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At the same time, the prime minister said that all sectors of the country's economy are suffering because of the war.
President Vladimir Zelenskiy said in a call with US President Joe Biden on December 9. US
President Joe Biden has said he has no intentions to talk to Putin for now. Biden is not planning to speak to Russian Putin
about ending the war in Ukraine war as Putin has shown no inclination for
dialogue.
Ukraine received a total of $27.2bn in financial aid from Western allies in 2022, the country’s Deputy Finance Minister Roman Ermolichev said. Ermolichev added that in 2023 the amount of assistance will increase up to about $38bn to cover the budget deficit. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmygal noted that his country is also expecting the US Congress to approve allocation of financial aid worth $37.7bn next year.
US Army plans ‘dramatic’ ammo production increase amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US Army is seeking a “dramatic” increase in monthly production of 155mm artillery shells over the next three years as donations to Ukraine are “straining allied munitions stockpiles,” Doug Bush, the assistant secretary of the US Army for acquisition, told Defence News, a US media outlet.
However, during Zelenskiy’s visit to Washington DC in December Biden repeated that the US will not send “lethal weapons” (offensive weapons) to Ukraine in 2023. In the same week German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made similar comments: he reiterated Germany’s support for Ukraine, but said that Germany will not send any tanks to Ukraine in 2023.
2.0 Politics
2.1 Russia’s Agrocomplex that belongs to the ex-Minister of
Agriculture seizes 160,000 hectares of Ukrainian agricultural land
Russia’s Agrocomplex received 160,000 hectares of agricultural land in the occupied regions of Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on December 5.
Agrocomplex belongs to the former Russian agricultural minister Alexander Tkachev and had a turnover of RUB57 billion ($1bn) in 2021).
Three large Ukrainian agricultural companies accused Agrocomplex of seizing their lands - HarvEast (40 thousand hectares), grain trader Nibulon (20 thousand hectares) and Agroton (100 thousand hectares). HarvEast CEO Dmitry Skornyakov said that in May, armed groups representing the interests of Agrocomplex and the local administration allegedly clashed over the control of his lands, The Bell reports.
WSJ, referring to Ukrainian intelligence, writes that the land seizures were carried out purposefully. Land assets belonging to the Ukrainian military or officials, as well as to persons who do not live in the regions, were the first to
7 UKRAINE Country Report January 2023 www.intellinews.com