Ruble strength defies Western sanctions
The ruble suffered a historic crash at the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, but recovered quickly in part thanks to the energy sector, although this rebound does not illustrate the real health of the economy.
At the end of February, the foreign exchange market seemed out of control. The ruble hit all-time lows against the dollar, which was trading at 100 rubles, then 120… to exceed 140 rubles per dollar on March 7.
But since then, the Russian currency has continued to recover ground against the US currency, which this Friday was traded at 71 rubles, its lowest rate since the fall of 2021, and with the euro at 77 rubles, a minimum since June. of 2020.
For the authorities, the strength of the ruble is excellent news, showing the population that the sanctions are not undermining Russia’s strength.
Curfew in Odessa against possible attacks
The curfew in the large Ukrainian port on the Black Sea was decreed due to the “threat” of missile attacks.
After the attack on the Kramatorsk train station, which caused at least 50 deaths, “there is a threat of missile attacks on Odessa,” warned the regional military administration.
“That is why a curfew was imposed in Odessa and its region from 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 9, 2022, until 6:00 a.m. on Monday, April 11,” he added.
Slovakia donates S-300 air defense system to Ukraine
Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger announced on Friday that his country had donated an S-300 air defense system to Ukraine to help it against the invasion launched by Russia.
“I can confirm that the Slovak Republic donated an S-300 air defense system to Ukraine,” Heger said on Facebook.
The prime minister clarified that this delivery does not imply that his country “is part of the armed conflict in Ukraine” and that the donation is a response to the request for assistance made by kyiv for its “legitimate defense”, in accordance with article 51 of the UN Charter.
This Russian-made mobile surface-to-air missile system was part of requests made by Ukraine to Western countries.
The Slovak Prime Minister indicated that this system “will help save the greatest number of lives of innocent Ukrainians” against Russian aggression.
Slovakia, a member of the EU and NATO, could count on an additional air defense system supplied by its allies in the coming days, Heger said, without giving further details.
The IDB warns that the conflict will slow economic growth in Latin America
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) pointed out that, after a better-than-expected economic rebound in 2021, Latin America and the Caribbean are headed for a slowdown in their growth prospects due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, together with interest rate hikes in countries such as the United States, are likely to reduce growth in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2022 and 2024, which underscores the urgency of establishing policies that allow greater and more inclusive growth”, they underlined in their macroeconomic report on the region for the current year.
According to the IDB, economic growth in the region was “stronger than expected in 2021,” but it “began to wane earlier this year.”
The organization pointed out that although the rise in commodity prices due to the war “will boost exports”, at the same time “they will impose significant costs on the importers and push inflation in the various countries.”
UK sends more missiles to Ukraine
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the shipment of more weapons to Ukraine. The president specified that military material worth 100 million pounds ($130 million) will be sent, including Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles and another 800 anti-tank missiles.
The attack on the Kramatorsk station “shows the darkness in which the once reputable army of (Vladimir) Putin is plunged,” Johnson said at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“The UK and Germany share exactly the same feeling of horror and revulsion at the brutality that is being unleashed,” the British prime minister added.
The United Kingdom sanctions the daughters of Vladimir Putin and Sergei Lavrov
The United Kingdom on Friday announced sanctions on the daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, daughters of Putin, and Yekaterina Vinokurova, daughter of Lavrov, are now banned from entering the UK, where their assets will be frozen, the British Foreign Office said.
Washington and Brussels had already taken similar measures against the daughters of the Russian president.
For its part, the United Kingdom had already sanctioned Polina Kovaleva, the daughter of Lavrov’s alleged long-term mistress.
“In the G7, we are working with our partners to end the consumption of Russian energy and further hit Putin’s ability to finance his illegal and unwarranted invasion of Ukraine,” British diplomacy said.
The UK has sanctioned more than 1,200 people and companies – including 76 oligarchs – since the Russian military offensive began on February 24.
They report an increase in the death toll from the bombing of the train station
The reported death toll from the bombing of the train station in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk has so far risen to at least 50 dead, including five children, according to a new official toll from Ukraine.
“Fifty dead, including five children. This is the current death toll from the shelling carried out by the Russian occupation troops in Kramatorsk,” the governor of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, Pavlo Kyrylenko, wrote on Telegram.
He also estimated that the number of victims could increase, since there are 98 people injured, including 16 children.
Kyrylenko said 38 people died “at the scene” and 12 in hospital from their injuries.
