February 5, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Ukraine and France are close to finalizing the agreement on security guarantees.

Ukraine and Germany can sign an agreement on security guarantees in the near future.

Poland has allocated a loan for manufacturing weapons jointly with Ukraine.

“My actions and stance on russia's brutal aggression against Ukraine have been clear from day one: russia violates international law, is an aggressor and occupier”, said President of Poland Andrzej Duda.

“We need to stop talking about the stalemate and that time is not on the side of Ukraine. Our economy is 25 times larger than russia’s, and we are more than capable of demonstrating, that time is on our side rather than on putin’s”, said Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom David Cameron.

“Ukraine is fighting for us to have a peaceful life so that our children go to school and study there, so that we go to work and do our own business. Ukrainians pay a high price for our having these opportunities. And so I would like to emphasize that the war for Ukraine is a struggle for peace around the world”, said Speaker of the Saeima of Latvia Daiga Mieriņa.

The government of Belgium has proposed the G7 countries to unlock russia's assets to use them for the benefit of Ukraine.

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According to Oliver Wyman consultants, by 2026, the total fleet of aircrafts in russia will decrease more than two fold, which will be a blow to the country with the largest territory in the world where air transportation is crucial for maintaining the economy in working order.

According to the German Aviation Database Jacdec, which monitors the incidents related to the safety of all aircrafts with 19 or more seats, 74 incidents were registered in russia last year compared to 36 in 2022. Violation of safety rules occurred about 9.9 times for every 100,000 flights in 2023 compared to 5 – in 2022 and 4.5 – in 2019.

The resource of spark plugs made in russia for Superjet 100 passenger aircrafts is ten times smaller than of the imported ones that are no longer supplied to the rf because of international sanctions. Prior to the russian war against Ukraine in SAM146 engines, which stand on Superjet 100, they used spark plugs of the US company Unison Industries with a resource of 1,000 hours of operation, the resource of the russian “analogues” is only 100 hours, after which they need to be changed. russia, which has the largest number of such aircrafts – 78, will have to spend 900 million rubles on the purchase of spark plugs in 2024.

Lithuania is one of the countries that buy 155-mm artillery shells within NATO’s large contract.

Due to the russian crisis and lack of funds, russians are increasingly buying used smartphones: more than 9 million devices were resold in 2023, the russian internet advertizing service Avito said. Apple and Samsung smartphones were most often bought, the new models of these manufacturers are not officially supplied to the rf any longer.

In 2023, less than 580 thousand foreigners visited russia, who declared the aim of their visit as “tourism”, the association of tourist operators of the rf reported. Almost 5 million tourists visited the country before russia’s full -scale military invasion of Ukraine.

The russians hide having citizenship of other countries: in 2023 the ministry of internal affairs found out 4 585 people who did not report the second citizenship – almost twice as many as a year earlier (2 584).

In russia, 125 settlements do not have pharmacies. The worst situation is in volgograd region of the rf – in 26 settlements, where more than 24 thousand people live, there are no pharmacies, which is why they have to travel 8 to 60 kilometers to buy medicines.

According to official data, nearly 4 million russians suffer from cancer, and mortality is one of the highest in the world because of underdeveloped medicine.

The dollar exchange rate at the belarusian monetary stock exchange in early February increased to the maximum level from December 7, 2023. As a result of the week, it rose in minsk by 0.8 % – to 3.2113 rubles per dollar. The exchange rate of Chinese yuan rose by 1.1 % (to 4.4631 rubles for Yuan).

According to belstat, last year the number of individual entrepreneurs in belarus decreased by 10 215 people. Almost 252 thousand individual entrepreneurs are working throughout the country today.