Ukraine Financial News

By Philip Pullella

The risk of escalating conflict in the Middle East is the latest in a string of unpredictable crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, that have landed like swipes of a bear claw on the global economy, smacking it off course and leaving scars.

crude oil purchased from the UAE is helping the world's third largest energy consumer push for taking the local currency global, as it looks for similar deals with other suppliers, officials said, adding internationalisation is a process and there are no targets. With the nation more than 85 per cent dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs, India has been pursuing a three-pronged strategy of buying from the cheapest available source, diversifying sources of supply and not breaching any international obligation like the price cap in case of Russian oil. While the strategy helped save billions of dollars, when it ramped up imports of Russian oil that was shunned by some in West post Ukraine war, it is looking to settle trade in rupees instead of dollars in a bid to cut transaction costs by eliminating dollar conversions. India in July signed an agreement with the UAE for rupee settlement and soon after Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) made payments for purchase of a million barrels of crude oil from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in Indian rupees. Some of the Russian oil imports too have been settled in rupee. Officials said the default payment currency for import of crude oil has been the US dollar for several decades and the currency traditionally has liquidity as well as lower hedging cost. But to boost the rupee's role in cross-border payments, the Reserve Bank of India allowed more than a dozen banks to settle trades in rupees with 18 countries since last year. Since then, India has been encouraging big oil exporters such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia to accept the Indian currency for trade settlements, officials said, adding the first success happened in August this year when IOC made the rupee

Pope Francis has kicked off global Christmas celebrations with a call for peace, as Israel's war on Hamas and Russia's invasion of Ukraine cast a shadow over one of the world's favourite holidays. Having said earlier in the day that he was thinking of people «who are suffering from war — we are thinking of Palestine, of Israel, of Ukraine», the pope struck a sombre tone during his Christmas Eve mass.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian and Ukrainian military officials both reported downing enemy aircraft on Sunday in different areas of the 1,000-km-long (621-mile) front of their 22-month-old war.

By Alexander Tanas

By Alexander Tanas

Ukraine — Russian attacks on southern Ukraine's Kherson region killed five civilians on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, while Russian-installed officials in the eastern town of Horlivka said one person was killed in result of Kyiv's shelling. Russian forces abandoned the city of Kherson, the administrative centre of the Kherson region on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, and the western bank of the River over a year ago but have since subjected many areas there to constant shelling from their positions on the eastern bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday conveyed a Christmas message to the global Christian community, emphasizing that Israel still grapples with the absence of lasting peace. Here are the top ten updates on the Israel-Gaza war: 1. “To our Christian friends around the world, Merry Christmas," Netanyahu said, adding, “Christmas is supposed to be a time of goodwill to all men and peace on Earth.

President Joe Biden signed a new executive order aimed at targeting financial facilitators of the Russian defense industry

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a decree clearing the way for Rosbank to purchase stakes in leading Russian companies owned by Societe Generale (OTC:SCGLY).

Mint’s Emerging Markets Tracker provides a summary of economic activity across 10 large emerging markets based on seven high-frequency indicators. With a composite score of 70, India topped the EM league table in November. Brazil and Mexico were second and third, respectively.

MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia was short of around 4.8 million workers in 2023 and the problem will remain acute in 2024, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Sunday, citing experts and research from the Russian Academy of Science's Institute of Economics.

Ukrainian Defence Ministry has been apprehended on charges of embezzling USD 40 million (1.5 billion Ukrainian hryvnia) related to a contract for artillery shells, CNN reported the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). The SBU alleged that the official, in December of the previous year, entered into an agreement with a specialised export company for the procurement of a substantial batch of artillery shells. Subsequently, a more advantageous contract for the supply of these shells, excluding intermediaries, thereby reducing delivery time and costs, was later signed with the same manufacturer, CNN reported. According to the SBU, the defence official extended the original, costlier contract, resulting in the transfer of funds amounting to USD 40 million to the accounts of a connected foreign intermediary firm. The SBU claimed that it is in possession of documents substantiating these illicit activities, with the accused facing a potential prison sentence of up to 15 years if proven guilty. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has initiated efforts to recover the misappropriated funds.

Vladimir Putin has been quietly signaling that he is open to a ceasefire in Ukraine despite publicly refusing to back down from the ongoing conflict between the two nations, The New York Times reported. The United Nations reported that more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and over 18,500 injured since the war began between Russia and Ukraine. Former senior Russian officials close to the Kremlin and other American and international officials said Putin has been signaling since September that he is open to stopping the fight at the current boundary lines, as per NYT reports.

peace in Ukraine and with a vision of a “humane" Russia “that's peaceful, friendly and ready to cooperate with everyone on the principle of respect". After Central Election Commission rejected the nomination, Duntsova wrote on the Telegram messaging app, “On December 23, the Central Election Commission refused to register my initiative group." According to a Telegram channel close to Duntsova's campaign, the commission found 100 errors in her nomination papers, including mistakes in the spelling of names.

India along with Russia and China have voted against a UN resolution on the "human rights situation in Iran". While the resolution was backed by 78 member states, 30 states including India, Russia and China, voted against it. Simultaneously on the same day, India abstained on a UN resolution on the «situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine». It joined 79 countries from across the continents in doing so.

Israel-Palestine conflict has a long history and I am sure you read a lot of pieces on how the war was long overdue etc. etc. But, still apart from minor confrontations things were smoothening between the two hostile neighbors.

war isn't just looming over Israel-Palestine and Russia-Ukraine. Nope, they're spreading like wildfire, hitting everywhere from Afghanistan to Yemen, Africa to Southeast Asia.

Central Electoral Commission of Russia confirmed the expectations of international observers who claimed that Russian authorities will not allow any serious contenders against Vladimir Putin. Earlier, when a reporter asked Yekaterina Duntsova if she thinks that Russian authorities will allow her to contest the elections, she asserted her right to fight the elections as she has all the necessary qualities.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the amount of military aid NATO allies have been shipping to Ukraine to help its fight against Russia’s invasion means “everyone is in big trouble” with military supplies.