October 4, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“It was important for me to come to Ukraine at the beginning of my mandate to make it crystal clear to you, to the people of Ukraine, and to everyone watching that NATO stands with Ukraine. As NATO Secretary General, it is my priority and my privilege to take this support forward to ensure that Ukraine prevails”, said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during his first foreign visit which was to Kyiv. Rutte also emphasized that russia has no right to “vote or veto” over Ukraine's aspirations to join the Alliance.

“We took that plan, we reviewed it, we saw a number of productive steps in it. We’re going to engage with them (Ukraine) about it”, Spokesperson for the US Department of State Matthew Miller commented on Ukraine's Victory Plan. At the same time, Miller supported Ukraine's investigation into russia’s mass execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called “harmful” the policy of not allowing Ukraine to strike deep into russia.

“If we are talking about a long-term solution to the conflict, I see no other option for us than to ensure that the Ukrainians ultimately prevail. And I believe that this is actually achievable”, Kaupo Rozin, Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Estonia said regarding the prospects for ending the war in Ukraine. Kaupo Rozin also believes that the indecision of NATO countries encourages russia to further escalate its relations with the West, and that “putin will not survive russia's defeat” in its war against Ukraine.

The Patriot air defense system provided by Romania has arrived in Ukraine.

Luxembourg became the 17th partner country of the Drone Coalition for Ukraine.

Over the next four years, Switzerland will allocate 1.5 billion Swiss francs (about $1.7 billion) for Ukraine's reconstruction projects.

Ukraine will receive a $100 million soft loan from South Korea.

PACE has adopted a Resolution “Missing Persons, Prisoners of War and Civilians Held Captive As a Result of the russian federation’s War of Aggression Against Ukraine”, which points to numerous violations of the rights of prisoners of war and civilians in russian custody.

PACE has also adopted a Resolution “Commemoration of the 90th Anniversary of the Holodomor – Ukraine Is Again Facing the Threat of Genocide”, which actually recognizes the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people and emphasizes russia's current plans in its aggression against our country.

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Chief of the General Police Inspectorate Viorel Cernauteanu has accused russia of bribing Moldovan citizens to vote against joining the European Union in the upcoming referendum.

Schengen countries, including Spain, Bulgaria, Italy and Hungary, have introduced new requirements for russians to obtain visas. In particular, an extract from the “pension and social insurance fund” will be required to confirm the existence of a ten-year work record. If this is not the case, certificates of employment, real estate ownership and marital status must be provided. In addition to preventing possible emigration from the rf, this will allow to identify persons involved in the russian armed forces or associated with the military-industrial complex of the rf.

In September, the number of visas approved for russians to visit the EU decreased by 90%. The association of tour operators of the rf emphasizes that it can take up to six months to get a Schengen visa, and it costs up to 35 thousand rubles to prepare the necessary documents.

China continues to absorb russia: in the first nine months of 2024, the number of companies registered in russia with Chinese co-owners increased by 32% compared to 2023. The monthly number of registrations (almost 200) exceeded fourfold the level of 2021 – China is in the first place among foreign businessmen, having overtaken by almost a third the entrepreneurs from the rf, who were in the lead in 2023.

According to S&P Global analysts, the index of business activity in the services sector in russia fell from 52.3 points in August to 50.5 points in September. The indicator has reached a three-month low and is at a “critical” level. At the same time, the rate of new job creation has dropped to its lowest level since February.

The government of the rf will additionally increase budget expenditures in 2024 by 1.5 trillion rubles. Due to the growing deficit of money in the treasury, the central bank is likely to raise the key policy rate again on October 25 (on September 13, it was increased to 19%).

The share of russian managers who in September assessed the current economic situation at their company as favorable, decreased from 3.5% to 2.9% in mining and from 10.8% to 10.7% in manufacturing, as reported by rosstat. The share of those who expect the situation to improve in the next six months decreased from 14% to 11.2% in mining and from 26.2% to 25.8% in manufacturing.

In the first half of the year, the average pension in the rf dropped to 25% of the average accrued salary of employees, the lowest level in the last ten years, according to rosstat’s latest report “The socio-economic situation in russia”. In 2018, the rf ratified the International Labor Organization Convention, committing itself to maintaining the rate at a minimum of 40%. However, it remained only a declaration of intent: while in 2018 the ratio was 33%, by 2021 it dropped to 30.6%, in 2022 the figure dropped to 30%, and in 2023 – to 26%.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland supports Lithuania's appeal to the International Criminal Court regarding lukashenko. “We agree that there are reasonable grounds to believe that lukashenko's regime may have committed crimes defined in the Statute of the International Criminal Court”, said Paweł Wroński, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland.

According to the UK Treasury, the UK government has updated the list of sanctions against the rf. The list includes alfa-bank, as it “is involved, or was involved, in benefiting from or supporting the government of the rb by doing business in a sector of strategic importance to the government of the rb, namely in the financial services sector”.

The ministry of agriculture and food of the rb has once again revised the minimum export prices for dairy products. Prices for butter for all export markets, except the rf, have been increased by $0.7 per kilogram, and depending on the fat content, it will be sold at a price of $7.6 to $8.1 per kilogram. For the rf, prices for cheeses of different fat content have been increased by 5 to 15 rubles and will be 325 to 445 rubles for a kilogram.

One of the largest refrigeration equipment manufacturers in the rf, “kholodinvestgroup”, has gone bankrupt and started the process of liquidation. Its debt to creditors is about 1 million 480 thousand rubles, while the company's assets are estimated at 165 thousand rubles.

In mozyr, gomel region, the dosaaf, the successor to the soviet defense and sports organization, has begun training high school students to become drone operators.