On February 24, 2022, the Russian troops invaded Ukraine. The Ukrainian government decided on the general mobilization of the army; males between the ages of 18 and 60 can be called up for military service and are not allowed to leave the country. More than 1 million people have now fled, the UNHCR says. In this article, we will answer some eight questions about the Ukraine war, stay tuned!
Before the war broke out, two UN Security Council emergency meetings were held. As late as the evening of February 23, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on Vladimir Putin to withhold his troops, to no avail. A resolution of the UN Security Council against the invasion of Ukraine failed on the evening of February 25 at a new meeting of the body solely due to Russia’s veto.
An emergency session of the UN General Assembly was then convened based on UN Resolution 377 A – the first time this has happened in the 21st century and only the eleventh time ever since 1950. The Assembly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on March 2 by a vote of 141 to 5 – with only Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea, and Russia and Syria opposing the resolution, while 35 countries abstained, including China. Sanctions policy against Russia
Beginning as early as 2014, the EU, the U.S. and other countries imposed sanctions against representatives of the Russian state and Russian business that remain in effect today. Following the invasion of Ukraine, further sanctions followed, aiming to weaken the Russian economy and isolate representatives of the Russian state.
On February 25, 2022, the EU adopted a package of measures aimed at, among other things, preventing Russian state-owned companies from refinancing in the EU and cutting off banks from EU financial markets. In addition, Russian state officials were also personally sanctioned; for example, the assets of Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were frozen. Switzerland also announced on February 28 that it would adopt the EU sanctions package. The United States on February 25 restricted technology exports with Russia and announced measures against banks and billionaires close to the Kremlin.
The EU, the U.S., Canada and the U.K. also imposed sanctions on Russia’s central bank in late February. Accordingly, business transactions with the central bank are no longer to be permitted in the future. Before the attack on Ukraine, Russia had accumulated foreign currency reserves of $630 billion, but substantial parts of these are located abroad.
Those funds will be frozen. As a result, the ruble’s exchange rate collapsed, Russian stocks lost massive value. Finally, all countries in the EU, Great Britain, the U.S. and other nations have now denied Russian aircraft access to their airspace. As a result, international air traffic from Russia has been severely restricted.