November 17, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The EU intends to provide Ukraine with EUR 1.9 billion in spring 2025, using the proceeds from frozen russian assets.

The Council of Europe Development Bank is providing Ukraine with a new loan of EUR 200 million.

The government of Estonia has supported Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur’s proposal to send Ukraine a new military aid package, which will include navy uniforms, surveillance devices, sights, protective equipment and various types of ammunition. “This aid package will not be the last, and soon we will launch an annual program to support Estonian companies on a competitive basis, which will allow Ukraine to receive assistance in manufacturing Estonian defense industry products. This will support not only Ukraine, but but the economy and security of Estonia itself”, Pevkur commented.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the FRG Annalena Baerbock has called on the Green Party, of which she is a member, to continue its campaign for military support for Ukraine.

Leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) faction in Germany, Christian Dürr, is considering putting the issue of supplying Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles to a vote in the Bundestag.

Monica Jacobsen, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, has pointed out that the United States will remain a friend of Ukraine under all administrations and will continue its efforts to punish those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other atrocities in the rf’s war against Ukrainians.

“russia remains the only obstacle to a just and lasting peace... The G7 reaffirms its commitment to imposing serious costs on russia through sanctions, export controls and other effective measures. We stand united with Ukraine”, reads the G7 leaders’ joint statement, adopted “in support of Kyiv on the occasion of the approaching thousandth day of russia’s aggression against Ukraine”.

Japan and Ukraine have agreed to hold a bilateral security dialogue with the participation of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense amid the deployment of north korean troops in the rf.

Ukraine will receive a total of 100 generators from Japan this year.

According to the updated Nuclear Employment Strategy of the United States, the country is preparing to simultaneously deter nuclear threats from China, the rf and the dprk.

President of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol has called on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to help put an end to pyongyang's dangerous military cooperation with moscow and north korea's support for the rf’s war against Ukraine.

The United States, Japan and South Korea in a joint statement condemned the dprk’s decision to send troops to participate in the rf’s war against Ukraine.

rF

Starting November 16, Austria will not be getting gas from russia. Chancellor of Austria Karl Nehammer has said that the country has been preparing for independence from russian gas since the beginning of the year, and that the country's gas storage facilities are 93% full, in line with annual consumption.

Latvia has announced that russian ambassador vanin is to leave the country by February 24, the anniversary of the beginning of russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. Latvia's Ambassador to the rf, Maris Riekstiņš, will also leave russia.

russian hackers are trying to hack into European satellites, blocking their signals or covering them with pro-russian propaganda videos, the governments of the Netherlands, France and Sweden have said. In recent months, the rf has disrupted the operation of at least four satellites of the French company Eutelsat and of one satellite belonging to the Luxembourg-based company SES.

On December 1, 2024, the rf is going to ban cryptocurrency mining. For some regions of irkutsk region, buryatia, and transbaikalia, the ban will be in effect until March 15, 2025, and then annually from November 15 to March 15 until 2031. In the karachay-cherkess and kabardino-balkar republics, north ossetia-alania, ingushetia, chechnya, dagestan, and Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions temporarily occupied by russia, the total ban will be in effect from December 1, 2024, to March 15, 2031. This is the first time such strict restrictions have been imposed on cryptocurrency miners, which, according to market participants, will provoke a shift of legal participants to the gray sector.

The net profit of the russian “sovcombank” for the first nine months of 2024 decreased by 26% compared to the same period last year, to 57 billion rubles.

The net profit of russia's largest shipping company, “sovcomflot”, decreased by 12.2% to $181.1 million in the third quarter, while revenue decreased by 20.8% to $453.5 million and net profit decreased by 28% to $504.9 million. In the first nine months of 2024, the company's net profit decreased by 28% to $504.9 million, while revenue decreased by 16.2% to $1.473 billion. EBITDA for 9 months amounted to $851 million compared to $1.242 billion in the same period of the year 2023.

The occupying russian authorities in the temporarily occupied Crimea are going to transfer almost 20 thousand hectares of Ukrainian agricultural land to the rf.

Independent belarusian experts see three main risks in the economy of the rb: weakening financial health of companies, significant deterioration in foreign trade, and inflationary problems.

According to the department of ideological work at “grodno azot”, the company most often prosecutes employees under the administrative article on the distribution of “extremist materials”. The administration demands from them to review their subscriptions and not to like “questionable” publications.

The Human Rights Center “Vyasna” has published a report “How People Who Have Experienced Torture and/or Ill-Treatment Perceive Justice”. 84% of respondents assessed the chances for justice in the rb in the near future as practically zero or low. 64% believe that the chances of achieving justice in the near future in other countries and with the help of international organizations are low.

Since 2020, 67 people in the rb have been convicted under the article on attempted conspiracy to seize state power. Half of them were tried in absentia. The article provides for punishment ranging from eight years in prison to the death penalty.

The court of partizansky district of minsk has decided to include the service for sending letters and postcards to prisoners “letter.bel” in the list of “extremist materials”. According to statistics, only 10% of letters that passed through the “letter.bel” service were addressed to political prisoners, the main recipients were ordinary prisoners of pre-trial detention centers and colonies.

minsk city court has convicted a 53-year-old resident of minsk under the article “promoting extremist activity”. She was sent for compulsory psychiatric treatment for helping political prisoners and solidarity with them.

“belyurobespechenie”, a structure of the ministry of justice of the rb, has arrested a record amount of equipment and real estate from seven bankrupt collective farms in four districts of vitebsk region for debts.