December 22, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The IMF has approved a new tranche for Ukraine in the amount of $1.1 billion.

The countries participating in the Tallinn Mechanism (Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States), which is designed to help Ukraine counter malicious attacks in cyberspace, have accumulated EUR 200 million over the year.

Ukraine and the United States have preliminarily agreed on the date of future US Special Envoy for russia and Ukraine, General Keith Kellogg’s visit to our country.

NATO Spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah in her statement on russia's December 20 missile attack on Kyiv, called on the aggressor “to immediately cease all attacks on Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure and to end its illegal war on Ukraine”.

“China has said in this (UN Security) Council that sovereignty and territorial integrity should be respected, but if China were serious about that, it would use its influence to stop russia from violating Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, US Permanent Representative to the UN Robert Wood said at the Security Council meeting.

Since February 2022, the UN has officially recorded more than 12,300 civilians killed and more than 27,800 wounded in Ukraine as a result of russia’s aggression.

Lithuania is ready to provide Ukraine with equipment from Lithuanian nuclear power plants and thermal power plants as “energy” aid. The country has also pledged to maintain the amount of financial assistance to Ukraine at 0.25% of its gross domestic product.

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Ten EU member states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Czech Republic and Finland) have proposed to strengthen sanctions against russia's energy sector, in particular liquefied natural gas, and institutions that help moscow circumvent existing restrictions.

Minister of Defence of the FRG Boris Pistorius insists that the German army must be prepared for a potential war with the rf.

Prime Minister of Finland Petteri Orpo has said that his country's eastern border with the rf will remain closed indefinitely.

The draft law on special ruble accounts for “foreign agents” to which all payments due to them should be transferred, adopted by the state duma on December 17, was significantly strengthened before the second reading: while originally it only referred to royalties and deductions for the use of intellectual property (public performance of songs and sales of books written by “foreign agents”), the final version of the document requires that income from the sale or lease of real estate; money received from the sale or lease of vehicles should also be transferred to special accounts.

The government of the rf is discussing the introduction of an arctic investment tax for shippers of the northern sea route starting in 2028. At the same time, shippers themselves complain about high tariffs for icebreaking services, and they expect the rates to rise even more due to the expected increase in the cost of the construction of icebreakers.

roskomnadzor has added WhatsApp and 11 other messengers, including Skype, to the register of organizers of information dissemination. As of December 21, the register includes 456 services. According to russia’s law, the services included in the register of organizers of information dissemination must transfer users’ data, including their correspondence, to the fsb on demand.

The rf's largest(by the number of subscribers) cellular company mts is starting to lay off employees and will give up buying other companies to reduce its debt burden after rising bank rates.

The federal antimonopoly service of the rf has sent out a warning to automotive experts demanding that they stop publicly talking about increasing petrol prices in 2025, as this could affect the final cost. Petrol keeps rising in price both in the rf and in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories.

In the krasnodar territory,  the length of the shore contaminated with fuel oil after the oil spill in the Kerch Strait has increased from 49 to 54 km.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia has confirmed that it will not recognize the “elections” in the rb: the people live under a dictatorship.

In November, the rb faced problems in both industrial production and investments in fixed assets – they decreased by 9.9% month-on-month and by 5.8% year-on-year, to RUB 4,075.8 million. Expenditures on machinery, equipment and vehicles increased by 11.9% (to RUB 15,232.1 million) over 11 months, while expenditures on construction and installation works increased by 6.2% (to RUB 18,420.9 million). Net profit of organizations in January-October decreased by 7.9%.

belarusians are withdrawing foreign currency from banks: term deposits are already minus 18%.

Due to the shortage of workers in the rb, the ministry of labor and social protection has expanded the list of occupations (positions of employees) where foreign citizens can be hired under a simplified procedure in 2025. In particular, these are overpass installers, salespersons, and plumbers (worker professions). In total, the list includes 41 worker occupations and 18 positions of employees.

The 30-day visa-free regime with Sri Lanka that was solemnly announced for belarusians turned out to be a bluff: in fact, the visa-free regime applies only to passport holders of seven countries: China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, and the rf. Among others, belarusians must obtain an electronic entry permit or pay $50.

In the rb, more than 70% of the attractions have reached the end of their service life (7-10 years). Nevertheless, the country's ministry of emergency situations proposes to extend the further operation of such attractions for 12 months, and if they have reached the end of three terms of their service life, only then should they be decommissioned.

On December 20, the ministry of internal affairs of the rb added 29 more people to the list of “persons involved in extremist activities”, bringing the total number of people to 4,795.