May 6, 2023 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stressed that the United States pays great attention to providing Ukrainians with air defense equipment. At the same time, Kirby pointed out that US President Joe Biden has fairly regular contacts with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In a joint statement, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Mark Rutte, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, supported the idea that a special tribunal that will investigate the rf’s crime of aggression should be located in The Hague.

Acting Defense Minister of Denmark Troels Lund Poulsen has said that the Leopard 1 tanks donated by Denmark and Germany will be ready for deployment in Ukraine by June 1.

The first three out of the 16 radars, for which Lithuanians raised 14 million euros, have been delivered from Lithuania to Ukraine.

Representatives of the United States and Australia are working together to send to Ukraine a new package of military aid, Australia's Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on May 5.

The European Commission intends to propose its 11th package of sanctions against russia in the coming days.

The European Union has condemned russia's latest attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and stressed that strikes on civilian targets are war crimes.

The European Committee of the Regions and the Association of Ukrainian Cities are organizing summer camps all over the EU for Ukrainian children.

On May 3, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspected the Khmelnytskyi NPP “without comments”.

Defense Minister of Poland Mariusz Blaszczak has said that at the end of this year, a “HIMARS center” will be created in Poland, which should become a hub for servicing and producing HIMARS not only for Poland, but also for the needs of European countries.

Poland's government is proposing to allow the military to sink ships threatening the Baltic Pipe pipeline, which Poland uses to receive natural gas from Norway across the Baltic Sea.

Because of the growing number of russian citizens among applicants, from 2024, Latvia is going to abolish the legislative norm that allowed third-country citizens – descendants of Livonia and Latvia – to obtain repatriated status in Latvia.

Since May 8, Kazakhstan's railways have imposed a ban on the transportation of petroleum products to the russian black sea port of taman.

European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders has said that the Cypriot authorities could work more actively to block the assets of sanctioned russian persons.

Ukraine has terminated cooperation agreements with belarus in veterinary medicine, plant quarantine and protection.

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Despite the kremlin's constant gas blackmail, gas prices in Europe fell to the level of July 2021: June futures at the Dutch TTF hub are $ 423 per thousand cubic meters.

Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) has closed correspondent accounts with all russian banks, except for its subsidiary in the rf.

Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo has launched the process of final exit from the rf.

The authorities of st. petersburg “recommended” the enterprises of the city to “persuade” five people each to conclude a contract with the ministry of defense of the rf in order to send to the “special operation one and a half times more” military than during partial mobilization, – said chief of the district department of the city military commissariat bazhimov.

The kalashnikov concern, which mainly specializes in the manufacture of small arms, has reported to putin that it began supplying the occupiers fighting in Ukraine with the first batch of caps.

In russia, there are only seven banks (out of 327) with UnionPay payment cards operating abroad.

In the town of Głubczyce, Opole Voivodeship in southwestern Poland, a monument “of gratitude” to the soldiers of the red army has been dismantled.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, in its 2022 report, states that the situation with religious freedom in belarus continued to deteriorate. The government has stubbornly controlled all aspects of the society since the rigged 2020 elections that kept lukashenko in power. At least 20 Christian religious leaders were fined, detained and sentenced for alleged political activities, and some were forced to flee the country.

On the M1 motorway at the entrance to belarus from russia for the first time since 2011, belarusians introduced border control.

According to the national bank, the gold and foreign exchange reserves of belarus as of May 1, decreased by 130.4 million dollars and amounted to 7 billion 968,2 million dollars (in equivalent).

Receiving currency transfers from abroad in belarus is becoming increasingly difficult. Thus, priorbank, which was engaged in monetary transactions, from May 15 ends cooperation with the American correspondent bank Citibank NA and ceases operations in dollars on the correspondent account. IT companies serviced by priorbank tell their employees to move to branches in other countries or quit.

Belarusian bnb-bank from June 5 introduced a commission for maintaining foreign currency accounts with 50 thousand dollars or euros, which will be 0.1 % of the amount on the account, but not less than 500 rubles. Earlier, priorbank announced that from June 1 it introduces a monthly commission of 750 rubles for servicing current accounts in dollars and euros.

According to belarusian human rights activists, over the past month, 123 people were persecuted, 43 court verdicts were under criminal articles. 28 people were sentenced to imprisonment for a total term of 89 years and 3 months.