May 30, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Sweden has announced the 16th military aid package to Ukraine, which will be the largest for the country – it is worth SEK 13.3 billion (about EUR 1.16 billion). The new package includes ASC 890 radar reconnaissance and control aircrafts; the country's entire stock of Pansarbandvagn 302 armored personnel carriers (APC 302) for the new brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; the Rb 99 fighter robot (AMRAAM), which can be used both on aircrafts and in ground-based air defense systems; 155 mm artillery ammunition; surplus tanks that Sweden has; and resources for the maintenance of previously transferred equipment.

“...Ukraine's struggle is Sweden's struggle. We will support Ukraine for as long as it takes”, Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson commented on the new military aid package to Ukraine.

Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen has said that Ukraine can expect to receive 500,000 artillery shells by the end of 2024 as part of the Czech initiative to purchase them from third countries. At the same time, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fiala has said that “the first tens of thousands of 155-mm ammunition will be delivered in June”.

Latvia will allocate EUR 20 million in 2024 as part of the Drone Coalition to support Ukraine.

The government of Lithuania has allocated EUR 13.5 million to purchase air surveillance radars to be transferred to the Air Defense Coalition for Ukraine.

Ukraine has signed a security agreement with Portugal.

EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell calls on member states to unblock EUR 6.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

Head of the EU diplomacy Josep Borrell has said that some EU countries allow their weapons to be used for strikes on the territory of russia. In total, ten European countries have granted our country this right through statements by their leaders: France, the United Kingdom, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands, Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Finland.

Deputy Minister of Defense of Poland Cezary Tomczyk has said that the government and the Defense Ministry of the country have no restrictions on the Ukrainian military’s use of the transferred weapons against the military infrastructure of the rf.

Finland does not place any restrictions on Ukraine’s use of the transferred weapons against military targets on the russian territory.

Minister of Defence of Estonia Hanno Pevkur believes that the European Union Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine) should increase the target number of trained Ukrainians to 100,000.

Australia has confirmed its readiness to attend the Peace Summit.

Ukraine and Chile deepen cooperation on the return of Ukrainian children abducted by the rf.

The PACE Culture Committee has recognized the erasure of Ukrainian cultural identity as an instrument of russia's war against Ukraine and an element of genocidal policy aimed at destroying the Ukrainian nation.

“Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, we have financed projects worth EUR 4 billion, I mean all sectors of the economy. We have a vision that we should support the economy in approximately the same amount during the war until the situation changes. Approximately EUR 1.5 billion per year”, said Anna Lebedynets, Associate Director, Senior Agribusiness Banker at the EBRD.

The government of Lithuania has approved a resolution prepared by the country's Ministry of Finance to allocate EUR 5 million to support Ukraine's education sector.

Ambassadors of the European Union have discussed the adoption of a negotiation framework for Ukraine and Moldova's accession to the EU.

EU Ministers of Defence have determined five priorities for the EU's security and defense policy. The first priority is “the EU's unwavering support for Ukraine”, in particular in the context of using the European Peace Fund to provide military assistance and training for the EUMAM mission. The Council of the European Union agreed to increase investment in the defense industrial and technological base and joint procurement, as well as the need to promote the development of the EU's rapid deployment forces, military mobility within the Union, strengthening resilience to hybrid threats and establishing partnerships with countries outside the EU.

rf

Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh has said that the United States may tighten the sanctions regime against russia and countries that help the rf circumvent sanctions.

The US Presidential Administration has said that in its sanctions policy it could go as far as a comprehensive embargo on russian exports.

Police has conducted a series of simultaneous searches in the offices of the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg as part of an investigation into a russian influence operation that paid MEPs to spread pro-kremlin propaganda.

Juhan Lepassaar, the Executive Director of the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, has said that the number of cyber attacks has doubled this year, and that the rf is behind many of them.

Germany and the Czech Republic have called on the EU to convene a high-level working group to find ways to phase out gas supplies from russia, including liquefied natural gas, as well as oil and nuclear fuel.

The government of Lithuania has approved the Parliament's proposal to ban imports of 2.8 thousand categories of goods from the rf and the rb, starting June 3.

HSBC Europe B.V., one of the world's largest financial conglomerates, has sold its bank, HSBC Bank, in russia.

The russian subsidiary of Raiffeisen Bank has announced that starting from June 10, payments in dollars through it will be unavailable for russians, and from June 1 of this year, the bank will not open all types of savings accounts in russia.

The russian grain union predicts a decrease in harvest to 129 million tons in 2024.

The russian ministry of agriculture will introduce a state of emergency at the federal level due to crop losses in saratov, voronezh, lipetsk, tambov, volgograd, rostov, penza and orel regions.

