July 10, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

As part of the latest military aid package approved by US President Joe Biden on July 8, Ukraine will receive a thousand of high-precision 155-millimeter artillery shells.

UK Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace met with Ukrainian military personnel who arrived for training. Addressing the Ukrainians, Wallace pointed out that “this new ambitious training program is the next stage of the United Kingdom’s support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in their fight against russian aggression”.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced the allocation of $360 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine following the results of the G20 ministerial meeting.

This will be “support in the form of food, drinking water, cash, emergency medical assistance and shelters, and support in coordination with the humanitarian organizations that are doing so much important work on the ground”, the Secretary of State said.

Canada's Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson said that the decision to return the Siemens turbine to Germany, which is necessary to restore the full operation of the russian nord stream gas pipeline, has not been made yet.

“We are discussing this with the government of Ukraine and the government of Germany, and it is a difficult issue”, he said, noting that Ottawa is “between a rock and a hard place”, and regardless of the decision, one of the partners will be hurt.

Member of the Bundestag from the Social Democratic Party of Germany and Chairman of the Foreign Committee of the Bundestag, Michael Roth, called for the creation of a new architecture of European security based on military deterrence, political and economic isolation of russia. “In the future, there can be no special way of Germany with russia at the expense of our partners from Central and Eastern Europe”, said Roth.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell said that due to the global food crisis exacerbated by russia's war in Ukraine, 323 million people in the world are on the verge of starvation.

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After the russian invasion of Ukraine and the closure of 11 airports in the south and center of russia, air traffic decreased by 9% compared to the same period last year. “Unfortunately, due to the closure of the airports of the south, we are losing 10 million passengers only for the period from May to August. This is without taking into account the transfer and additionally scheduled flights”, said minister of transport saveliev. From March to December, the decrease in passenger traffic may amount to almost 19 million, if the mode of closing airports continues until the end of the year, the minister emphasized at the meeting with putin.

After the introduction of international sanctions, the russian avtoprom (automotive industry-transl.) is threatened with sectoral default. Having lost foreign suppliers of components and having stopped conveyors, russian car factories cannot pay their debts to banks. rosstat published the report “On the socio-economic situation”, in which it is stated that in April the amount of overdue debt at enterprises of the automotive industry increased 18 times compared to March. Within one month, automotive plants were unable to pay off loans and credits for 53.2 billion rubles, increasing the total amount of arrears to 56.3 billion rubles. Apart from non-payment of loans, auto companies delayed paying to suppliers 7 billion rubles, and also increased the tax debt to budgets of all levels by 66%. Today, the automotive industry of the russian federation is the leader in terms of the amount of outstanding loans to banks among all industries: its defaulted debts exceeded the metallurgical, chemical, woodworking, and food industries taken together.

russia continues to slide toward stalinist standards of justice and governance. After expanding the interpretation of “treason” and “espionage” with the possibility of imprisonment for any contacts with foreigners, the russian authorities are preparing to return to the criminal code the main article of the mass repressions of the 1930s – about “sabotage”. The national anti-corruption committee sent the corresponding proposal to the committee of the federation council on constitutional legislation and state building. The submission states that currently there is no concept of “sabotage and material losses in relation to the country's defense capability, national and economic security” in the criminal legislation of the russian federation and it should be added immediately.

Against the background of the military aggression against Ukraine and the economic crisis, russian companies are investing more actively in psychological support programs for employees. In online services, the demand for such services increased almost fivefold in six months. Also, since the end of February, the demand for antidepressants in pharmacies has increased several times. According to the operator of the marking system of the center for the development of promising technologies, in the first half of the year, sales of such medicines in kind increased almost twice, in money – by 87%, to 3.6 billion rubles.

According to the forecast of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, an average of almost a thousand people per day will die in russia in the next thirty years. By 2050, the population of the russian federation will decrease from 145 million to 133 million – the level of the rsfsr in the early 1970s (130 million), or the russian empire in 1897 (129 million). Losing an average of 316,000 people per year, russia will drop out of the top 10 most populous countries in the world, and is behind the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Mexico.

Journalists of the “russian service of the BBC” and “Mediazona” together with volunteers found out the names of 4,515 russian servicemen who died during putin's attempt to occupy Ukraine. The BBC believes that the confirmed data are “by 40-60%” than the real number of dead soldiers buried in russia. So-called volunteers die most often: at least 30-40 people per week. Many of them are over 45 years of age. As of the end of June, the names of at least 267 such russians became known. It is the volunteer units, together with the fighters of the so-called wagner group, that are now the main assault units of russia at the front. the ministry of defense of russia classified its losses, however, according to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, as of July 9, the number of dead russian soldiers exceeds 37,000.