November 23, 2024 Ukraine and the World Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“There is no sense in russia’s sending such missiles to Ukraine – there is no sense in any attacks that have been happening daily for almost three years. Of course, the use of a missile made for a nuclear strike is an escalation step, and it is the russian dictator’s attempt to intimidate the people of Ukraine and Europe. We must not bow down to this”, emphasized Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavský.

The NATO-Ukraine Council will convene an emergency meeting on November 26 due to russia's experimental ballistic missile strike on the city of Dnipro on November 21.

Sweden will finance the production of Ukrainian long-range drones based on the Danish model.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has assured that the USA will continue to provide new packages of weapons to Ukraine and work to speed up their delivery.

US secret services have warned US defense companies about russia's plans to sabotage these facilities as moscow tries to undermine the West’s support for Ukraine.

“putin's threats against European states and NATO members are unacceptable. This confirms russia's escalating position”, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France.

The international non-profit humanitarian demining organization HALO Trust Ukraine has cleared nearly six thousand square meters of Ukrainian land since the beginning of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency has launched a “Program of Partnership with Ukraine” to help restore the Ukrainian economy. In particular, the program provides subsidies to Dutch and international companies and organizations that are interested in working on the restoration of the Ukrainian economy in the fields of agriculture and healthcare, water management, energy and ecological construction.

“We have provided 63 generators to water suppliers in Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Lviv regions, as well as transformers, pumps, and other equipment throughout the country”, said the US Agency for International Development.

Ukraine and Italy will develop cooperation in water supply in Ukraine's frontline regions.

Head of the UK Delegation to the OSCE Neil Holland has said that russia's using food as a weapon poses a threat to global food security, but the international community must ensure that the horrors of the Holodomor do not happen again.

Exports of Ukrainian cheeses in January-October 2024 amounted to 10,100 tons, which is by 40.3% more than in the same period in 2023.

rf

The United States has imposed sanctions against russia’s “gazprombank”, the last major bank in the rf that has not been subject to restrictions, and six of its foreign subsidiaries. Sanctions have also been introduced against more than 50 small and medium-sized russian banks and more than ten top executives of banks, those of the central bank of the rf included. The new package of sanctions is directed against the russian banks’ cross-border payments for gas, in particular, with the use of the financial message transmission system. The expansion of the sanctions list “will prevent russia from abusing the international financial system to pay for technology and equipment”, emphasized the US Department of the Treasury.

The decision of the US Department of the Treasury will effectively exclude “gazprombank” from the US banking system, prohibit its trade with US counterparties and freeze its assets in the USA.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has warned foreign financial institutions of the risks of sanctions for participating in the russian financial message transmission system.

On November 21, russians began to report that their Union Pay cards were blocked outside of the rf. Starting November 22, “gazprombank” stopped issuing Union Pay cards and canceled fee-free cash withdrawals from Union Pay credit cards. The withdrawal fee will be 5.9% plus an additional payment of RUB 590.

On November 22, one US dollar was traded for 103.6 rubles, and one euro – for 108.1 rubles on the interbank international currency market Forex. The value of the US currency rose by more than 103 rubles for the first time since March 23, 2022, and the euro – since October 9, 2024.

On November 22, the exchange rate of the Chinese yuan at the moscow stock exchange for the first time since October 2023 amounted to 14.0065 rubles, which is by 5.65 kopecks higher than the previous day's closing level. The rf central bank has set the official exchange rate of the yuan at 13.88 rubles.

Shares of segezha group, a timber holding company, fell by 20.63% after a discrete auction at the moscow stock exchange.

“It is reported that 32 political prisoners have been released in the rb, some of them in critical condition. At the same time, the regime continues to arrest more and more people for political reasons. The repression must stop. The EU calls for the release of all political prisoners”, said European Commission Spokesperson Peter Stano.

On November 21, following the meeting of the EU Council on Foreign Trade, European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis announced his intention to initiate the introduction of duties on imports of agricultural products, including fertilizers, from the rf and the rb.

The state-owned bank belweb has again extended deposit restrictions in view of the daily appreciation of the foreign currency. Starting November 28, the bank will stop opening new ruble deposits with maturities of three, six and seven months. This will also apply to existing customer deposits: from this date, it will not be possible to extend their maturity.

“To be honest, it was almost always with my permission. When you have two problems, you start weighing them. The country was on this scale”, said lukashenko about the severe internet shutdowns in the rb and threatened that if the events of 2020 happened again, the internet would be “turned off altogether”.

The kgb of the rb has introduced a counterterrorist operation in the territory of grodno and grodno district as part of “exercises” of siloviki across the country. At the same time, the kgb conducts raids, searches and arrests of relatives of political prisoners, and brings harsh criminal charges, such as “conspiracy or other actions committed with the aim of seizing state power”, “calls for sanctions” and “organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order”. Some were immediately detained, interrogated and given “administrative charges” for disorderly conduct.

At a meeting of the republican commission for the assessment of symbols, attributes and information products of the rb, 35 printed publications were reviewed and found to contain “information messages and materials, dissemination of which could harm national interests”. Such publications as, for example, “Essays on the History of Belarus”, “Secrets of Belarusian History”; “On the Annals of Centuries: Historical Works / Kastus Tsvirka” were banned by the ministry of information of the rb from being printed and distributed in the country.