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The Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security is committed to providing a brief explanation to the foreign audience on current topics of particular interest regarding Ukraine.
STOPPING THE RUSSIAN GAS TRANSIT
At 7 a.m. on January 1, Ukraine stopped transporting natural gas from Russia.
● National security interests dictate this historic decision, as Russia uses proceeds from hydrocarbon exports to finance its war against Ukraine
● The money that Ukraine will no longer receive for transit is disproportionately less than the financial losses of the Russian Federation.
● From now on, Russia can only export gas to the EU via the Turkish Stream, which runs via the Black Sea to Turkey and further to Southern Europe.
● As EU countries cut back on Russian gas imports, Gazprom has become Russia’s most unprofitable company
● The EU receives only 18% of its gas from Russia, but plans to stop this by 2027.
● The suspension of gas transit through Ukraine was another strategic defeat for Russia.
DEFENSE OPERATION IN THE KURSK REGION
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, visited the direction of Kursk and presented awards to the soldiers who resisted the enemy.
● Ukraine launched a defensive operation in Russia’s Kursk region on August 6, 2024 to disrupt the aggressor’s offensive on Kharkov and Sumy.
● The Kursk operation shattered the Russian myth of the Kremlin’s “red lines” and was a serious blow to Putin’s image.
● To counter Ukrainian forces, Moscow is forced to import cannon fodder from North Korea, but the enemy has not been victorious.
● On December 31, the 6th Special Operations Regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces captured another village in the Kursk region, which Russian and North Korean soldiers had been defending.
● In the direction of Kursk, Russia has already lost more than 38,000 soldiers and more than 1,000 units of military equipment.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF UKRAINE
Even despite a large-scale war, the Ukrainian economy continues to recover and develop.
● According to preliminary data from the Ministry of Economy, exports from Ukraine will grow by 13.4% in monetary terms in 2024.
● By the end of December 2024, Ukraine had exported goods worth more than $41 billion.
● The main export products are sunflower oil, corn, wheat, iron ore, etc
● There was a significant increase in seaborne exports: while Ukraine exported 54.8 million tons of products by sea in 2023, in 2024 it exported 87.2 million tons.
● Ukraine’s main trading partner is the European Union, while outside it the main partners are China, Turkey and Egypt.