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

Former US Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger believes that Ukraine should be allowed to strike deep into the rf with Western weapons, and the United States has “enough political will” – the votes of lawmakers – to make the necessary decision.

“As a soldier, I have the utmost respect for the heroic and brave struggle of Ukrainians”, said Hungarian Defense Minister Kristóf Szalai-Bobrovnitsky.

Ukraine and Ireland have negotiated the content of a bilateral “security agreement”.

The United Kingdom has charged two more people – Jakeem Barrington Rose, 22, and Ugnius Asmena, 19, – as part of an investigation into the arson attack on a Ukrainian business in London that could have been curated by russian intelligence services.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will finance the construction of a modular town for IDPs in Sumy region.

The WHO, with the support of the governments of Germany and the Netherlands, plans to send 10 more modular boilers by the end of the year to provide Ukrainian hospitals with heating in winter.

rf

OMV CEO Alfred Stern has said that the Austrian energy group OMV is no longer dependent on russian gas.

The loss of the russian st. petersburg stock exchange, which has been under US sanctions since November 2023, has increased by almost 24% in the first six months of 2024, to RUB 657.58 million against RUB 528.7 million in the same period last year. The exchange's total capital decreased by 5% to RUB 14.5 billion. The financial performance of trading and investments was negative – minus RUB 112.4 million compared to RUB 199 million in revenue in the first half of 2023. Amid the publication of the reports, the stock fell by 1.86%.

The net profit of the russian energy company “rosseti” in the first half of 2024 decreased threefold to RUB 65.24 billion.

The net profit of the russian company “surgutneftegaz” in the first quarter decreased six times to 268.545 billion rubles compared to the same period last year. The company's loss in the second quarter amounted to RUB 128.659 billion.

Due to international sanctions and the negative dynamics of exchange trading, the moscow stock exchange has announced that it will not publish statistics on trading volumes in the foreign exchange market.

According to the “my warehouse” service, which provides accounting services in the rf, including to online platforms, the cash turnover of major russian marketplaces such as wildberries, ozon, megamarket and yandex market halved in the first half of 2024. According to experts, this indicates that russians are saving more. rakhimberdiev, CEO of “my warehouse”, has pointed out that today in russia “the life expectancy of sellers on marketplaces is decreasing: of those who started trading in 2022, 60% remain, of those who started in 2019 – 89 %”

Road transport in the rf is gradually falling apart. As of July 1, 2024, there were 40 million vehicles in russia that were ten years old or older (72.8% of the total vehicle fleet). Among passenger cars, the share of cars aged 10 years and older is 72.2% (33.8 million out of 46.8 million). Ten-year old buses account for 67.3% of vehicles (250.4 thousand out of 372.2 thousand), and 76% in the light commercial vehicle segment (3.2 million out of 4.2 million). Among trucks, vehicles aged 10 years or more account for 77.5% (2.84 million out of 3.66 million).

mozyr oil refinery has reduced its production from 30 to 11 thousand tons of products a day. The decrease in production volumes occurred following the energy blackout caused by the aftermath of the hurricane that hit the region in July 2024. The reduced load factor is expected to continue throughout August.

A new pre-trial detention center of the ministry of internal affairs of the rf has been opened near minsk. In total, the rb has three prisons, 16 colonies and nine medical and labor dispensaries. According to the Wisevoter organization, in 2023, the rb ranked first in Europe in terms of the number of prisoners per capita. This figure is 345 prisoners per 100 thousand people in the rb, and 329 in the rf.