June 5, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The Rammstein-3 meeting will take place in Brussels on June 15. It will be organized by Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin. The first meeting at the USA’s military base in Rammstein, Germany, was historic. It actually formed a world anti-russian coalition. The second summit expanded the range of countries, and decided to supply Ukraine with the Harpoon anti-ship missiles, tanks and other weapons. Lloyd Austin is an outspoken supporter of a tough anti-russian line. He has repeatedly stated that “russia must be weakened so that it can no longer do what it did during the military operation in Ukraine”, and that “the United States will move heaven and earth to support Ukraine in the fight against the russian invasion”.

Self-propelled howitzers M109A3, provided within the framework of international technical assistance by Norway, are already at the forefront. They hit targets with high accuracy and destroy the enemy. Despite the fact that these self-propelled howitzers were made in the 1960s and 1970s, they have a steering wheel instead of levers and an automatic transmission instead of a mechanical one. M109A3 howitzers have a larger caliber and more powerful ammunition than their soviet counterparts. Shooting range is up to 22 km. In the future, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to use active-jet projectiles that increase this distance. Experienced gunners also point out the convenience of charges that are airtight and completely identical, which affects the accuracy of the flight when firing, said the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Former US Ambassador to russia Michael McFaul, a Professor at Stanford University, said on Twitter on June 4 that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is being advised to put an end to the war more often than russian president putin.

“I see so many recommendations in my Twitter feed what Zelenskyy should do to stop putin's invasion of his country. I see very little advice on what putin should do to stop his invasion. Strange”, McFaul wrote.

Former President of Poland Lech Walesa believes that it is necessary to talk to russian president putin from a position of strength, not diplomacy. “We should have talked to putin differently from the beginning. We should have made him sit down and say, “You have rockets, but do you know what we have? We just don't want to shoot you. We don't want to destroy, don't make us use our capabilities, because you won't survive, guy. If you don't believe me, then look at our guns”. That's the way to talk to the president of russia, not some diplomacy”, Walesa said in an interview with Interia. He said the threat from russia was expected. “These people live in a bad system, which reduces them to a policy of expansion without natural or forced changes. If someone leads the country for 20 years, he will inevitably build a system that he will defend even at the cost of war”, the former Polish President explained.

Commander of the California National Guard, Major General David Baldwin, called on US and other countries’ officials to consider supplying Western fighters to Ukraine. According to him, this should be done as soon as possible, restoring Kyiv's long-standing request.

At the same time, he considers sending soviet MiG aircrafts in the near future the best quick solution. The American General shared his opinion in a comment to Politico. “MiGs are the best immediate solution to support Ukrainians, but American or Western fighters are options that should be explored as soon as possible”, Baldwin said.

Switzerland has allowed European countries to supply spare parts for military equipment bought from it, to Ukraine. The country's authorities emphasize that this type of re-export does not violate its neutrality. This is reported on the website of the Swiss Federal Council. In particular, Bern allows Germany and Italy to sell such products. Namely – spare parts for anti-tank launchers and air defense systems.

“The agreements allow the risk that some spare parts will be sent to Ukraine in the future. According to the current practice of the Federal Council, the supply of military equipment in the form of spare parts and components is in principle allowed. The agency has decided to continue this practice”, the document reads.

The Swiss government has also allowed Germany to freely dispose of Leopard 2 tanks previously sold by Switzerland to the German defense group Rheinmetall, – 42 Leopard 2 A4 tanks to be exact.

“Germany is free to dispose of Leopard 2 tanks sold back to Rheinmetall 12 years ago, as there are no longer any requirements”, the agency said in a statement.

Federal President of Germany Steinmeier pointed out that Ukraine should not be pessimistic about its European perspective. He also expressed admiration for the courage of Ukrainians in the struggle for their Motherland and promised to live up to their expectations regarding weapons, funding and other assistance that will be needed.

The decision of the European Union to abolish customs duties on Ukrainian goods for a period of one year came into force on June 4, the press service of the Ministry of Economy informed. These include tariffs on industrial products, suspension of the entry price system for fruit and vegetables and all tariff quotas for agricultural products.

In addition, all anti-dumping duties on imports of goods originating in Ukraine and the application of global protection measures for Ukrainian goods are suspended for one year.

Ukraine exports the most ferrous metals, ores, electric machines, oil and grain to the EU.

To help Ukrainian refugees and transport companies, the European Commission is planning special rules for the European recognition of Ukrainian driving licenses.

