March 25, 2023 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The USA seeks lasting peace in Ukraine based on respect for sovereignty and other principles of international law, but now there are no signs of readiness for meaningful diplomacy from russia, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during testimony before Committee for Foreign Affairs of the US Congress.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointed out that any decisions on the return of the Ukrainian territories occupied by russians should be made by official Kyiv – and no one else.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in response to words about the need to stop supporting hostilities in Ukraine, called the talk about a truce “propaganda that parasitizes on a sovereign nation and international law”.

Ministry of Defense of Finland has announced the allocation of another package of military assistance worth 161 million euros. Ukraine will receive 3 Leopard 2R demining tanks, other heavy weapons and ammunition. The military will also provide training for Ukrainian specialists on Leopard 2R. For security reasons, the Ministry of Defense does not disclose the entire content of the package and the times of delivery.

Germany has provided Ukraine with three Dachs engineering vehicles based on the German Leopard 2 tank, 100 MG3 machine guns, spare parts for armored vehicles and 30 systems for detecting drones.

Spain will send the first 6 Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine by the end of next week.

On the first day of the EU summit, European leaders officially decided to supply a million artillery ammunition to Ukraine, as well as, upon request, missiles. The EU member states condemned the abduction of Ukrainian children, stressed the need to continue the “grain initiative” and advocated tougher sanctions.

The new package of EU sanctions against russia will be aimed at closing loopholes that are used to circumvent the already imposed sanctions. This was announced following a meeting of the European Council on March 23 by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

“The deportation of children is a war crime. In partnership with Ukrainians, Prime Minister Morawiecki and I launched an initiative aimed at the repatriation of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia”, said President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

President of the European Council Charles Michel has said that the decision on the supply of fighters to Ukraine should be made by the EU member states independently. “... This is not a secret: we believe that Kyiv needs more support and more military equipment”, Michel said.

The European Council has supported the creation of an international mechanism for registering the losses caused by russia during the military invasion of Ukraine, according to the conclusions of the summit of EU leaders. The document states that the European Union remains committed to supporting the restoration and reconstruction of Ukraine in coordination with international partners. The EU also stated that together with its partners they are stepping up work on the use of frozen and immobilized assets of russia to restore Ukraine and to compensate for losses, in accordance with EU legislation and international law.

The Council of Europe has removed Ukraine from the “black list” of countries where structural changes are taking place that destroy the struggle against corruption, or where the state of fighting corruption is “globally unsatisfactory”.

Poland continues to push for an increase in the European Peace Fund, from which arms supplies to Ukraine are financed.

The United States has imposed new sanctions against three legal entities and nine individuals from belarus. Under the restrictions fell automobile factories belaz and maz, as well as the cec of belarus. Also under sanctions is the luxury aircraft EW-001PA, which is used by lukashenko.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Grenholm has said the United States intends to reduce its dependence on russian isotopic products.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia is expelling from the country another russian diplomat who “undermines security and constitutional order”.

The World Athletics Council has confirmed the decision it made in March 2022 to exclude russian and belarusian athletes, support staff, officials of member federations and officials who are citizens of those two countries from participating in all events of the World Athletics Series in the future.

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From April 1, Kazakhstan will introduce an online system that will track goods crossing the country's border, and thus make it impossible to circumvent international sanctions against russia. First of all, the so-called “parallel import” in the rf will stop.

The French company Leroy Merlin has announced its intention to sell all its shops in russia.

russian deputy prime minister novak has said that from mid-January, russia had to reduce the cost of its urals oil by another $ 8.

The institute of social policy of the higher school of economics of the rf has predicted four possible scenarios for the development of the situation in russia until 2030. For all options, improving life in russia will happen only if the world economy grows and international sanctions are eased. In other scenarios, russia will face an increase in unemployment and poverty, a reduction in income and wages, and a decrease in the share of the middle class.

In case of increasing international pressure on the rf in combination with the global crisis and stagnation of the world economy, the unemployment rate in russia will increase to 6.8 % by 2030 and will spread to different groups of the population, real income indicators and wages will decrease. The poverty rate in 2026-2030 will be 18.7 % of the population of the rf, the share of the middle class will be reduced to 10-15 % - figures of the 1990s.

russian railways have introduced a new system of coordination of cargo transportation in order to “prevent volumes on the network that do not correspond to the current infrastructure capabilities, reduce congestion and downtime”. Due to the inability of the russian railway monopolist to provide transportation, the russian industry has faced another problem: cargo senders complain about unpredictable refusals to transport the previously agreed and already sold goods. In particular, metallurgists claim the risk of shutting down to a third of their capacities.

russia has decided to boycott the international environmental action Earth Hour, which provides for switching off electric light for one hour as a sign of humanity's care about the future of our planet. On March 25, such a solidarity action will be held in 180 countries.

The government of belarus has extended the temporary ban imposed in March 2022 on the export of industrial goods from the republic of belarus to the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union. The list of 254 items includes: cars, railway locomotives, railway wagons, tractors, motorcycles, bicycles, aircrafts, nuclear reactors, refrigeration and freezing equipment, equipment for agriculture and forestry, computers, vacuum cleaners, telephones and a number of other types of products. Meanwhile, belarus has a record increase in stocks of finished industrial products.