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Ukraine: Dialogue begins and sanctions tightened
On the fifth day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to start the dialogue process in Gomel, Belarus, to establish a ceasefire.
Contrary to earlier promises, where the Russian delegation promised a truce for negotiations, Kiev is under constant attack by Russian troops and all exits from the city are blocked by Russian tanks.
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has shown skepticism about the dialogue process promoted by the Kremlin.
The Ukrainian army retook control of Kharkov, the country's second largest city, which was on the verge of being controlled by the Russians after an intense night of clashes in the streets.
On the other hand, Europe has broken the schemes of its foreign policy. For the first time in the history of the European Union, it will finance the acquisition of attack and lethal weapons that will be sent to the Ukrainian troops.
Tightening of sanctions
The US government has prohibited the Central Bank of Russia from operating with dollars, a sanction announced by the White House minutes before the international markets opened.
The purpose of this sanction is to prevent Moscow from trying to evade the economic sanctions imposed by the international community last Friday.
According to the statements of a government official, in a telephone call with journalists, they intend to isolate the Russian Central Bank by limiting its access to the US currency.
In addition, the Russian investment fund is completely blocked, the two options that Putin had to try to evade the sanctions and minimize the negative effect.
In this context, the Kremlin will not have access to the funds it has in dollars, which are around 630,000 million dollars.
These Russian reserves could have been used to acquire rubles and thus try to stop the enormous historical fall of the Russian currency.
As soon as the international markets opened this Monday, the ruble registered a loss of 28.34% compared to the dollar, whose price stood at 107.48 dollars per ruble. With respect to the euro, the ruble registered a fall of 27.02%, trading at 119.8 rubles per euro.
These new economic sanctions were previously agreed with France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Italy and the European Union.
Bolsonaro does not sanction Russia
From Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro refused to issue sanctions against Russia and has declared that it is an exaggeration to say that there is a massacre in Ukraine, referring to the invasion that Russia began in Ukraine last Thursday.
For Bolsonaro, it is an exaggeration to speak of a massacre, since, according to his statements, Putin is not interested in "carrying out a massacre."Bolsonaro assures that the two southern regions of Ukraine won a referendum with 90% for their independence and to get closer to Russia.
