According to the results of 2022, the sown area under grain crops decreased by 28% compared to the average indicators of the three previous years, and under oil crops – by 17%. The main reasons are temporary occupation of parts of Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions and contamination of fields with mines.
The international working group on the issue of sanctions against russia (the McFaul-Yermak group) in its “Action Plan...” dated April 19 provided for sanctions against Rosatom. But it is not in any of the accepted 7 sanctions packages. At the same time, the issue of Western sanctions against Rosatom is sensitive for russia, as the corporation's statement dated August 19, 2022 shows.
The forces of authoritarianism are increasingly united in aggression against democracy. The russian army, struck by the Defense Forces of Ukraine, is suffering more and more losses in Ukraine. But russia is not going to give up aggression. Moreover, it attracts new forces, namely the so-called partial mobilization should provide additional “cannon fodder”. At the same time, the West still has illusions that russia will stop if Ukraine inflicts unacceptable losses in manpower and equipment.
As of August 1, 2022, direct losses of the Ukrainian economy caused by russia damaging or destroying the residential and non-residential buildings as well as infrastructure in Ukraine amounted to $108.3 billion or 2,9 trillion UAH, according to the estimation of the KSE Institute. The amount is already significant, but as the russian aggression still goes on, that number will keep growing. This makes post-war reconstruction and recovery an important process which has to be scrupulously thought through already now.
Since the moment of the full-scale russian invasion against Ukraine on February, 24, there are continuous calls to the US State Department to designate the russian Federation as a “state sponsor of terrorism” (hereinafter “SST”). The calls were supported by the Ukrainian government, starting from the address of President Volodymyr Zelensky in April 2022. Later, the call was supported by the resolution of the Ukrainian Parliament.
