June 17, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

16 June, President of France Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi and President of Romania Klaus Iohannis visited Irpin, which had been destroyed by russian occupation forces. European politicians have witnessed the criminality of the aggressor's war.

During his visit to Irpin, Mario Draghi assured that all the destruction would be restored. “Here the russians destroyed houses and kindergartens. Everything will be restored”, he said.

For his part, Klaus Iohannis called the destruction horrific and called for the prosecution of russian war criminals.

“No words can describe the incredible human tragedy and horrific destruction we saw today in Irpin. I call for all russian criminals to be brought to justice”, he wrote.

Chancellor of the FRG Scholz stated that russia is aimed only at destruction.

“We have to keep this in mind when making decisions. I wonder what kind of destruction this war is causing. And it is even worse when you see how senseless this violence is”, the politician said.

Instead, while in Irpin, Macron commented on criticism of his words about “saving Putin's face”. He said that Ukraine must win and that France has been with Ukraine since the first day of the invasion. Besides, during the EU politicians’ visit to Kyiv, a statement was made that France wants the return of all Ukrainian territories, including Crimea, to Kyiv's control. Macron explained that russia is now a threat to other countries, so the international community should not allow the kremlin to continue its aggression.

France, Germany, Italy and Romania are in favor of “immediate” granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union. At this, Ukraine's accession to the EU will take time. This was stated by President of France Emmanuel Macron at a joint press conference with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Federal Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi and President of Romania Klaus Iohannis. “We want to confirm not only in words, but also in our actions that Ukraine is part of the European family ... Tomorrow the European Commission will issue a conclusion, and next week the EU Council will decide on a European perspective for Ukraine. All four of us support the immediate granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership”, Macron said.

President of France Emmanuel Macron also said that the European Union would not demand territorial concessions from Ukraine to stop the war. He assured that Kyiv alone would be able to decide when and under what conditions to start the diplomatic process of putting an end to the armed conflict. “We will do everything necessary so that Ukraine can choose its own destiny. And it is Ukraine that will decide at what point it will stop the war and sit down at the negotiating table. Ukraine will decide on what conditions it will rebuild the peace”, the French leader assured. He added that the West is ready to continue to provide military and humanitarian assistance to Kyiv, as well as to join the investigation into the kremlin's war crimes.

During the briefing, Emmanuel Macron stated that France will supply Ukraine with an additional six artillery systems of the Caesar self-propelled howitzers, and will further strengthen military, economic and humanitarian support for Ukraine. “Apart from the already delivered 12 Caesars, I decided to supply six more”, said the President of France. “Ukraine can count on us. From the first days of this war, Europe has sided with a free and sovereign Ukraine, in defense of international law, in defense of the principles enshrined in the UN Charter, which russia has decided to ignore in a completely deliberate, unprovoked and unjustified way”, Macron said. The President of France also announced that a mobile laboratory for DNA analysis will be transferred to Ukraine.

Commenting on the Pope's statement that the war in Ukraine was “provoked in some way”, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the Alliance's long-term assistance to Ukraine was not a provocation and that only russian president putin and his regime are responsible for the war in Ukraine. According to him, for many years NATO has only supported Ukraine, provided training assistance, and helped the Ukrainian Armed Forces with equipment. “This is not a threat to anyone, this is not a provocation, and this is what we continue to do. It is president putin and moscow who are responsible for the brutal aggression against the independent country of Ukraine”, the Secretary General said.

During a press conference with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, commented on allegations of insufficient military aid to Ukraine. He assured that all deliveries are being discussed personally with the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the partners provide even more weapons than Ukraine requests. “I spoke with General Zaluzhnyi and we received the lists. These are official requests from their Ministry of Defense. They asked for 10 artillery divisions. 12 artillery divisions were delivered. Again, I would say 97,000 anti-tank systems. These are more anti-tank systems than the number of tanks in the world. They asked for 200 tanks; they received 237 tanks. They asked for 100 BMPs (IFV)s: they have more than 300. We have delivered, roughly speaking, about 1,600 SAMs and about 60,000 air defense shells”, said Milley.

At this he added that these weapons were transferred not only by the United States, but also by all Western partners of Ukraine. Besides, Milley pointed out that Kyiv also received almost half a million shells needed for artillery.

Since the beginning of the russian invasion, the United States has handed over more than $ 5.6 billion in arms to Ukraine, said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. “Russian troops have lost the battle for Kyiv and are continuing a slow and persistent offensive in eastern and southern Ukraine, which is being held back by determined and valiant defenders of Ukraine”, Blinken said. He emphasized that Ukraine's military power continues to be strengthened by more than 40 US allies.

June 16, the Seimas of Lithuania recognized in its resolution that large-scale armed aggression carried out by the russian armed forces and political and military leadership and the forced deportation of the population to russia or to territories temporarily controlled by russia are the deportation of the Ukrainian people. The resolution condemns the expulsion of more than a million civilians from their homes and forcibly deported to russia or its controlled territories in order to destroy Ukraine's identity. It is noted that 200,000 children were deported among these civilians.

