September 22, 2023 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The new $325 million package of military aid to Ukraine from the United States will preliminarily contain the second batch of 155-mm cluster munitions, additional weapons for Ukrainian air defense, TOW and AT4 anti-tank weapons, shells for HIMARS multiple rocket launchers and Javelin anti-tank systems.

The state budget of Ukraine has received $1.25 billion in grant funds from the United States through the World Bank's Multi-Donor Trust Fund.

John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications of the US National Security Council, has said that the White House called on the US Congress to approve an increase in military aid to Ukraine.

US Congressmen Jerry Connolly (Democratic Party) and Joe Wilson (Republican Party) submitted a bill to the Congress, which proposes to expand sanctions against the DPRK for supporting russia's war in Ukraine.

Albania became the 29th signatory of the G7’s Declaration on Security Guarantees for Ukraine. At the same time, Albania became the 25th country to sign a declaration with Ukraine in support of its future accession to NATO.

Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo has said that Belgium is considering supplying Ukraine with its F-16 fighter jets.

In his speech in the French Parliament, King Charles III of the United Kingdom reminded about the joint responsibility of the two countries to support Ukraine.

Nicholas Aucott, Senior Military Adviser to the United Kingdom Delegation to the OSCE, believes that russia has “failed” all its strategic goals in Ukraine.

At the UN Security Council, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, appealed to China to influence russia to stop the war against Ukraine.

Romanian Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu has announced that Bucharest, together with Kyiv, will work on a plan to control grain exports within a month.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Slovakia has said that thanks to progress in grain negotiations between Kyiv and Bratislava, Ukraine promised not to complain about Slovakia to the WTO and not to ban the import of Slovak products.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party, has said that despite the dispute with Ukraine over agricultural exports, Warsaw will continue to support Kyiv “to its victory”.

President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel believes that the “Ukrainian-Polish grain crisis” will not necessarily affect the level of Warsaw’s support for Kyiv.

The Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) proposes that children of Ukrainian refugees living in the country study in schools in Ukrainian.

The Estonian army, taking into account the experience of the war in Ukraine, intends to create a unit that will specialize exclusively in the use of kamikaze drones.

rf

Authorities of Egypt decided to give up purchasing 480 thousand tons of russian wheat announced in early September. Instead, the grain will be supplied by French and Bulgarian farmers. Egypt is also in talks with an Abu Dhabi-based bank (UAE) to provide a credit line to finance wheat purchases from Kazakhstan.

India (one of the main buyers of diamonds in the world) has announced that its market is overstocked with diamonds and asked the russian diamond mining company alrosa to temporarily stop supplying rough diamonds.

The government of the rf is going to introduce an export duty on almost all goods that have not yet been taxed, except for engineering products. The rate will be tied to the exchange rate and will be from 4% for 80-85 rubles per dollar and up to 7% per dollar above 95. The measures may come into effect this year and will be in effect until the end of 2024.

The introduction of a protective duty on the export of petroleum products to russia will entail the formation of a much more serious deficit in the market, according to the head of gazprom neft aleksandr dyukov. In his opinion, the increase in payments to the budget tenfold will lead to a decrease in the efficiency of oil refineries in russia, which means that the volume of processing will fall.

Temporary restrictions on the export of petrol and diesel fuel are being introduced in russia – the corresponding document was signed by the head of the government, mishustin.

The russian market began to fall in September, investors began to reduce their positions in stocks – the moscow exchange index went down, losing 6% from the highs.

On September 21, the moscow exchange index lost 0.6% in the first minutes of trading. Shares of sberbank, gazprom and lukoil fell by 0.3%. The worst situation is in rosneft (-0.8%), alrosa (-1.2%), and lsr group (-1.5%). The russian ruble has been in the range of 96 for a week, and no measures have been helping to strengthen it yet. russian oil prices also continue to fall.

 January through  August 2023, more than 120 air accidents involving civilian aircrafts operated by russian airlines occurred in russia. This is 2.2 times more than usual: in the previous five years, 2018 - 2022, an average of 55 incidents were recorded by the end of the summer. In terms of the number of breakdowns, incomplete 2023 has already overtaken all the previous ones. The most vulnerable parts are the engine (30% of cases) and chassis (25% of cases), there are often problems with brakes, flaps, air conditioning, cracks in the windshield (3-6% of cases for each of the problems).

The rise in prices associated with growing prices for diesel and spare parts for agricultural machinery, purchased at the new dollar exchange rate, will affect popcorn sales both in cinemas and in ordinary retail outlets. It is expected that a standard 23-kilogram bag of grain will now cost about three thousand rubles at retail, and if you stock up on it in bulk from 20 tons – two thousand (against 2.5 and 1.65 thousand rubles, respectively).

russian farmers warn russians about the shortage of pork in the country. Pork prices are expected to rise by an average of 10-20% in the near future.

In russia, according to the most conservative estimates, 1.5 million people live in emergency housing. But the number of such housing is not decreasing. According to deputy prime minister of the rf marat khusnullin, the volume of emergency housing in russia will increase by 2 million square meters annually.

The overwhelming majority of russian citizens are dissatisfied with the rise in prices – according to the levada center, inflation worries 53% of russians. In second and third place are corruption and russia's war against Ukraine, the so-called “special operation” worries 29%. Given the danger in russia to answer questions honestly, the number of those dissatisfied with the so-called “special operation” and its consequences for the country may be many times higher, experts say. russians also began to feel less protected because of the war against Ukraine: while last year only 6% of russian citizens were afraid of explosions, today this figure is 17%. And it's growing every month.

According to a poll by the all-russian center for studying public opinion, 52% of russians consider it wrong to pay authors of films, music and books for the use of their products, only 34% of respondents are sure that it is necessary to pay, 39% of respondents believe that after the content appears in the public domain, the author is unable to prohibit users from using it for free.

russian politicians have been banned from traveling to russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. And those of them who are there now should leave in the near future – the decision was made at a meeting of the security council of the rf.

state duma mp leitenant general gurulev, who until recently fervently supported the war and told how everything was “going according to the plan”, all of a sudden changed his rhetoric and accused the russian army of lying about the real situation at the front: “Lies about the real situation and the state of their troops, and about real actions.... The reports do not coincide with what is actually happening on the front line! If the source data are crooked, then the solution will be crooked”.

On the territory of chausy rural settlement of bryansk region, an emergency regime was introduced due to tank shelling.

In moscow, vacancies for specialists in military and mobilization registration have increased again. The latest surge was in April 2023, but the current number of such vacancies far exceeds all previous figures.

Instead, while medical institutions throughout the rf suffer from a shortage of specialists, nurses in rostov region have “turned”  into  ophthalmologists and oncologists.

The association of belarusian businesses abroad (ABBA) and the US Department of Commerce have signed a roadmap for institutional cooperation. In particular, the parties agreed on the development of economic reform projects, which are work for the future of New Belarus.

russia has recognized belarus as a “friendly country” and allowed it to participate in russian currency trading.

On September 20, at the request of the ministry of justice, the supreme court of the rb liquidated the last but one opposition social democratic party Hramada (Community- Transl.) in belarus. The ministry of justice of the rb scheduled the liquidation of the last non-subordinate party in the country “Belarusian Party of Left-Wing Forces “A Just World”,  under the decision of the Supreme Court,  for September 22, 2023.

In belarus, a biology textbook for sixth-graders was printed in belarusian, which contains gross errors on almost every page, even the author's name is misspelled on the cover.