December 7, 2023 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the United States will be “responsible for Ukraine's defeat” unless Congress approves the Biden administration's latest multibillion-dollar request for aid to Ukraine. According to her, funding, in particular for national budget support for Ukraine, is “extremely important” and is a prerequisite for the support of the International Monetary Fund to go to Kyiv.

US President Joe Biden has called the prospect of refusing to help Ukraine “absolute madness”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stressed the importance of continuing to support Ukraine so that russia is defeated in its aggression.

Democrats in the US Senate have presented a package of national security measures worth about $111 billion, which includes aid to Ukraine and Israel.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has announced a new “winter package” of humanitarian aid to Ukraine totaling almost £37 million.

Minister of Defence of Germany Boris Pistorius has promised to improve the situation with the supply of shells to Ukraine in the coming months. “Germany alone will provide almost 200 thousand rounds of ammunition”, he said.

President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs has stressed that Latvia will continue to work to convince all levels of the need to support Ukraine.

The Netherlands is providing EUR 8 million for a project to stabilize the de-occupied territories of Ukraine and investigate war crimes. The project will be implemented by the EU Advisory Mission in Ukraine.

The Netherlands has allocated EUR 9 million to improve the activities of the Prosecutor General's Office and the judicial system of Ukraine.

The EU allocates €4 million to improve medical services for Ukrainians with temporary protection in Europe and Moldova.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees intends to help 900 thousand Ukrainian civilians this winter.

The Council of the International Register of Damage Caused by russia’s Aggression will hold its first meeting in The Hague by the end of the year.

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The UK government has announced new sanctions against individuals and groups involved in the export of military equipment to the rf. Sanctions have been imposed on enterprises from belarus, China, Serbia, Turkey, the UAE and Uzbekistan. In particular, restrictions have been imposed on more than 30 organizations: the belarusian jsc “design bureau “display”, the Serbian company avio chem, the Uzbek mvizion, the Turkish smart trading limited and the Chinese asia pacific links limited, sinno electronics co., limited and xinghua co., limited, as well as the designer of the “lantset” drone aleksandr zakharov and members of his family, members of the board of directors of the soyuz aircraft engine scientific and technical complex.

The US Department of the Treasury has announced sanctions against a network of companies associated with Belgian businessman Hans De Geetere, which circumvented sanctions and supplied russia with electronics for military equipment. New sanctions have also been imposed on 13 individuals and 20 companies from russia and belarus.

US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman has criticized the Hungarian government for “ignoring the interests” of its NATO allies and strengthening ties with russia.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has rejected the claim of the owner of the “industrial and metallurgical holding” yevgeny zubitsky, who demanded exclusion from the EU sanctions lists.

The police of Nepal has detained ten people who had been transporting residents of the mountainous state to the war with Ukraine as part of the russian army.

In the Czech Republic, the District Court of Prague-1 sentenced Jakub Jašek to six months in prison on probation for wearing a patch with the logo of the international criminal organization “wagner”.

The moscow exchange has warned that if US sanctions are imposed on it, the exchange will not be able to trade the US dollar.

From December 1, tariffs for freight railway transportation have been increased by 10.75% in russia.

russian authorities have begun to prepare for retail chains Auchan, Globus, Metro and Selgros’ possible leaving the russian market.

Due to a significant rise in the price of cars and a decrease in purchasing power, in January-November 2023, Russians borrowed car loans worth more than 1.4 trillion rubles from banks, which is twice as much as in the same period last year. According to the forecast, by the end of the year, this amount will increase to 1.6 trillion rubles and will be the largest in the history of russia.

For 11 months of this year, sberbank of the rf lent russians 6.7 million rubles in consumer credit: the number of debtors to the bank increased by 1.3 million people compared to the same period in 2022. Since the beginning of the year, the amount of consumer loans for the population of the rf from this bank alone has amounted to almost 3 trillion rubles, which is by 62% more than last year.

rosfinmonitoring has recorded a twofold increase in the outflow of capital from russia to the UAE. Also, russians are massively withdrawing money to Turkey and Asian countries.

The kazan helicopter plant used rubber with fake quality certificates to make gaskets for the fuel system of helicopters. The federal air transport agency has suspended the operation of 37 helicopters manufactured in 2022 – 27 mi-8mtv-1 and 10 ansat-sk.

The levada center poll has found out that 21% of russians want to ask putin when the war with Ukraine will end, putting other issues such as pensions and social issues on the back burner.

Authorities of the russian city of sochi are going to cancel fireworks for the New Year holidays.

The US Department of the Treasury has announced new sanctions against the belarusian regime. The sanctions lists include 8 individuals and 11 companies, including zenit-belomo ojsc; “management company of holding “gorizont”; “belmontazhservice”; jsc “tabak-invest”. The sanctions provide for the freezing of assets if they are located in the United States, as well as organizations that are 50% or more owned by the individuals or companies specified in the list.

The US Congress is preparing a new Act on Democracy, Human Rights and Sovereignty in belarus.

According to the belarusian association of motorists, Chinese brands occupy 84% of the belarusian car market. Sales of new cars are growing, but the market’s recovery is gradually exhausting its potential.

The department of сitizenship and migration of the ministry of internal affairs of the rb has stated that more than 58 thousand belarusians informed the belarusian authorities about having citizenship of some other state, residence permit or other document. For those who reported, there will be no negative consequences, while the issue of responsibility for those belarusians who do not report about their documents is being worked out.