March 17, 2023 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The Armed Forces of Ukraine have received from Germany 5 thousand artillery shells of 155 mm caliber and 155-mm high-precision ammunition. And also – ammunition for MARS II multiple launch rocket systems, two forklifts, four mobile antenna systems and 500 SFP9 pistols.

“We must follow through on our commitments—fully and quickly. This includes delivering our armored vehicles to the battlefield and ensuring that Ukrainian servicemen get the training, spare parts and technical support they need to use these new systems as soon as possible”, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said after the virtual meeting of Ukraine's Multinational Defense Contact Group.

Minister of National Armed Forces of France Sébastien Lecornu announced the arrival in Ukraine of the first batch of French AMX-10 RC wheeled tanks.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles confirmed that Ukraine will receive four more Leopard 2 tanks in addition to the six promised.

The Swedish government has decided to transfer ten Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine to prepare for the upcoming counteroffensive.

Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand announced the provision of a new military assistance package to Ukraine. In particular, Ukraine will receive 8 thousand shells of 155-mm caliber, 1,800 shells of 105 mm caliber, as well as 12 anti-aircraft missiles.

Estonia will send sniper weapons and special equipment to Ukraine.

Israel has approved export licenses for the possible sale of drone jamming systems that can help Ukraine counter Iranian UAVs.

President of Poland Andrzej Duda has announced the transfer of four MiG-29s to Ukraine in the coming days.

Polish government Spokesperson Piotr Müller has said that the transfer of MiG-29 combat aircrafts to Ukraine will not weaken Poland's security, but rather strengthen it.

Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński has said Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW) has detained nine men suspected of spying for russia.

Czech courts have already convicted nine people for approving russian aggression against Ukraine. The activist, convicted for posting statements about hatred for Ukrainians on social networks, was sentenced to 9 month in prison. 58 people were also charged with justifying russian aggression, and a criminal investigation was opened in 90 cases.

The EU can use the short-term instrument of joint arms procurement with a budget of 500 million euros to accelerate the production of the 155 mm ammunition needed by Ukraine.

Chancellor of the FRG Olaf Scholz expects the EU summit next week to take further steps to supply Ukraine with ammunition.

Germany has called on russia not to limit the extension of the “grain agreement” to 60 days.

Well-known European politicians, scientists and cultural figures (139 signatures) have sent a joint appeal to the heads of state and government of 27 EU countries calling for the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU in June 2023.

As part of Finland's new energy assistance package, Ukraine will receive a solar power plant equipped with a “'smart” backup power supply system, which will help ensure the operation of critical equipment in the event of power outages.

“We firmly believe that the best way to shield Moldova from Russia’s attack is to help Ukrainians defend themselves against russia”, said UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs James Cleverly.

Moldova, which russia is trying to destabilize, has taken a serious step away from russia. The Parliament voted to rename the state language. Now its name will be changed from Moldovan to Romanian, since Moldovan is the Romanian language.

Turkey may no longer need russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to protect its territory, said Haluk Gorgun, chairman of the Turkish defense company Aselsan. According to him, Turkey is working on creating its own Siper missile defense system, which hit targets at a distance of 100 kilometers during the tests.

The European Commission is preparing a new legal document that will make it possible to impose sanctions on family members of well-known russian oligarchs.

The Committee on National Security and Defense of the Lithuanian Parliament approved the decision to deprive russians of the right to buy real estate in Lithuania in their own name or on behalf of legal entities founded by them. Such a ban is included in the draft law on national sanctions.

russia is seen by most Europeans as an “adversary” or “rival”, as stated in the report of the European Council on Foreign Relations, published on March 16. The majority of residents who consider russia an adversary is in Denmark - 82%, followed by Estonia and Poland (79% each), Great Britain (77%), Germany (69%), Spain (65%), France (59%), Portugal (57%) and Italy (54%). In Romania, 44 % called russia an adversary or rival. According to the survey, on average, two-thirds of respondents in ten European countries consider russia to be a rival of their country, and 40% consider it weaker than before the invasion of Ukraine.

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Glencore (Global Energy Commodities and Resources), the world’s largest natural resource trader, is not going to renew the contract for the purchase of russian aluminum after it expires in 2024. This was stated by Glencore CEO Gary Nagle. Three years ago, Glencore agreed with “us rusal” to purchase 6.8 million tons of aluminum during 2020–2024. The estimated value of the contract was $ 16,3 billion, it guaranteed the russian company the sale of more than a third of the products.

The Internet giant Yandex and the electronic trading platform Ozon will no longer be able to sell their securities on the Nasdaq exchange platform. As noted in the Nasdaq, there “remain the geopolitical circumstances caused by russia which are potentially connected with the activities of Yandex: the so-called russian Google in 2022 sold its news feed and homepage to the Kremlin-controlled competitor from mail. ru –VKontakte. Yandex and Ozon had previously stated that they would appeal the previous decision on restrictions, which the American exchange adopted back in 2022. However, contrary to the fact that none of these russian companies has yet been included in the Western sanctions package, with the exception of Yandex's top managers, the new bans will take effect without any possibility of appeal. Also, subject to “delisting” (removal from the lists of the exchange) will be the site for finding and selecting vacancies “headhunter” and the service of payment services “qiwi”.

