Escalation of the situation in Russia and Ukraine: Putin signed an order to counter Western oil price limits on Russia Zelensky will deliver the State of the Union address
China News Agency, Beijing, December 28. Comprehensive news: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree on the 27th local time, announcing that he will ban the supply of Russian oil and oil products to countries and regions that limit the price of Russian oil. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the 27th local time that he will deliver the State of the Union address in the near future. According to the Ukrainian edition of Forbes magazine, since February this year, the total assets of the top 20 Ukrainian billionaires have shrunk by more than US$20 billion.
Putin Signs Presidential Decree Against Western Oil Price Limits
Russia TV Today reported on the 28th local time, as a response to the Western price ceiling on Russian oil, on the 27th local time, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree, announcing that he will ban the supply of Russian oil to countries and regions that n limiting the price of Russian oil and petroleum products.
The presidential decree states that if a price limitation mechanism is introduced directly or indirectly into the supply and marketing contract, the Russian side will prohibit the delivery of Russian oil and oil products to foreign entities and individuals. In exceptional circumstances, the President can set exceptions on a case-by-case basis.
According to reports, the above presidential decree will take effect from February 1, 2023 and will be valid until July 1, 2023. From the effective date of this order, the supply of Russian oil to the relevant countries is prohibited; the effective time of the ban on the supply of oil products will be determined by the Russian government, but not earlier than the effective time of the presidential decree.
Earlier, Russia also said it could cut oil production by 5% to 7% in early 2023.
In early December, EU member states reached an agreement on setting a price ceiling of US$60 per barrel for Russian offshore oil exports. The Group of Seven and Australia also announced the implementation of the same price cap policy as the European Union. The price cap policy came into effect on 5 December.
Zelensky to deliver the State of the Union address soon
On the 27th local time, Ukrainian President Zelensky said in a routine video speech that he will deliver a state of the nation address to the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine in the near future, summarizing Ukraine’s external and internal situation, and affirming that Ukraine is the new Goals to be achieved during the year.
The day before, Zelensky said in a routine video speech that there were still power shortages throughout Ukraine, and that power cuts continued. In the evening of the 26th local time, about 9 million people in several areas of Uzbekistan were without power, but the number of people affected by the power outage and the duration of the power outage are gradually decreasing.
According to Ukrainian media reports, on the 28th local time, the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and several areas in central and eastern Ukrainian air defense sirens sounded.
According to Forbes, the total assets of Ukrainian billionaires have shrunk sharply
The Ukrainian edition of Forbes magazine reported on the 27th local time that compared to the beginning of February this year, the total net worth of the top 20 Ukrainian billionaires has shrunk by more than 20 billion US dollars.
According to the report, the total current assets of these Ukrainian tycoons are 22.5 billion US dollars. The richest man is still Rinat Akhmetov, head of the Mining and Metallurgical Investment Group, but his assets have plunged to US$4.4 billion from US$13.7 billion in February. In second and third place are the co-founders of IT company Grammarly, Litvin and Shevchenko, whose fortunes have fallen from US$4 billion in February to US$2.3 billion at the moment.
Also among the 20 richest Ukrainians is former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, whose assets have shrunk to $730 million from $1.6 billion in February.
The Russian foreign ministry accuses NATO of distributing ‘digital weapons’ through Ukraine
According to a report by the Russian Satellite News Agency on the 28th local time, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the number of cyber attacks against Russia will increase by 80% in 2022. “NATO is essentially distributing ‘digital weapons’ through Ukraine unsupervised, with unintended consequences globally.”
According to the report, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia indicated that in 2022 Russia will succeed in intercepting more than 25,000 cyber attacks targeting state resources and 1,200 targeting critical infrastructure. In 2021, financial institutions were the main targets of attackers, and in 2022, state institutions were the victims of the main attacks.
“The vast majority of cyber attacks against Russia are launched by NATO, EU member states, and Ukraine,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. .