The shelling of the railway station came early on Friday as hundreds of people were waiting to be evacuated from eastern Ukraine, where a new Russian offensive is expected. It is one of the deadliest since the beginning of the conflict.
Russia denies being responsible for the attack and accuses Ukraine of organizing it.
Japan stops buying coal from Russia
Japan announced Friday that it will give up Russian coal and expel eight of its diplomats, in response to “war crimes” allegedly perpetrated by Moscow in Ukraine.
These announcements come after the EU adopted a series of similar measures, reinforcing pressure on Russia, accused of carrying out massacres of civilians in the kyiv region.
“We will ban the import of Russian coal. We will adopt alternatives by progressively reducing imports, we will reduce our energy dependence on Russia,” he added.
In 2001, 11% of Japan’s coal imports came from Russia, according to data from the Japanese Ministry of Finance.
The FAO recorded a sharp increase in international food prices in March
The world prices of food raw materials registered a “significant jump” in their prices in March, with “strong increases in the values of corn, wheat and vegetable oils”, driven by the war between Russia and Ukraine, as reported today the indicator of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The index, which records the monthly changes in the most traded food commodities in the world and which has accumulated an increase of 75% since the middle of 2020, averaged 159.3 points in January, 12.6% more than in February -when presented record numbers – and 33.6% in the interannual comparison, thus reaching the highest level since its creation in 1990.
Among the reasons for the jump, is the “shock that the war represented in the markets of basic grains and vegetable oils”, according to the FAO report, a conflict that also caused a “modification in the flows of trade and export restrictions in various countries.
Likewise, to these reasons we must add the rise in the prices of energy and fertilizers in the world.
In the case of the index that makes up cereals, it registered a rise of 17.1%.
Since Russia and Ukraine both account for 30% and 20% of world wheat and corn exports, respectively, prices for both grains rose 19.7% and 19.1%.
The EU has already frozen at least 32 billion dollars of Russian and Belarusian assets
The European Union has frozen at least $32 billion of Russian and Belarusian assets so far under sanctions imposed in the wake of the war in Ukraine, according to a still-partial tally by the European Commission on Friday.
The assets include ships, helicopters, real estate and works of art worth nearly €6.7 billion. This count “is still going on,” the European executive said in a statement.
Brussels asked member states to share their information and so far “more than half of them” have done so.
The EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, urged “all Member States to take all necessary measures to apply the sanctions and those that have not yet done so to inform the Commission without delay.”
The EU approved a fifth package of sanctions against Russia on Thursday, which includes an embargo on Russian coal and the closure of European ports to Russian ships.
Zelenski describes the attack on the train station in Ukraine as “unlimited evil”
the ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenskydescribed the rocket attack on the Kramatorsk train station, in the east of the country, where at least 35 people were killed this Friday, as an act of “unlimited evil” on the part of Russia.
“Since they have no strength or courage to face us on the battlefield, they cynically destroy the civilian population. It is an evil without limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop,” the president said on Telegram.
Crossed accusations for the attack on the Kramatorsk station
Kramatorsk station is located in the east of Ukraine. At the time of the attack, hundreds of people were waiting for a train to leave that region. besieged by Russian forces on the 44th day of the invasion of Ukraine. The fact produced a new exchange of accusations between Russia and Ukraine.
The event was first reported by the head of the railway station, Oleksander Kamishin, and by an authority in the Donetsk area -where Kramatorsk is located- that is not in Russia’s hands, and led to emphatic condemnations from the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, and of the European Union.
The Russian Ministry of Defense immediately stated that it had not launched any attack against the Kramatorsk station. and went further by pointing out that “Tochka-U tactical missileswhose fragments were found in the vicinity of the Kramatorsk station and (whose images) were released by witnesses, they are only used by the Ukrainian armed forces”.
“All the statements of the representatives of the nationalist regime in kyiv about the alleged ‘rocket attack’ carried out by Russia on April 8 at the railway station in the city of Kramatorsk they are a provocation and they are absolutely false”the ministry said in a statement.
At least 35 people were killed in an attack on the Kramatorsk railway station.
At least 35 people died and another 100 were injured. this Friday, in a rocket attack on the station of Kramatorskin eastern Ukraine, where hundreds of people were waiting for a train to leave the region.
“More than 30 people died and more than 100 were injured after a rocket fired at the station (…) It is a deliberate attack,” he said on Telegram. Oleksander Kamyshinresponsible for the Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznytsia.