January 31, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Germany intends to transfer another 9 Iris-T SLM anti-aircraft missile complexes as part of military assistance.

Kajsa Ollongren, Minister of Defence of the Netherlands, has announced the allocation of €122 million for military aid for Ukraine. Of these, € 87 million will go to the purchase of 155 mm artillery shells, for which earlier the Netherlands already allocated € 130 million. € 25 million will be transferred to the International Fund for Ukraine for the purchase of equipment.

The Government of the Netherlands is also investing € 10 million in improving Ukraine's cyber defense – including the creation and expansion of the online infrastructure in Ukraine.

Representatives of Ukraine and Germany held a two-day round of talks on security commitments in accordance with the Group of Seven declaration.

Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt of the Greens is convinced that Germany should deliver Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine “quickly”.

Ukraine and Belgium have signed a memorandum aimed at giving impetus to the development of bilateral relations, in particular, in the field of defense production.

Ukraine and Canada held another round of negotiations on bilateral agreement on security commitments for Ukraine.

Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, has stated that the European Union has increased the production of ammunition over the past months and will bring this capacity to 1 million artillery shells a year in March this year, and to 2 million – in 2025.

At the coming summit, European Union leaders will restate their determination to provide “timely, predictable and sustainable military support” to Ukraine.

“Each noted the criticality of rapidly increasing defense production to continue supporting Ukraine, to replenish Allied munitions and equipment stocks, and to meet the increased requirements of the defense plans adopted at the Vilnius Summit”, – the US Department of Defence commented on US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin's meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

US President Joe Biden’s Administration has called on the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson to ensure the adoption of the Agreement on Strengthening Safety at the Border with Mexico, which unlocks the possibility of adopting the aid for Ukraine.

“Ukraine’s victory requires solidarity of the whole West”, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski. According to Sikorski, the European Union now gives Ukraine more military aid than the USA, although the total support of the United States is unattainable.

The EU Ambassadors “agreed in principle to the proposal for the use of excess profits related to immobilized (russian) assets to support Ukraine's recovery”. The European Commission welcomed the EU Ambassadors' decisions to create a separate account, to which will be transferred interests from the taxable income of blocked russian assets, and stated that they are working on the next steps.

On February 2, the UN International Court will make a decision on the admissibility for consideration of the case of applying the Convention on Genocide within the framework of the claim filed by Ukraine against the rf.

Prime Minister of Estonia Kaja Kallas has called to transfer to Ukraine the blocked russian assets, in particular for the restoration of infrastructure, damaged and destroyed as a result of russia’s agression.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Spain Luis Planas Puchades has announced that his country is ready to promote Ukrainian agricultural exports and is interested in importing Ukrainian agricultural products, including corn and sunflower.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland Czesław Siekierski has assured that his country is ready to help the Ukrainian agricultural sector prepare for accession to the EU.

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Latvia’s State Security Service (VDD) will assess the information regarding Tatyana Ždanok’s possible cooperation with russian intelligence and security services.

The Military Tribunal of Rome has sentenced to 29 years and two months in prison a former Italian Navy officer Walter Biot, detained in 2021 during his attempt to hand over NATO’s secret documents to russia.

Since the beginning of 2024, the price of AI-95 petrol at the saint-petersburg international mercantile exchange (spimex) has increased by 22 %, to 51.9 thousand rubles per ton. The sharp increase in exchange prices in russia began in mid -January, after a serious accident at the nizhny novgorod lukoil oil refinary.

The largest in the rf independent operator of the filling stations “neftmagistral” (100 filling stations in moscow region) has stated that there is no access to petrol at SPIMEX. It is also emphasized that since January 12, the company is unable to buy a single lot of AI-95 and AI-92 at the moscow, ryazan and yaroslavl oil refineries.

Wholesale prices for electricity in the south of russia are growing rapidly – much faster than in other regions. In January alone, electricity went up by 9 % compared to December. russians complain that the reason for this is the accession of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to the southern power system of the rf, as well as reducing the load at NPPs and TPPs.

The most depressed regions of the rf are tuva, adygey, the altai territory, the republic of altai, kalmykia, karelia, mari el, chuvashia, pskov, kurgan regions: in those territories there is the worst indicator of the average permanent income of the population, unemployment and investment in development.

The central bank of the rf has announced that it will not publish a report on monetary policy in russia.

On the morning of January 30, at the ulan-ude airport, Boeing 737-800 of s7 airlines terminated the takeoff to moscow because of the compressor stall in the left engine. Since January 27, this is the third case of a terminated take-off at the Boeing 737-800 for this reason.

The Superjet 100 of yakutia airlines, which was flying from kharbin, also made an emergency landing at yakutsk airport due to smoke.

In Latvia, the ruling coalition agreed to ban the import of russian and belarusian grain. According to Minister of Agriculture of Latvia Armands Krauze, they will toughen control of the transit of grain, which will be carried out by the food and veterinary service. It will assess the quality, safety and origin of products to prevent russian (or stolen by russia from the occupied territories of Ukraine) grain.

In January -September 2023, 4.9 billion dollars were directed in belarus to servicing external debt (excluding the repayment of trade loans and short -term liabilities of deposit organizations), of which $ 1 billion – for percentage. External debt costs in 2023 can be significantly higher. Not only the interest costs, but also overdue external debt, increase: in January -September, the latter increased by $ 104.6 million and reached $ 1 billion.

According to national statistical services, belarus is first by the inflation over the last 15 years (2009-2023) among the neighboring countries and in the territory of the former ussr. During this period, consumer prices in belarus increased 8.41 times against 2.85 times in russia, 1.68 times in Lithuania and Poland, 1.53 times in Latvia.

belarus automobile association has reported that Chinese brands are capturing the belarusian car market. In 2022, the share of Chinese brands accounted for 31.7 % of cars, and in 2023 it was already 82.6 %. The share of Geely in the structure of Chinese brands is 87.4 %.