May 29, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held talks with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Borys Johnson on strengthening defense support for Ukraine.

The parties also discussed unblocking of Ukrainian ports, which are currently blocked by the russian federation. “As part of the regular dialogue, I had another telephone conversation with Boris Johnson. We talked about strengthening Ukraine's defense support, intensifying work on security guarantees, and supplying fuel to Ukraine. We must jointly prevent the food crisis and unblock ports”, the Ukrainian President pointed out on Twitter.

Ukraine has already received a self-propelled howitzer M109 of one of the modifications. Also, three types of 155-mm artillery are already working on the front line, said Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov. “Three types of 155-mm artillery are already successfully operating on the front line – the M777 howitzer, the FH70 howitzer, and the CAESAR howitzer. Glad to announce the news – the 155-mm artillery fleet is being replenished. Ukraine has already received a self-propelled artillery M109 of one of the modifications”, Reznikov wrote.

“I also want  to inform you that the coastal defense of our country will not just be strengthened by Harpoon missiles – they will be used by trained Ukrainian teams. I am confident that the fighting brotherhood of Harpoons and our Neptunes will help liberate and make our Black Sea safe again, in particular – to reliably protect our Odessa”, he said.

The New York Times, citing US officials, reports that the Administration of US President Joe Biden has approved supplying MLRS systems to Ukraine. Handing over  of the weapons is likely to be announced next week.

The US aid package will include mobile missile launchers that can fire much further than the launchers currently used by Ukraine.

The Pentagon most often uses the M31 GMLRS (Gueded Multiple Launch Rocket System). It is a high-precision satellite-guided weapon that carries about the same amount of explosives as a 500-pound bomb. The range of the M31 GMLRS reaches more than 60 kilometers. This is more than any other artillery weapon available in Ukraine can reach.

In addition, the United States plans to give Ukraine HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, which move on the chassis of wheeled trucks.

US President Joe Biden has approved the abolition of duties on Ukrainian steel imports. The rules will be valid for one year. This is a duty of 25% on Ukrainian steel. It was introduced in 2018 under President Trump. The United States has said it has established close security relations with Ukraine. The Ukrainian steel industry was undermined by the war that russia started. Washington and Kyiv are interested in maintaining the industry as a lifeline while Ukraine recovers. Biden pointed out  that the current situation in Ukraine is a special case.

“I have decided to suspend tariffs on imports of steel products from Ukraine for a period of 1 year”, said the US President.

To support the Ukrainian economy during the war, the world is abolishing tariffs on our products and simplifying trade.

For example, on April 26, at the request of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the British government was the first to cancel the duty. First of all, this applies to agricultural and industrial products. This step should give a boost to Ukrainian businesses involved in key export deliveries. In particular, of barley, honey, canned tomatoes and poultry.

The same decision was proposed by the European Commission. Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that this is beneficial for Europe. He explained that russia is trying to provoke a global price crisis, and Ukrainian exports will help stabilize markets. That is, it will help not only us but also Europeans.

May 8, Canada also cancelled tariffs on Ukrainian goods. This happened during the visit of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Kyiv.

In the US Senate, lawmakers from both parties presented a resolution condemning the use of hunger as a weapon of war in Ukraine and other countries. “Purpously starving civilians as  a weapon of warfare is a war crime. Period”, said one of the initiators of the document, Senator from the Democratic Party Robert Menendez.

The EU will consider setting up a naval mission to free the Ukrainian agricultural exports from the Russian blocade. This was reported by the Spanish publication El Pais.

The summit of EU leaders in Brussels on May 30 will address the problem of growing famine in countries dependent on agricultural exports from Ukraine.

The EU is ready to mobilize all possible resources to facilitate the export of grain that has accumulated in Ukrainian elevators and ports. The possibility of launching a naval mission to escort cargo ships from Ukraine through the mined Black Sea, which houses russian ships and submarines, is even being discussed.

The Do It Together Foundation of the Save the Life humanitarian project has signed a memorandum of cooperation with Agritrade Ukraine, which is the Coordination Center of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. This is the first strategic partnership within the Save the Life humanitarian project between Germany and Ukraine.

Due to russia's aggression against Ukraine, food shortages and significant increases in food prices could lead to 218 million hungry people in the world, said Maurizio Martina, Vice Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). According to his estimates, six million tons of grain and almost 14 million tons of corn are blocked in Ukrainian ports.

