September 12, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The IMF mission has agreed to allocate US$1.1 billion in funding to Ukraine. The IMF also forecasts Ukraine's GDP growth in 2024 at 3 %.

A group of US House of Republicans has called on the White House to lift restrictions on Ukraine's use of US long-range weapons to strike deep into russia’s territory. The appeal was signed by Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul, Chair of the House Armed Forces Committee Mike Rogers, House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on European Affairs Tom Kean, Chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Ken Calvert, and Helsinki Commissioner Richard Hudson.

Prime Minister of Latvia Evika Siliņa has announced a new package of military support for Ukraine, which will include armored personnel carriers.

The Latvian state-owned company Latvenergo has donated 93 vehicles to support Ukraine.

Ukraine and Lithuania have signed a memorandum on defense cooperation.

“Our support for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine remains unwavering. The return of Crimea to Ukraine is a requirement of international law”, said President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda has urged not to get used to russia's systematic violations of human rights in the temporarily occupied Crimea. “Every new crime committed by russia against the people of Ukraine, every missile strike on civilian infrastructure, every innocent person detained and tortured in the occupied territories is part of a tragic story that began in Crimea. And this story must also end in Crimea”, Nauseda said.

Chancellor of the FRG Olaf Scholz believes that the war in Ukraine will end with the restoration of the fundamental principles of the UN and international law, not their final destruction.

The lower house of the Parliament (Sejm) of Poland has adopted a resolution condemning the abduction of Ukrainian children by russia.

Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya has called on the world to take decisions that would help put an end to russia's war against Ukraine.

The United Kingdom is allocating 30 million pounds to support Ukraine's energy sector.

European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson has pointed out that the European Commission is working to increase the maximum volume of electricity supplies to Ukraine before the approach of winter.

The Confederation of Finnish Industry in partnership with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Finland has started collecting funds for energy equipment and machinery under the slogan “Let Us Help Ukraine in Winter”.

rf

The United States has imposed new sanctions on 19 individuals and 33 legal entities from russia and iran. The sanctions have been imposed on russian shipping companies vafa wholesale ltd, sea river service limited liability company and “transmorflot”, which carry out sea transportation, as well as on nine vessels – “boris kustodiev”, “compozitor rachmaninov”, omskiy-103, omskiy-119, port olya-3, port olya-4, vafa, vafa-1, zakamsk. The official report emphasizes that those companies and vessels transported ammunition, unmanned aerial vehicles and equipment for their production from iran to russia. The sanctions list also includes dzhamaldin pashaev, ceo of the “olya commercial sea port company”.

The United States has also imposed sanctions on nine iranian citizens and four iranian companies for assisting russia in the war against Ukraine, including the state-owned airline iran air.

The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions against the russian aerospace forces, the military transport aviation command, the 924th state center for unmanned aerial vehicles, and russian vessels “skif-V”, “omskiy-103”, “musa dzhalil”, “baltiyskiy”, and “begey”, which transported military products from iran to russia. 10 russian tankers delivering oil and oil products of russian origin to third countries have also been sanctioned.

At the same time, the United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on four iranian companies that produce ballistic missiles. Germany and France also intend to impose new anti-iranian sanctions.

The EU Court of Justice refused to lift European sanctions against russian oligarchs gennady timchenko and his wife elena, mikhail fridman, petr aven and german khan. The Court also refused to lift sanctions against the russian national settlement depository, whose frozen assets amount to about EUR70 billion.

Members of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security are planning to hold a meeting to investigate into russian influence operations.

Due to the risks of secondary sanctions, Kazakhstan's Home Credit Bank has suspended all financial transactions with its russian subsidiary “vtb Kazakhstan”.

Over the past seven days, the price of russian urals oil has fallen by 11% to below $65 per barrel, the lowest since early February.

By the end of 2024, russia will be able to supply less than 1 billion kWh of electricity to China, compared to 3.1 billion a year earlier, said aleksandra panina, a member of the board of the energy company “inter rao”. Currently, supplies are by 80% lower than in 2023 (before the russian crisis, russia had been supplying 4.7 billion kWh to China).

In July, sales of russian-made road construction equipment decreased by 8 % compared to last year. According to “rosspetsmash”, in the first seven months of this year, sales of excavators decreased by 45 %, of pipe-laying cranes – by 34 %, of truck cranes – by 24 %, of motor graders – by 11.5 %, of road rollers – by 8 %, and of mini loaders – by 6 %.

The planned 37 % increase in air navigation fees for russian airlines on domestic flights and 100 % increase in international flights will lead to higher airfares and lower demand for air transportation, the air transport operators association said in a letter to the russian ministry of transport.

In August, “roskachestvo” checked the quality of 16 brands of honey sold in russia's largest retail chains and found  product falsification in all samples. The share of counterfeit honey in russia reaches 70 %, according to the russian union of beekeepers.

The Latvian government coalition has agreed to adopt a law that will limit the ability of russian citizens to buy land in Latvia.

Latvia has extended the tightened regime on the border with the rb until the end of the year. The government justified its decision by the need to “ensure the inviolability of the state border and prevent threats to the state, as well as take into account the fact that there are still many cases of illegal crossing on state border of Latvia and the rb”.

The Latvian Saeima has finally adopted amendments to the Law on Road Traffic, according to which all cars registered in the rb and staying in Latvia must leave the country by October 31, otherwise they may be confiscated.

Poland has extended the buffer zone on the border with the rb for 90 days.

A Polish court has sentenced 36-year-old belarusian woman daria ostapenko to two years and eight months in prison for spying for the rb.

In the first seven months of this year, the negative balance (the difference between exports and imports) in the rb almost doubled: from minus $45.2 million to minus $88.7 million. In July, imports of goods increased to a record level since the beginning of the year, reaching $3 billion 913.5 million.

There was an abnormal jump in prices for some goods in the rb. Compared to August last year, tomatoes have more than doubled in price, cucumbers went up by 44 %, white cabbage – by 39 %, and olive oil – by 80 %. The price of medicines also went up. In August, cardiovascular medications went up by 31.6 %. On average, the price of medicines for the treatment of the respiratory system increased by 17 %. Antineoplastic medicines and those for treatment of the nervous system became by 15 % more expensive.