Permanent Representative of Ukraine at the UN Serhiy Kyslytsia called his russian counterpart vasily nebenzya a “spokesman for the devil” for denying russia's war crimes in Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian diplomat, the russian permanent representative at the UN is in an unenviable position. nebenzya is forced to broadcast the theses of “putin's immoral regime”, because he will soon retire, and if he stays in the West, he will become a nobody. Kyslytsia stressed that the scale of the human tragedy unfolding in Ukraine is so great that the russian representative is not worthy of sympathy.

In China, Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng, who publicly supported russia after the invasion of Ukraine, was fired during a cabinet reshuffle of government officials. Yucheng was the greatest expert on russia in the country's system. Yucheng could be fired because China's leadership feared that the country was too close to russia, which started a war in Ukraine. And this could damage ties with the West and the world economy. Analysts suggest that the Chinese Foreign Ministry now needs leaders who are more inclined to develop relations with the United States and the European Union.

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russia's central bank has recommended that russian banks not pay dividends to depositors in 2022. According to the head of the bank nabiullina, “external conditions for russia's economy, which have changed against the background of the war against Ukraine and Western sanctions, may remain forever”. She also said that in the current situation, it is impossible to lift restrictions on the withdrawal of cash by russians.

The American company Baker Hughes has stopped servicing all russian lng projects. The company recalled service engineers from gazprom's sakhalin-2 projects and novateks’ yamal lng, as well as project engineers from the arctic lng-2 project under construction. At the same time, Baker Hughes has stopped shipments for the latest equipment project, including gas turbines. Without this equipment, the construction of the first line of the arctic lng-2 cannot be completed.

russia risks running out of server processors. baikal electronics has stated that it has been forced to freeze the baikal-s server processors' (presented at the end of 2021 ) production due to problems with placing orders for production in Taiwan. To date, many large russian entities, includings sberbank, have relied on large batches of baikal-s-based servers to meet government demand for import substitution. Now russian companies will have to look for ways to import servers in parallel with imported processors, as there will be no alternative. Added to this problem is the fact that batches of already produced processors for computers and laptops baikal-m do not come to russia either because of the sanctions. According to experts, access to production facilities and foreign IP have become a big problem for russia, and to put the baikal-s processor in the development of new computers is too risky.

The risks of defects, rising producer costs and complicated logistics have prompted russian regulators for the first time in several years to agree to raise marginal prices for a number of insulin-containing drugs. The maximum cost of drugs in syringe pens will increase to 28%.

The ban on flights to 11 airports in the south and central russia has been extended for the 19th time in a row, now until June 24, 2022.

The 25th st. petersburg international economic forum was ignored and not attended by officials and businessmen from most developed countries. Earlier, this event was called “russian davos” by analogy with the most famous forum of its kind in Switzerland. Leaders of European countries, highly respected representatives of international structures, and most importantly – investors from around the world would come to russia. russia's military aggression against Ukraine put an end to this event. The jubilee st. petersburg forum has become “toxic” for most participants.

deputy chairman of the board of sberbank kuznetsov has said that since the beginning of hostilities against Ukraine as a result of cyberattacks, the data of 65 million russians have been stolen.

minister of finance siluanov frightened government officials by saying that the state should take the risks of business to sell goods, to ensure demand, for example, to make the officials use “ladas”.

stepanov, senior vice president and production director of norilsk nickel, has said that the implementation of a number of investment projects has been suspended for two years due to difficulties in obtaining the necessary equipment.

The president of the russian academy of sciences called on russia “in no case to refuse to cooperate with European science”.

The Decathlon chain of stores (a French company specializing in the development, production and retail of sporting goods) will close in moscow on June 26.

Shareholders of the Euroleague basketball have voted to continue removing all russian clubs from joint competitions.

The United Kingdom has added to the list of sanctions patriarch kirill and russian children's ombudsman lvova-belova.

Mobile game developer Game Insights is closing all its offices and business in russia - 600 russians will lose their jobs. Game Insights is known for developing many popular games for mobile platforms, including Paradise Island, My Country and Tribez.

Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has announced its intention to cancel a special investment contract with russia.

Coca-Cola Bottler, the distributor of Coca-Cola HBC, together with customers in russia sells leftovers. After the sale of Coca-Cola, HBC will not produce or sell Coca-Cola products and other brands of the company in russia.

The Italian company Enel, which produces and distributes electricity and gas, has announced the sale of its stake (56.43%) in Enel russia.

Japanese low-cost airline Zipair Tokyo Inc will change the logo with the image of the letter z on its aircrafts. The carrier wants to “avoid misunderstandings” over russia's aggression against Ukraine. “Passengers may misinterpret the logo and think that the company approves of the actions of the russian armed forces in Ukraine”, said the company’s President Shingo Nishida.