The memorandum was signed in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine and help Ukrainians affected by the russian aggression. Under the agreement, it is planned to receive 200 tons of aid per month. This will expand both the geography and the number of recipients. Approximately 30,000 children, women and the elderly will be able to live better and get what they need.

The government  of Japan has provided $ 166 million in emergency grants to Ukraine. This was reported by the Embassy of Japan in Ukraine. The diplomatic mission also said that in response to a request from the Ukrainian Embassy in Tokyo, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) will provide assistance in transporting firefighting equipment and communications equipment, medicines, medical supplies, etc., which Ukraine urgently needs.

Earlier, Japan provided Ukraine with additional financial assistance in the amount of $ 300 million for humanitarian needs.

Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Cyprus Ruslan Nimchynskyi has stated that Cyprus supports Ukraine's candidacy for EU membership in June. “In June, a decision will be made to grant Ukraine the  status of candidate. This is one of the stages of Ukraine's accession to the EU. The leadership of the Republic of Cyprus has an unequivocal position on this issue – yes”, Nimchynskyi said. According to him, the discussions show that Cyprus will actively support granting Ukraine candidate status.

The Security Service of Ukraine has arrested  “rosneft”'s assets in Ukraine. The seized assets were estimated at over 20 million hryvnias. The relevant message appeared on the website of the Security Service of Ukraine.

The Security Service of Ukraine has blocked the activities of a russian energy company based in Ukraine. It is an enterprise that was part of the structure of the kremlin's industrial and financial group “rosneft”. The company was engaged in the supply of electricity.

The Security Service emphasizes that the company had been sending the profits to russia, financing the armed aggression of the occupiers against Ukraine. In total, blocked are the russian commercial structure’s  assets worth over UAH 20 million.

The SBU has also sent proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers to nationalize the company's property. In particular, in cooperation with the state regulator, the license for electricity supply to Ukraine has been  terminated.

The Security Service points out that this will not affect the work of the energy industry and the final consumer of electricity.

More than 150 cities in more than 20 countries have severed “fraternal” relations with russian settlements. The process continues, and dozens more such cases will be known in the near future. This was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Cities of Australia, Austria, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece, Estonia, Spain, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, USA, Finland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, the Netherlands joined the process of severing relations with russia. In addition, st. petersburg and gatchina have been recently excluded from the Union of Baltic Cities. Instead, they have included the Ukrainian Vivnyansk of Lviv region.

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Less than a week has passed since russia's emergency minister was replaced. Probably in vain: in just one day the total area of ​​forest fires in russia was 60 thousand hectares, i.e. increased by 30%,  – said the aviation forest guard. According to the agency, the biggest fires are in the krasnoyarsk and transbaikal territories, as well as in irkutsk region.

“roscosmos”’ ceo rogozin said that the “zeus” nuclear-powered “space tug” project would allow russia to “make a breakthrough in the rocket and space industry, but there are no funds for its implementation yet”.  rogozin reminded that most of the central bank's foreign assets are blocked, and therefore suggested “to print” money and direct it to promising investment projects.

putin has signed a law abolishing the age limit for concluding the first contract for military service. The authors of the bill were the chairman of the state duma committee for defense kartapolov and his first deputy krasov. They believe that the abolition of the limit will help attract more “qualified specialists who receive the necessary experience in handling high-precision weapons only up to 40-45 years”.  Even on Russian social networks, there are jokes about what a high- precision weapon it must be, and what morons should be those who  need up to 25 years to master it.

After 28 years of business in russia, the manufacturer of professional cosmetics from Germany Wella has stopped operating in russia. Beauty salons actively used its products: Wella’s hair dye alone covered up to 40% of the market. Now the beauty industry predicts that other foreign companies will also stop deliveries.

At the beginning of May, 50 to 70 thousand IT specialists left russia. According to official data, the association of software development companies “russoft” includes 272 companies with a staff of 85 thousand professionals.

russia's hockey team, which is banned from the World Cup in Finland due to sanctions, may be deprived of the main tournaments of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for three years. The IIHF has suspended it from next year's World Cup and is discussing a proposal that the russian team, after a hypothetical lifting of sanctions, should compete in the second division not in the top division.

The executive committee of the russian football union has submitted a report on the organization's incomes. In 2022, they have fallen by 29% to 6.8 billion rubles. The reason for the fall is sanctions from the International Football Federation (FIFA) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).