At the end of 2022, the net profit of the russian gazprom fell to 747.25 billion rubles against 2.68 trillion rubles in 2021. The drop in indicators was more than 3.6 times, – according to the data of the company's financial report. The company's revenue was 7.98 trillion rubles, which is by 25% more than in 2021. At the same time, the company's gross profit fell by 12%, to 3.21 trillion rubles, and profit before taxes – to 1.02 trillion rubles, compared to 3.2 trillion rubles in 2021. In 2022, gas production in russia fell by 11.8 % to 672 billion cubic meters. The decline was due to gazprom’s reduction of energy supplies to Europe to historical lows.

The Czech company Moravia Gas Storage (MGS), which operates an underground gas storage facility in Damboržice, has terminated the contract with the russian gazprom.

Trade turnover between Japan and russia in February decreased by 56.3 % compared to the same period last year – to 126.4 billion yen (approximately $ 953 million). Exports of Japanese goods decreased by 58.2 % – to 33.8 billion yen, and imports from the rf decreased by 55.8 % – to 92.6 billion yen. Purchases of russian coal decreased by 85.6 %, liquefied natural gas – by 20 %. Oil was hardly purchased. At the same time, russia imported medical devices from Japan by 3,270.4 % more compared to February 2022.

According to the forecast of real estate market experts, the volume of transactions for renting and buying offices in moscow in the first quarter will decrease by 1.5 times compared to last year. Due to the continued reduction of the presence of foreign companies in the rf, in the segment of offices located in modern business centers, the share of empty space will increase to 20% by the end of the year.

In 2022, 19% fewer chips (including processors) were imported to russia than a year earlier, while the total value of goods almost doubled to $ 2.1 billion (157 billion rubles). Almost all equipment in russia works on the Intel x86 architecture, so the rf is very dependent on the products of Intel and AMD.

After IT professionals’ having left russia in 2022, more than 67 thousand vacancies were opened in the labor market for such employees without work experience (junior) and 310 thousand vacancies – with work experience from one to three years. At the same time, the total number of job seekers is 214 thousand people – almost twice lower than demand, mostly students seeking a job.

IT-specialist deficits have forced russian companies to change the overall approach to employment: almost 30 % of staff now are specialists working on a temporary basis, another third are not on the staff.

More than 70 planes of russian airlines remained abroad after Western countries imposed sanctions, - said minister of transport of the rf vitaly savelyev during a report at a meeting of the gosduma committee on transport and development of transport infrastructure. “Many aircarriers, unfortunately, decided to give up the aircrafts”, he said.

The military enlistment offices of yaroslavl region and the krasnodar territory began to send out summonses en masse to residents of the regions, allegedly to “update the data of military registration”. On March 17, a meeting of the coordination parliamentary group on the “special operation” will be held in krasnodar, at which the issue of mobilization training of the russian population will be discussed.

In the russian city of penza, graduates of higher educational institutions will be able to receive a diploma only with a summons to the military registration and enlistment office, said andrei surkov, a military commissar of of penza region. “Summonses will be handed over for graduates to arrive and register in their military specialty”, he explained. In penza state university alone about 22 thousand students study.

According to the rating of the American magazine The Economist, belarus took first place in the list of allies of russian president vladimir putin.

The national bank of belarus has published data on the country's external debt as of January 1, 2023. The total external debt, including state-guaranteed public sector and private sector liabilities, amounted to $ 26.94 billion. The external national debt for the year increased by $272.5 million, up to $18.5 billion. $15.09 billion came from loans, and $3.4 billion – from securities. The external debt of deposit organizations amounted to $ 4.94 billion. From the report of the national bank of belarus it follows that in February the wide money supply in the republic increased by 1 billion 904.4 million rubles. The ruble money supply increased by 953.8 million rubles. Over the year, the volume of cash in circulation increased by more than 42.5%. And compared to the beginning of 2022, the increase occurred by 54.2 %. According to financial analysts, this situation is caused by problems with bank cards, with the help of which it is now more difficult to pay in belarus. The second problem may be people's uncertainty about the future and the desire to keep money at home, because deposits in rubles do not have the same profitability. The third problem is the possible growth of the grey economy.

According to the state database of vacancies, the minsk metro (underground railway- Transl.) needs more than 400 employees. There are vacant positions of cleaners, cashiers, electricians, engine drivers, engineers of various qualifications, as well as the position of chief of the sector for ideological and social work with five- year experience.

Stocks in the Belarusian industry set a new record at the end of February. According to belstat, as of March 1, they reached 9.053 billion rubles, in particular in the manufacturing industry – 8.996 billion rubles. The level of stocks in the industry as a whole amounted to 78.2% of the average monthly production, and in the manufacturing industry – to 90.8%.

Leader of the communist party of the rf, gennadiy zyuganov, has said that on lenin's birthday on April 22, the communist party of russia will hold an anti-fascist forum in minsk. He stated that lukashenko has responded to this request.