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

The European Commission has announced the transfer to Ukraine of a tranche of almost EUR 4.1 billion within the framework of the Ukraine Facility program with a total cost of EUR 50 billion.

The US Department of State has reported that there is communication between the administration of Joe Biden and the new team of President-elect Donald Trump on foreign policy issues, particularly in the context of russia's war against Ukraine.

Ukraine has signed a contract with the Rheinmetall concern for the supply of 155-mm artillery shells. The arms concern has also received an order for 20 more Marder IFVs for Ukraine, financed by Germany.

Germany is moving the heavy military equipment repair center for the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Slovakia to its own territory.

Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of the FRG Svenja Schulze is sure that the EUR 90 million aid package for Ukraine, which her Ministry handed over in December, will help our people survive this winter more easily. The package included 80 mobile thermal power plants, more than 20 mobile boiler houses, transformers and hybrid generators, as well as lifting platforms for repairing central power lines. “With this equipment, about 2.6 million Ukrainians will have heat and electricity during this third war winter”, Schulze said.

“We all want peace in Ukraine. But it must be a sustainable, just peace. It cannot be on putin's terms. We must provide Ukraine with the best conditions for protection from russia. This requires more active and quick support from European countries. putin does not want peace. He must be stopped by force and European unity”, said Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen.

The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution on human rights violations in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, in which for the first time it called russia's aggression a “war of aggression”.

The Senate of the Czech Republic has recognized the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars as an act of genocide.

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Denmark has warned about the increased risk of military confrontation in the Arctic caused by russia's aggressive and threatening behavior.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has said that the draft of the next package of sanctions against russia is already being prepared.

The European Court refused to lift sanctions against rosbank and t-bank. The court found no violation in any of the banks' statements, finding the sanctions justified, and ordered the banks to pay the legal costs of both parties.

The stock market of russian companies continues to decline against the background of the 15th package of sanctions and expectations of an increase in the rate of the central bank of the rf. The moscow exchange index fell to 2,370 points (a new low since March 2023), led by the shares of lukoil (-7%) and severstal (-5.3%). gazprom shares fell to 106 rubles per piece (minimum since January 2009) – a significant factor was the announcement of US plans to impose sanctions on the NIS company, in which gazprom structures own a total of 56.5%. Cheaper became the shares of rusgidro (-3.2%), surgutneftegaz (-2.8% and -1.8%), gazprom (-2.5%, to 106.25 rubles – the lowest since January 2009), ok rusal, (-2.4%), aeroflot (-1.9%), moscow exchange (-1.6%), mts (-1.3%), nornickel (-1.1 %), magnit (-1.1%), t-technologii (-1.1%), gazprom nefti (-1%), novatek (-1%).

The state duma of the rf has approved life imprisonment for working for foreign organizations. In addition, a new article has been introduced into the Criminal Code, establishing liability for foreign citizens and stateless persons who, while in russia, provide financial, consulting or other assistance to the enemy. Foreigners will also face responsibility for “confidential cooperation with the enemy”. Another amendment cancels the possibility of parole for those sentenced to life imprisonment under terrorist articles.

The general prosecutor's office of the rf has declared the American company Recorded Future, which belongs to Mastercard and is engaged in collecting and analyzing information about cyber threats, an “undesirable” organization.

Since December 17, in the temporarily occupied Crimea the possibility of disconnecting the mobile Internet has been implemented, supposedly “for the safety of the inhabitants of the Peninsula”.

In November, the issuance of new credit cards in the rf fell to the lowest ​​since the beginning of 2024 – 1.42 million units.

From January 1 to November 17, 2024, the increase in imports of poultry meat to russia amounted to 38.7%, in particular from countries of the far abroad – 1.6 times, without taking into account the statistics of EAES for October-November.

From January 1, 2025, russian private clinics will raise tariffs for services within the framework of voluntary health insurance to 25-30%. The reasons are the medical inflation (currently 10%), the economic situation in the country and the demand for medical services, etc.

The “rubbish reform” initiated by putin, on which almost 100 billion rubles were spent in six years, has failed, – said the head of the federation council, valentina matviyenko.

Despite the large-scale propaganda of “traditional values” and calls from the authorities to get married earlier and have more children, more and more families are falling apart in russia. In 2024, there were eight divorces per ten new marriages.

vice-president of the “simple” wine company kornev has said that “not all russian wine is of high quality, but the country has terrible beer alcoholism”.

The rb is recognized as second in the ranking of countries in terms of the level of bribery in commercial activities – 173rd place out of 194 countries in the world. According to the International Business Association TRACE, there is the government’s great intervention in business in the country. russia took the 161st position.

assistant minister of defense of the rb for ideological work in the armed forces leonid kasinsky, claims that Chancellor of the FRG Olaf Scholz and Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk are grandchildren of Nazis, while President of Poland Andrzej Duda’s grandfather was Bandera’s friend.