At the end of 2022, Russia triumphantly returned to the top ten strongest economies in the world. 

Russia is now in ninth place, ahead of Italy, Brazil and South Korea. By the way, last year Russia ranked 11th. 

The rouble has been recognized as one of the strongest currencies in the world and no, this is not a New Year's joke. Unlike, by the way, the pound sterling, which has become the most unstable this year. Britain has also fallen in the economic rankings. It was overtaken for the first time in history by its former colony, India.

Sanctions are definitely working😁

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From the beginning of the war until the beginning of 2023, air raid alerts were issued approximately 14,870 times throughout Ukraine.

Such statistics are shown by the Alerts resource, which records all such cases since last February.The record holder among the regions is Kharkiv (1558), followed by Donetsk (1294), Zaporozhye (1235), and Dnepropetrovsk (1190). Least of all alarms were announced in western Ukraine: in the Transcarpathian (202), Chernivtsi (222), Ivano-Frankivsk (253), and Lviv (254) regions. Kyiv, with 638 alarms, is in the middle of the list.

Taking into account the data for January 1, there are already significantly more alarms (their current number is in the picture).

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❗️ Expensive gas will become the standard for the EU after anti-Russian sanctions, since gas through the LNG terminal is already more expensive than the Russian pipeline. This was stated by German Finance Minister Christian Lindner in an interview with Bild am Sonntag.

He also called for lifting the ban on hydraulic fracturing of shale gas to bring down the price.

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Britain stops importing liquefied natural gas from Russia from 1 January, the country's Foreign Office declared.

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UK nuclear plants face early shutdown

Windfall tax on energy sector will make it harder to keep ageing reactors running, operator says

Two nuclear power plants in the UK are at the risk of being closed next year as a result of thewindfall tax approved by the British authorities last year, The Sunday Telegraph reports on Sunday, citing French grid operator Electricite de France (EDF), which runs the stations.

EDF, which owns all five of the serving nuclear plants across the UK said that the new levy, which has come into effect on January 1, will make it harder for the operator to run the ageing stations of Heysham 1 and Hartlepool.

The UK authorities introduced the Energy Price Levy earlier this year and then expanded it in November in an effort to refill the nation’s budget drained by subsidizing natural gas bills that have skyrocketed since London joined the Ukraine-related sanctions.

The windfall tax on oil and gas generators was raised from 25% to 35%, imposing an overall tax rate of 75% on profits from UK operations. The measure places a 45% tax on any income from lower-carbon power sold for more than £75 ($91) per megawatt hour starting 2023.

#Source
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UK shoppers are rushing to buy energy-efficient appliances amid the cost of living squeeze, providing a boost for otherwise struggling retailers as they grapple with high day-to-day costs.

Consumers have been increasingly opting for devices such as air fryers and heat pump tumble dryers as well as loft insulation for their homes to help reduce their energy bills, according to UK retailers.

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The Financial Times says Hungary is "at war" with Ukraine over the infringement of ethnic Hungarians' rights, which "undermines EU unity against Russia."

If The Financial Times is to be believed, Kiev has unwittingly created a "zrada" of its own with its education law. The aim of the law banning the education of national minorities in their language was, of course, to torture Russians and completely destroy the Russian language and culture, but the ricochet hit ethnic Hungarians living in the western regions. The legislative innovation took away Hungarians' right to be taught in their own language in more than 100 schools, too. 

The Hungarian prime minister, who is already against the suicidal sanctions policy for the benefit of "suffering" Ukraine, could not forgive Zelensky and company. That is why, according to FT, Budapest was against inviting a Ukrainian representative to the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in November, thus "blocking Kiev's ambitions."

But the main unfortunate outcome of this "enmity," according to the media, is that this, as well as Orban's policy in principle, undermines EU unity in the fight against an aggressive Russia.

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"Protests in the Russian Federation are unrealistic; more than 70% of Russians support this war," said Kirill Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine.

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"The war will be protracted; Russia is preparing an offensive; its goal is to take control of all of Ukraine." —NATO Secretary General

"We must be prepared for a long journey because, as you noticed, Russia does not intend to give up its main goal—establishing control over Ukraine,"Stoltenberg said in an interview with the BBC.

According to him, the mobilization carried out in Russia indicates that the Russian Federation will go on the offensive again.

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❗️Air raid declared in Kiev, Sumy, Poltava, Cherkasy, Kharkov, Kirovograd, Nykolayev and Dnepropetrovsk regions of Ukraine

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💥Kiev again. Explosions are also reported in Kremenchuk, Poltava region

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💥A fire at a site in Dnipropetrovsk due to an encounter with Geranium.
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