The promoter of the absolute world lightweight champion George Cambosos (20-0, 10 KOs) transferred free of charge to Ukraine the rights to broadcast the match with WBC title holder Devin Haney (27-0, 15 KOs). Cambosos’ spokesperson also refused to sell a broadcast of the match to russian channels.

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russia's “severstal” was disconnected from US software 20 minutes after the company came under US sanctions, its chief mordashov complained.

russia's stock market fell by 1.37% amid reports of new sanctions, the moscow stock exchange said. Within a week, the market fell by 4.1%.

Decreasing intensity of contacts with international partners has led to business’ loss of interest in the st. petersburg international economic forum. In particular, hotel bookings in st. petersburg for the period of the forum decreased by 35% (in previous years, three weeks before the event, hotel occupancy was 85-90%).

aeroflot has suspended ticket sales to Sri Lanka because the Colombo High Commercial Court banned the carrier’s plane from leaving the country on a complaint from an Irish leasing company. “In order to organize the return transportation of passengers from Colombo from June 4, all upcoming flights of aeroflot to the island will be performed without passenger loading from moscow”, reads the carrier’s statement.

russia's national settlement depository (nsd), through which the vast majority of russia's securities move, has come under EU sanctions. russia's central depository called the situation “extraordinary”. The EU Council has recognized the nsd as a systemically important russian institution that financially supports the russian government, which is “responsible for destabilizing Ukraine”. The sanctions include blocking nsd assets in European depositories Euroclear and Clearstream.

In fact, this means that russian holders of foreign securities who have worked through the nsd will not be able to sell them or receive dividend or bond payments.

The shutdown of luxury sellers in russia has hurt russian consumers: according to FCG, European and American brands accounted for more than 80% of the total luxury market in russia. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada, Gucci and a few other brands alone provided almost 70% of the revenue of russian luxury stores

The next list of US sanctions includes Nissan co-owner of the “kyiv square” development group, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at $ 1.3 billion. This can significantly affect the company's activities, as foreign retailers who rent space at its facilities, fearing image losses, will terminate contracts.

rosaviatsia for the seventeenth time extended the ban on flights to 11 airports in central and southern russia, this time – till June 12. At the same time, the association of tour operators of the russian federation has informed that due to restrictions that are constantly imposed over the russian military invasion of Ukraine, more than 2 million people will not be able to use the southern airports. In particular, 1.7 million tourists will not come to the krasnodar territory and the temporarily occupied Crimea due to the lack of air connections.

The head of the state duma of russia volodin has stated that due to the ban on oil exports to Europe, russia will lose $ 22 billion annually.

Several thousand russian companies are unable to fulfill the terms of their contracts and are declaring force majeure due to sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. Such data were given by olga gorbacheva – acting head of the department of the fas of Russia in control of the placement of state orders and state defense orders. According to her, these are not foreign trade agreements that are blocked by restrictive measures of the United States and the European Union or are disrupted by sanctions against banks, which prohibit or complicate payments.

Contracts of russian legal entities, in particular by state order, found themselves in a situation of force majeure. The chamber of commerce is currently accepting applications for force majeure certificates. But business cannot obtain documents: russian law does not stipulate sanctions as a ground for non-compliance.

“Everybody is waiting for the adoption of a law that will officially recognize sanctions as force majeure”, said gorbacheva, speaking at a conference of the institute of public procurement. According to the official, the draft law was promptly prepared, adopted in the first reading by the duma, but then hung on for revision and approval.

A survey conducted in May by the boris titov institute for protection of entrepreneurs' rights showed that 86.4% of russian companies were affected by the sanctions. Almost two thirds of them (61.7%) reported a decline in financial performance, almost a third (29.4%) reported a decrease in revenue.

One in four owners or top managers described the state of their business as a severe downturn, and 7.1% as a crisis. At this, 5.7% have already closed their business or are going to do so in the near future.

The main problem, according to business, is the falling demand: it was mentioned by 62.2% of entrepreneurs. Next go a shortage of working capital and cash gaps, destroyed supply chains and difficulties with imports.

Residents of russia who try to apply for an e-visa to travel to Mexico on the Embassy's website are denied in Ukrainian. Citizenship must be indicated, inter alia, when applying. If you write “Russia” in the citizenship column, then after completing the document, the text in Ukrainian appears on the screen: “Unfortunately, we have to inform you that your request for electronic authorization cannot be processed”, Then, also in Ukrainian, there is a recommendation to apply in person to the Consular Department.