January 18, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“Germany is providing (Ukraine) with more than EUR7 billion in military goods in 2024”, said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Germany has handed over to Ukraine 8 armored personnel carriers, 25 RQ-35 Heidrun UAVs, 16 Zetros trucks, 5 vehicles for border guards, ammunition for Leopard tanks, 50 SatCom communication terminals, demining materials, 500 LED lamps, almost 2,000 combat helmets.

Germany’s government also intends to transfer to Ukraine 20 Marder infantry fighting vehicles and 15 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns Gepard.

German Ambassador to Ukraine Martin Jäeger has assured that Germany will continue to supply Ukraine with air defense systems in 2024.

Christoph Heusgen, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, believes that Germany can decide to provide long-range TAURUS cruise missiles to Ukraine no later than in a month.

President of France Emmanuel Macron has said that in February he will complete work on the texts of a bilateral agreement with Ukraine on “security guarantees”. At the same time, he assured that about 40 long-range SCALP missiles and several hundreds of bombs will be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks.

The first two of the 14 Leopard 2A4 tanks for Ukraine, which are jointly purchased by Denmark and the Netherlands, have undergone a major overhaul and are ready for shipment.

“Now a lot will determine the further course of the war in Ukraine, which gives us all the opportunity and time to prepare (for possible aggression of the rf). Therefore, it is critically important to provide Ukrainians with maximum support and encourage other countries to do the same”, said President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs.

Hungary will continue to support Ukraine and its Peace Formula, President of Hungary Katalin Novák said during the discussion “Defending Europe's United Front” at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană has assured that support for Ukraine will be one of the top priorities of the July NATO summit in Washington.

President of Poland Andrzej Duda believes that Ukraine's accession to NATO before the end of the war with russia is impossible, but the procedure can be started even at the stage of confronting the aggressor.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen expressed hope that the European Council would reach a consensus among all 27 countries on the adoption of amendments to the EU multi-year budget, which includes the creation of a Ukrainian fund in the amount of EUR50 billion.

In 2024–2025, Finland will allocate €4 million to support the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine, in particular, within the framework of assistance, special attention will be paid to the integration of people with disabilities, gender equality, prevention and combating violence against women.

The United Kingdom's Foreign Office has said the country is investing $25 million to “unblock Ukrainian exports and imports, vital food supplies included”.

The European Commission is preparing a draft resolution to extend the duty-free regime for Ukrainian exports until mid-2025.

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Canadian scientists conducting research in some critical areas and applying for federal funding will be banned from collaborating with certain russian, Chinese and iranian institutions.

Due to geopolitical tensions in the region, Finland will not open checkpoints on the border with the rf in February.

Turkish banks are massively refusing to work with russian ones: the situation began to worsen in the summer, and sharply escalated after the issuance on December 22 of the US presidential decree on secondary sanctions. To date, Türkiye’s banks have canceled correspondent relations and stopped processing payments without formally closing contracts with almost all russian credit institutions. russia's trade ties with Türkiye, which has so far remained one of russia's active trading partners, are under threat.

Authorities of Cyprus comply with international sanctions against the rf, which is why large russian companies are leaving Cypriot jurisdiction en masse. tcs group (the parent company of tinkoff bank), the developer etalon group, the retailer fix price, united medical group (the holding company of the russian “european medical center”), transmashholding, globaltrans and the ozon marketplace have already left Cyprus or are winding down their business.

The French company Faurecia, which produced auto parts for cars in russia, has given up russian assets.

India, which is the largest importer of sea consignments of russian oil, is giving up raw materials from the rf due to increased international sanctions. To date, more than ten loaded oil tankers have not been able to enter the ports, some of them – for more than a month.

Despite the height of the heating season, export prices for russian coal are declining in many countries around the world due to high coal reserves in China and cheaper gas on the world market. Coal exports from the kuzbass on the western direction have already become unprofitable. According to the price indices centre, in the eastern export market, coal 6,000 kcal fell in price over the week by 7.4% and costs $ 101 per ton, coal 5,500 kcal fell in price by 7.1%, to $ 92 per ton, coal 5,000 kcal – fell in price by 8.9% – to $ 77. Prices on the western direction of exports are also decreasing: coal 6,000 kcal fell in price by 4.7%, to $ 71 per ton.

On January 15, a yamal airlines plane en route to salekhard from gorno-altaysk made an emergency landing at the novosibirsk airport. ural airlines twice tried to operate a flight to sochi from yekaterinburg on a faulty Airbus A321, but the flights were canceled.

In bryansk region, a Mi-8 helicopter was damaged due to an emergency landing and cut high-voltage lines. In four districts - sevsky, suzemsky, brasovsky, komaritsky – power supply was cut off.

During the January 15 riots in bashkiria against the sentencing of a local activist for extremism, protesters called on “all fighters of bashkiria to leave the territory of Ukraine and return to their homeland to defend their land and their people. While you are fighting for the ambitions of one man, your people are being beaten with batons by riot police and the russian guard”. In the region, failures began in the work of messengers that cover the course of the protest.

In novosibirsk, due to a pipe break, a fountain of boiling water rose to the seventh floor. Local deputies call on the governor to declare a state of emergency due to numerous utility accidents in the city.

In the absence of proper preventive measures in russia, a record increase in the incidence of pertussis was recorded in the country: in ten months of 2023, 27.8 thousand cases were registered (for the whole of 2022 – 3.1 thousand cases, in 2021 – 1.1 thousand).

An inter-factional group “For Democratic Belarus” has been created in Finland’s Parliament. Finland has become the 24th country where such a group operates.

The Lithuanian Transport Safety Administration (LABT) reports the detection of belarusian passenger carriers’ violations. Some do not have transportation permits, some violate the driving and rest regime, some operate regular services under the guise of irregular ones.

The government of the rb has introduced new changes for foreign investors from “unfriendly” countries who want to sell their business in belarus. Local officials must approve (or not) the application, as well as determine the amount of the contribution to the state budget and the timing of when it must be made. But the commission must be at least 25% of the market value of the alienated shares or real estate.

According to the official data of the bank of vacancies, there is a shortage of doctors in belarus. In total, more than 4,750 specialist doctors and 3,860 nurses are needed across the country. For example, 1467 specialist doctors are needed in minsk, 736 – in minsk region, and 308 – in gomel region. Among the reasons are specialists’ leaving for abroad, the level of salaries (they are lower than the national average), as well as the detention and imprisonment of doctors.