September 6, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The European Commission signed a new budget support program with Ukraine in the amount of 500 million euros. This funding will ensure housing and education for internally displaced persons and support the agricultural sector. Besides, a decision was made on Ukraine's accession to the “Digital Europe” program with a budget of more than 7 billion euros for 2021-27 and two documents that pave the way for our country to participate in EU customs and tax programs.

The European Commission will evaluate Ukraine's achievements as a candidate country in 2023, European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Olivér Várhelyi said after the meeting of the Ukraine-EU Association Council. The European Commissioner pointed out that, despite the full-scale war, Ukraine is already promoting reforms for European integration.

Poland calls for a quick transfer of EU financial aid promised in May to Ukraine. This was stated by Poland Ambassador to the European Union Andrzej Sadoś after the meeting of the Ukraine-EU Association Council in Brussels. Ukraine was supposed to receive 9 billion euros in the form of long-term loans on preferential terms for the most urgent needs.

The European Commission is ready to discuss with the Ukrainian side the prospects of creating a Special Tribunal regarding the crime of russian aggression against Ukraine, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said during the opening of an exhibition on russian war crimes in Brussels.

The European Union will continue to support Ukraine in the fight against russian aggression. “We will provide political, financial, humanitarian and military support for as long as it takes. Our goal is to help Ukraine win the war. We want this war to end, but not in any way, but in accordance with the norms of territorial integrity of Ukraine”, said head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell.

Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have officially supported Ukraine on the way to join the EU Civil Protection Mechanism – on September 5, a Joint Statement was signed to support Ukraine's efforts.

The United Kingdom will significantly expand the training program for the Ukrainian military – to training tens of thousands of the warriors. The duration of the combat course has been extended from three to five weeks, and most of the training will continue to take place on the territory of the Kingdom.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, Catherine Colonna, rejected the theses that the sanctions introduced by the European Union harm the Europeans themselves more than russia. “Sanctions are working, and their effect will become more pronounced over time – as we reduce dependence... And this reduces russia's ability to finance its military campaign. We have to continue and we will do it”, said Catherine Colonna.

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President of Latvia, Egils Levits, submitted to the Saeima amendments to the law on the Latvian Orthodox Church, which provide for its independent (autocephalous) status.

President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda, stated that it would be fair to limit the issuance of EU visas to citizens of russia. “War must become an overwhelming burden for the aggressor”, Nauseda said.

Bulgaria will increase the cost of visas for russian tourists from 35 to 80 euros according to a decision made at the EU level.

Due to the shortage of spare parts for foreign gas turbines, russian thermal power plants will be decommissioned for one year. At its upcoming meeting on September 19, the supervisory board of the “market council” (the russian energy market regulator) will consider new rules for the operation of power units that use imported gas turbines, in particular, introduction of a mechanism to save their resources until the end of 2023. Putting such TPPs into reserve can lead to an increase in electricity prices by 7-10%.

Since the beginning of the russian crisis, car dealers began to earn two to four times less than in the recent past. As a result of the deficit of new cars, the number of trade-in transactions, on which dealers made good money before the russian military invasion of Ukraine, also decreased. “Currently, the main channels of getting cars with mileage into dealers' warehouses have become the exchange of a car with mileage for another car with mileage (newer or, on the contrary, cheaper with an additional payment) and buying it off the street”, says the director of sales of cars with mileage at the “avtodom altufievo” zhirnov In particular, the share of car exchanges under the trade-in agreement in the “avtodom” is now 30-40%.

South Korea, Taiwan and Japan are gradually giving up coal from russia. Taiwan and Japan are reducing supplies at the highest rates, and, according to analysts, can replace russian coal with Australian coal. According to the customs authorities of those countries, over the last seven months, Japan imported 8.4 million tons of russian coal, which is by 25% less than in the same period last year. Taiwan reduced purchases by 33.3% to 4.4 million tons. Before the aggression against Ukraine and the introduction of sanctions, those countries were among the most promising markets for russian coal companies. The strategy for the development of the coal industry of the rf provided for an increase in supplies to the countries of East Asia from 84 million tons in 2018 to 123 million tons by 2035.

The decrease in trading activity on the stock market negatively affected the financial income of brokers. According to the bank of russia, brokers' revenue from specialized services and commission income in the second quarter amounted to only 23.47 billion rubles. – this is by 12.5% ​​lower than the indicator of the first quarter and by 18.1% lower than last year. At the same time, the assets of brokerage companies decreased to 1.02 trillion rubles – minimum value since the beginning of 2020.

The shortage of equipment slowed down the pace of 4G coverage in the regions of russia. The authorities of the rf are counting on russian equipment, the production of which, however, has not yet been established. Experts say that the development of russian stations will take two years, and the deployment of mass production – another year and a half.

According to the American holding S&P Global, which provides financial and business services, business activity in the service sector in russia decreased to 49.9 points in August (in July it was 54.7 points). S&P Global points out that the main reasons for the decline in business activity in the rf are a reduction in the number of foreign clients, a decrease in the number of employees as a result of companies' attempts to reduce their costs, as well as an acceleration of industrial inflation.

Rising prices and falling real wages lead to impoverishment of the belarusian population. According to satio (belarusian center of system business technologists), half of belarusians will have enough savings for about one month if they lose their source of income. Having no savings, they dread losing even a meager job. Unemployment benefits in belarus range from 27 to 64 belarusian rubles (approximately 10 to 25 US dollars).

minister of education of belarus, andrei ivanets, has said that this year the ministry of education has not recommended any gender course... “European ideology, European values ​​are alien to us, and we simply have no right to allow them to somehow seep into the heads of our youth”. His department has taken measures that will prevent “European values” from somehow getting into “the belarusian education system and society as a whole”, the minister said.