Berry production in the rf is facing problems not only because of the frost in 2024. irina koziy, ceo of the berry union, predicts a 20-30% increase in berry prices, while igor mukhanin, head of the russian association of gardeners, also forecasts a bad harvest of apples.

rosreestr has prepared a draft law that proposes to fine gardeners and vegetable growers for not developing their plots, i.e. “not taking measures to bring it into a usable condition”. The list of “measures” is promised to be formulated by the beginning of next year. It will be up to the russian government to assess which land plot is considered developed and which is not. The draft of the federal register has been approved by the government's legislative commission. The amendments will come into force on March 1, 2025.

russian authorities have warned “ufanet” of nationalization; shareholders will lose 6 billion rubles, and lawyers claim violations of the legal rights of the company's co-owners.

russian holding company t1 refused to participate in the program of launching spacecraft into orbit, launched last summer in partnership with another private space company sr space, because of the low demand for russian light rockets. Experts say that the slow development of private cosmonautics in russia is hampered by the state-owned corporation roscosmos.

Since 2022, new cars in the rf have been produced exclusively on the basis of Chinese brands: “moskvich” is based on JAC, avtovaz products (xcite x-cross 7 and lada) are based on Chery Tiggo 7 and FAW Bestune, and “Volga” is based on Changan. The automakers admit that former European automakers had clear obligations to russian authorities and local partners, while Chinese companies do not provide guaranteed commitments to support their model range, not a single Chinese automotive brand has promised to localize production in russia, the supply of components is unstable, and cooperation is volatile.

Due to problems with the supply of equipment and expensive loans, investors are unable to build power plants in russia on time and are asking the authorities to postpone the commissioning of facilities scheduled for 2024-2029 for another two years.

Deliveries of ms-21 and il-114 aircrafts to russian customers, which have been postponed many times, were postponed again in May, from 2024 to 2025-2026.

Due to the crisis in the russian economy, regional budget balances in the first quarter amounted to 3.65 trillion rubles, which is a record for the first quarter in the history of observations in russia. 49% of the financing programs planned by the government are accounted for by five subjects of the rf: moscow - 1.1 trillion rubles (31% of the total), st. petersburg (0.3 trillion rubles), moscow, sverdlovsk regions, yamalo-nenets autonomous district (0.1 trillion rubles each).

At the end of April, the volume of the crowdfunding market (provision of loan financing through digital platforms) in russia decreased by 4% compared to March. This is the first time in russia that the volume of funds raised in this way from different investors has been declining for two months in a row.

Within a week, gold fell by 5% at the moscow stock exchange.

putin has signed a law limiting one-time bank transfers without opening an account to 100,000 rubles.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has dismissed belavia's lawsuit against the EU Council to lift sanctions. In addition, the airline will have to pay court costs. “belavia tried to appeal against the EU sanctions imposed on the company in December 2021 due to the migration crisis on the rb’s' borders with the EU.

The British state-owned company Transport for London (TFL), which is controlled by the London Mayor's Office, has published a list of debtor Embassies that did not pay to enter the toll zone in central London. According to the list, the russian embassy owes 734,185 pounds (about 936 thousand dollars).

The government of the rb has decided to suspend the implementation of international agreements on the avoidance of double taxation with 27 countries until December 31, 2026. In particular, the rb has suspended the provisions on dividends, claims and income from the sale of property.

At the same time, starting from April 1, the rb increased the tax rate on income of foreign organizations that do not have a permanent establishment in the rb to 25%. The British government responded to this decision with a statement saying that such unilateral actions by the rb are unacceptable. The UK will continue to fulfill this agreement and suggests that minsk reverse its actions.

Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk has announced the re-establishment of a buffer zone on the border with the rb after a recent attack on a border guard by migrants and the transfer of “all available resources” to protect the border.

On May 29, the national legal portal of the rb published a law suspending the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, signed by lukashenko on May 24. After the suspension of the CFE Treaty, the rb will no longer provide information on its weapons and equipment and will not accept inspections.

The pro-russian organization “movement union” has sent an appeal to the parliament of the rb and minsk city council with a proposal to rename Kastus Kalinowski Street, stating that he “is not a national fighter for freedom of the rb”.

According to official data, the population of the rb at the beginning of the year amounted to 9 million 156 thousand people, 329.6 thousand people were below the poverty line. These people had an average income below the subsistence level budget, which in the first quarter amounted to 406.74 rubles. The largest number of people below the poverty line lives in mogilev region (5.4%), gomel region (5.1%) and brest region (5%). While in rural areas, the share of the poor is 5.9%, in urban areas it is 2.9%.