementing and enforcing financial and economic sanctions, as well as countering attempts to evade or circumvent our measures, including through actions against third-country actors”, reads the joint statement. The G7 countries confirmed their “determination to ensure that russia pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine”. The G7 intends to continue to develop mechanisms to prevent the supply of advanced materials, technologies and equipment to the rf, to take measures to reduce russia's oil and gas revenues, in particular through the oil price ceiling.

The United States has prepared a bipartisan bill that would impose restrictions on any Chinese defense company suspected of collaborating with russia. “Any company aiding and abetting the horrors in Ukraine – as the Chinese defense industrial complex has done – deserves to experience the full force of American sanctions. It's time to put a financial cost on the CCP's “no limits” partnership with russia”, said Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher, Chairman of the US House of Representatives’ special committee on China.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden Tobias Bijlström has said that the rf could create an environmental disaster by transporting obsolete oil tankers across the Baltic Sea.

Prime Minister of Latvia Evika Siliņa has reported that the EU leaders are ready to strengthen sanctions against the rb for circumventing the current restrictions introduced by the European Union against putin's russian henchmen and trade in goods for the rf’s military industrial complex.

One of russia's largest regional electronics chains, corporation “tsentr”, which had almost 200 stores in 90 largest cities of the rf, is closing its business due to the inability to arrange the supply of foreign electronics of leading brands that have left the rf. In 2022, the company's revenue almost halved, to 2.9 billion rubles, while net profit decreased three fold, to 3.6 million rubles. The corporation did not publish its financial statements for 2023.

Previously, because of the loss of foreign partners, in russia, the large network sellers of household appliances and electronics “tekhnosila” and “media markt” ceased operations.

director general of “transmashholding” kirill lipa appealed to the russian government with a proposal to relax reliability requirements for locomotives older than 20 years due to the fact that individual components are no longer produced, their level of reliability is “objectively lower”, and maintenance due to wear becomes more expensive.

In order to save money, russians increasingly choose cheap drinks, in particular, last year they bought by 10.5% more instant coffee in bags.

Authorities of the rf forbade producers and sellers of chicken eggs to raise prices on the eve of Easter (in December 2023, chicken eggs in the rf rose in price by 61.35%). Egg production in the rf has been declining for six months in a row, by 1.8% in January-February.

A recent survey of russians aged 18 to 45 found out that 24% of women and 16% of men are dissatisfied with their reproductive health.

Fadeev, the head of the council on human rights under putin, has proposed to synchronize the granting of russian citizenship to migrants with their simultaneous registration for military service.

In the first reading, the MPs of the parliament of the rb adopted a draft law, which provides for raising the minimum length of service for assigning pensioners the status of “veteran of labor” for men 30 to 45 years, and for women – 25 to 40 years.

According to belstat, 70% of all commercial enterprises in the country operate with low profitability – a maximum of 1-2 percent, while a quarter are completely unprofitable.

The ministry of culture of the rb has secretly advised the organizers of graduation evenings to use russian-language musical compositions by belarusian and russian authors at the events. It is advisable to show the songs for the disco to the head teacher of educational work, who will “know” the criteria for compositions and performers recommended by the ministry of culture.

authorities of north korea awarded the academic degree of doctor of social and political sciences of the dprk to a belarusian scientist, head of the department of socio-humanitarian disciplines and agricultural business of the vitebsk state veterinary academy of the rb, who proved the “correctness of the original ideas” of the country's first leader kim ir sen.