July 16, 2023 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk Yeol has said that his country will increase the volume of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine in 2023.

The US House of Representatives has approved the draft defense budget for next year with $ 300 million to support Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls the “Security Guarantees” the best way to show putin that he will not survive Ukraine. At the same time, Blinken has not yet noticed signs that the rf has changed its position on the war in Ukraine. “The fact that russia is once again using it (the Black Sea Grain Initiative) as a weapon and threatening to withdraw from it is directed not only against Ukraine, but also against people in the region (Southeast Asia) and around the world”, the US Secretary of State said.

Ministers of Finance of the European Union unanimously supported the allocation of additional funds to Ukraine – EUR 50 billion until 2027 – to replenish its long-term budget.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen discussed with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan the implementation of EU sanctions against russia and counteraction to circumventing them. “We are determined to further weaken russia's war machine with sanctions”, von der Leyen said.

In the United Kingdom, 18,000 Ukrainian servicemen have already undergone training.

Germany from the beginning of russia's full-scale invasion until 2027 will spend about EUR 17 billion on arms supplies to Ukraine.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the FRG Annalena Baerbock has informed that the country's Foreign Ministry, in parallel with the supply of weapons, is doing everything possible every day to “diplomatically try to stop these brutal attacks from russia”.

Lithuania has already provided medical assistance to 170 wounded defenders of Ukraine.

The Government of Serbia has allocated humanitarian aid to Ukraine to overcome the consequences after the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP.

President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda has assured that NATO is all united in supporting Ukraine.

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson believes that the Alliance should as soon as possible offer a clear timetable for Ukraine's accession to NATO, and his country is doing persistent non-public work to achieve this goal.

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Estonia has extradited to the United States the russian citizen vadim konoshchenko, whom the United States Department of Justice suspects of smuggling American dual-use technology and ammunition for the benefit of the russian defense sector.

Oilfield service company Schlumberger has stopped supplying equipment and technology to russia. “Schlumberger assumes its serious responsibility for compliance with export control and economic sanctions laws, and the company, together with the international community, condemns and calls to put an end to the war in Ukraine”, the company said in an official statement.

The central bank of the rf again stated that it predicts “acceleration of inflation in russia in the coming months” due to rising “price pressures”. The officially announced annual inflation in June was 3.25 %, which is by 0.74 % more than in May. Annual price growth has accelerated for both non-food and food products.

Due to the growth of wholesale fuel prices and a certain shortage of it for consumers in russia, a draft order has been prepared obliging producers to increase by 1% the minimum standard for exchange sales of petrol and diesel fuel from September 1 (according to the current norm, companies must sell through the exchange 12% of the total volume of petrol produced and 8.5% of diesel).

According to the russian association “spetsstal”, in June this year, imports of stainless steel amounted to 41,970 tons, which is by 9.3% less than in the previous month. In physical terms, imports to russia of cold-rolled stainless steel, stainless hot-rolled products, stainless long products, stainless welded pipes and stainless steel wire decreased by 5.0%, 21.6%, 25.3%, 22.4% and 29.9%, respectively.

Holidaying in Turkey is becoming too expensive for russians: according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey in May, the country was visited by 640.8 thousand russians, which is by a third less than in 2019, in the summer there is also a significant decline in the arrival of tourists from the rf.

One of russia's oldest tour operators, vedi group, which had been operating since 2002 and specialized in tours to Eastern Europe, has stopped operations. The reason is the closure of flights with EU countries, international sanctions against the rf, problems with currency transfers and an increase in the exchange rate. Now the money will have to be returned to 1.3 thousand russians who never became tourists.

Despite the fact that most russians are skeptical about the safety and comfort of Chinese cars, they are bought by russian taxi fleets because of the crisis: the share of such cars over the year increased from 3% to 30%; according to the forecast, by the end of the year this figure may increase to 40-45%.

According to the russian car service fit service, since the beginning of the year, the repair of Chinese cars has risen in price by 27%. The reason is that over the past year and a half, used Chinese cars have risen in price on average five times, to 1.5 million rubles, new ones – twice, to 3.2 million rubles. At the same time, there was a weakening of the ruble against the Chinese yuan and, given the fact that while supplies to russia are going at the old rate so far, by autumn the rise in price will be even greater. Not only spare part, but also all overhead costs, transportation costs, etc are becoming more expensive.

vice-president of the national automobile union, yan khaitzeier, has said that the original automobile oils in russia ran out a year ago. Now car dealers of the rf are using “analogues”, which no one has heard of before and the quality of which is very doubtful. Car service at dealers continues to grow – since January it has become more expensive by 21%, and this is after last year's rise in price by one and a half times.

Members of the soviet of foreign and defense policy issued a statement on July 13 against russia’s “preventive nuclear strike”. However, it notes that “against” is only the opinion of the signatories of the statement, but not the position of the entire soviet. “We, members of the soviet of foreign and defense policy, consider such proposals absolutely unacceptable and unconditionally condemn them. No one should ever blackmail humanity with the threat of the use of nuclear weapons, let alone give the command for their combat use”, the statement says. “Hoping that a limited nuclear conflict can be managed and prevent it from escalating into a global nuclear war is the height of irresponsibility. This means that at stake is the killing of tens and perhaps even hundreds of millions of people in russia, Europe, China, the United States, and other countries. This is a direct threat to humanity in general”, reads the statement.

According to the ministry of labor, the minimum salary of belarusians for June will not be indexed. At this, data on the indexation of other incomes of the population are still classified.

In minsk, the shortage of workers continues to grow. This was largely due to the growing demand from employers for cooks, drivers, salespeople and engineers. At the beginning of July, employers in the capital needed 32.4 thousand persons. At the beginning of March, 26.8 thousand people were needed.

rosselkhoznadzor has limited supplies from belarus to russia of products of the zhitkovichi branch of the gomel regional consumers’ society and ojsc zhlobin meat processing plant. In both cases, the reason for the ban is the same – exceeding the number of mesophilic aerobic and facultative-anaerobic microorganisms in beef.

Employees of the state control committee checked more than a hundred agricultural organizations in belarus, and it turned out that on many farms some of the combines are not ready to work in the field, there is an acute issue with the availability of fuel reserves and a shortage of specialists.

deputy minister of internal affairs of belarus nikolai karpenkov during the inspection of special forces units said that the special forces in their work will use the rich experience of the nkvd and chekist-military groups.

In borisov district of belgorod region, a mother betrayed her own son to the police for tearing down the national flag and damaging it. The 20-year-old was sentenced to a year and a half in a general regime colony for desecration of state symbols. The accused's mother acted as a witness in court.