July 5, 2023 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The general fund of the state budget of Ukraine has received the second tranche of $ 890 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Since the beginning of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European countries have allocated more than EUR 43 billion on protection of Ukrainian refugees: Poland – more than 12 billion euros, Germany – almost EUR 11 billion, the Czech Republic – EUR 2.94 billion, Spain – EUR 2.24 billion, France – EUR 2.04 billion, Romania – EUR 1.26 billion, Switzerland – EUR 1.16 billion, Italy – EUR 1.15 billion, etc.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland Ignazio Cassis has announced an additional 5.5 million Swiss francs (5.63 million euros) for the reconstruction and refurbishment of Ukrainian schools. The funding will be provided within the framework of the Decentralization for Improved Democratic Education (DECIDE) project to restore about 30 schools in the regions directly affected by hostilities.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a loan of EUR 25 million to the city of Dnipro to resolve problems arising from the influx of refugees.

Fitch Ratings has upgraded the stability rating of the state-owned Oshchadbank from “ss” to “sss”.

Minister of Defence of Bulgaria Todor Tagarev has said that Sofia is potentially ready to discuss with Ukraine the provision of any weapons. He also said that Bulgaria could contribute to increasing European military assistance to Ukraine by increasing its own production. At the same time, Tagarev assured that Bulgaria has already begun preparing the next package of military assistance for Ukraine.

Portugal will transfer 14 M113 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.

20 Ukrainian prosecutors have completed a training course in France to investigate war crimes against children.

Ukraine will join NATO, bypassing the bureaucratic procedures inherent in this process. The accession of our country will take place “without the usual red tape”, UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs James Cleverly is convinced.

Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda has called on NATO countries to respond more boldly to Ukraine's aspirations to become a member of the Alliance.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis supports Ukraine's clear and non-revokable invitation to join the North Atlantic Alliance at the summit in Vilnius.

Former President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė pointed out that if Ukraine is not directly offered NATO membership, but instead – support in statements, it will be a mistake.

“So, it's time to put an end to russia's veto on third countries' accession to NATO”, wrote Ilhan Küçük, a member of the European Parliament and co-President of the ALDE party, in the article “Ukraine's Membership in NATO Is the Only Effective Guarantee of Security”.

“It is impossible to imagine that the European Union will be without Ukraine, Moldova, the Western Balkans, and that these parts of Europe will be under the influence of Russia…. So, the direction of movement is clear”, said President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Switzerland intends to join the European initiative to protect the airspace “Sky Shield”.

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The United Kingdom has banned russian oligarch roman abramovich from spending 2.3 billion pounds ($2.9 billion) raised from selling Chelsea football club outside Ukraine.

The Bank of Italy's financial information office has said it has frozen the assets (in the amount of €2.3 billion) of individuals subject to EU anti-russian sanctions.

“The European Commission is discussing the possibility of using to finance the recovery of Ukraine revenues from russian assets in the amount of EUR 207 billion, which are frozen in Europe, including the assets of the central bank of the rf”, said European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders.

Lithuania has proposed to ban EU countries from concluding new contracts with rosatom.

russians began to actively sell their dachas in Finland. Ads began to appear en masse after the announced toughening of rules for entering the country for russian property owners. Some sellers directly point out that they would like to exchange houses in Finland for real estate in russia – in st. petersburg or leningrad region. In late June, the state council's committee on foreign and security policy and President of Finland Sauli Niinistö considered new restrictions on entry for russians into Finland and the Schengen zone through Finland. The changes will first of all affect property owners.

Due to the inability to compete with foreign electronics (which actually comes to russia from China), russian manufacturers insist on limiting its “parallel imports”. It is proposed to ban the import of any servers and storage systems to the rf, while not restricting the import of their components: boards, processors, etc. However, experts are confident that high-level equipment will not be produced in russia anyway, and even such a scheme will eventually come down to “changing labels”.

Metallurgical companies of the rf against the background of a decrease in exports of their products offer builders to increase the use of metal structures in construction. Construction companies are against such an idea and do not see the prospects of using metal blocks in housing construction.

At the moscow stock exchange, the US dollar has exceeded 90 rubles for the first time since March 28, 2022, the euro – 98.06 rubles (+1.47%), the Chinese yuan – 12.432 rubles (+2.05%).

More than one trillion rubles will be lost by russia’s economy due to the inability of the authorities to provide the temporarily occupied Crimea with water.

Monetary support by the russian authorities for the international criminal organization “wagner”, which operates in many countries of the world, since 2014 has amounted to 1.7 trillion rubles and exceeded the average annual expenditures of the ministry of defense of the rf on rearmament.

The federal tax service of the rf and the federal bailiff service will exchange data and strengthen control over russians mobilized for the war against Ukraine. The rf records daily cases of dozens of the mobilized leaving military units and running away from the front.

From July 11, the ministry of internal affairs of the rf will prohibit persons who did not come to the military commissariat, to drive a car.

Online cinemas and TV channels of the rf opposed the state duma’s proposal to use the content of foreign rights holders without their permission. In their opinion, after the change of the russian regime, such piracy of copyright will be too expensive in image and financial terms.

Due to strict checks of tourists and many kilometers of queues of cars in front of the Kerch bridge, putin has instructed to direct tourists through the temporarily occupied territory of the South of Ukraine.

Due to the exclusion of russian players and teams from participating in international competitions, bets in bookmakers of the rf will be halved in 2023.

The European Handball Federation (EHF) has cancelled the 2026 European Women's Championship in russia.

More than 100 employees of the russian company, which was employed at the construction sites of the belNPP, did not receive about 150 thousand rubles in wages.

Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda has said that due to recent events around “wagner”, there is a risk of mercenaries with belarusian citizenship turning up at Lithuania's borders. Therefore, the country's authorities need to return to the issue of equalizing sanctions against russians and belarusians.

In addition to 500 police officers, Poland will send reinforcements in the form of special equipment to strengthen the protection of the border with belarus. Counterterrorism units will also appear at the border.

According to belstat, belarusian enterprises continue to fire more workers than to hire. In May, 56 thousand people were fired in the country, while 44.5 thousand persons were hired, – the number of dismissals exceeded the number of employment by 11.5 thousand. The report did not include micro and small enterprises without departmental subordination.

Since July 5, rosselkhoznadzor has banned the supply to russia of milk from one of the enterprises of the belarusian ojsc slutsk cheese-making plant. The decision was made due to the re-detection of mesophilic aerobic and facultative-anaerobic microorganisms in products.