German howitzers and European sanctions against Russian oil: Highlights on war in Ukraine as of May 3

Author

Yulia Ustymovych

The 69th day of the war against the Russian invaders continues in Ukraine. has compiled business, political, and economic news that will help you learn more about the situation in the country that has been fighting for its right to exist for more than two months.

The major developments of the day are:

The amount of military, financial, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine from the G7 countries, the European Union, and world financial institutions has already exceeded $29 billion. In total, the EU, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank allocated 12 billion euros ($12.5 billion) to Ukraine. The United States allocated $11 billion, but this amount may increase to $33 billion shortly.
The evacuated persons from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol have already arrived in Zaporizhzhya where they are receiving the necessary help, the Mariupol city council reports. According to Iryna Vereshchuk, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, 156 people were evacuated. She added that several hundred more people remain on the territory of the enterprise.
The Verkhovna Rada passed bill 7172-1 in the second reading. It provides for a ban on political parties whose programme objectives are aimed at justifying, recognizing the lawful one or denying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, as well as justifying the actions of pro-Russian militants in the temporarily occupied territories. The MPs supported the decision with 330 votes, the head of the political party Servant of the People Olena Shulyak wrote.

Politics

The German government has decided to send Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled artillery mounts to Ukraine, the outlet Welt reports. This refers to seven systems. Earlier, the Netherlands promised Kyiv five systems. It is reported that the Ukrainian military will be trained how to use the systems in Germany.
Russia is considering the possibility of including the occupied territories of the south of Ukraine into the temporarily occupied Crimea and its subsequent integration into the Russian economic space. According to intelligence, Oleg Kryuchkov, adviser on information policy to the so-called "head" of Crimea, announced the drafting of a corresponding plan with a period of at least until 2030 on May 1.
New European Union sanctions against Russia will include measures against the supply of Russian oil, Charles Michel, Resident of the European Council, informed, according to Interfax-Ukraine. The sixth package of anti-Russian sanctions being prepared by the European Union, according to the diplomat, will affect "unfinished aspects", in particular, the banking sector: even more Russian banks may be disconnected from the SWIFT system.

Economy

According to the NBU estimates, based on web-scraping, a method of analyzing prices from online supermarkets, inflation in April 2022 was 15.9%. By the end of the year it may exceed 20%. "This is a significant level of price increase, but a controlled one. And such figures are incomparable with 2015, when in some months inflation reached 60%," said Kyrylo Shevchenko, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine.
The UK will provide Ukraine with a new £300m aid package. In particular, this refers to radars and drones, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. He also stressed that Russia's war against Ukraine is "a conflict that has no moral ambiguities and there is no doubt whose right is here."
The troops of the Russian Federation destroyed granaries with a capacity of 30,000 tons in Rubizhne (Luhansk region) with air bombs, along with the elevator. 35,500 tons of agricultural products were destroyed, including 17,000 tons of wheat and 8,500 tons of sunflower seeds, the head of the Luhansk Military Administration Serhiy Haidai reported. "An amount of grain that was burned that could feed 300,000 people with bread during the year. And if once — it's about 120 million people. Russian fascists want to unleash a Holodomor in the Luhansk region — this is obvious," he wrote on Facebook.

Business

The National Electronic Exchange is launching the One to One online platform that will help businesses — legal entities of all forms of ownership, entrepreneurs, institutions, and organizations — to exchange specialists, equipment, technologies, resources, and capacities to solve business tasks.
Pharmaceutical company Darnytsia in cooperation with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the National Security and Defense Council has registered and released the drug "Potassium Iodide-125-Darnytsia", intended to protect people from radiation. Dmytro Shymkiv, head of the Board of Directors of Darnytsia Group, wrote about this on Facebook on Tuesday.

Context.

We have already reported about the updates in the chronicle of the world’s economic war against Russia as of May 3.
In addition, covered the combat losses of the Russian invaders as of May 3, 2022.