On April 24, 2025, the Government of Albania officially suspended the agreement on mutual visa waiver with the Republic of Belarus signed in February 2020. This decision cancels the partial suspension introduced in May 2024, which applied only to diplomatic passports. Now Belarusian citizens are required to obtain a visa to enter Albania.
Earlier, in May 2024, Albania partially suspended the agreement, limiting visa-free entry for holders of diplomatic and service passports. The current measure completely abolishes the visa-free regime for all categories of Belarusian citizens.
The decision takes effect immediately and is published in the official gazette of Albania.
Source: https://t.me/relocationrs/881
The European Union has expanded the sanctions list against Belarus, including seven legal entities and 25 individuals.
The corresponding decision of the Council of Europe was published in the Official Journal of the EU on Thursday.
The list of sanctioned companies includes: Integral, the managing company of Integral Holding (a major manufacturer of microelectronics), Planar (a major manufacturer of microelectronics, including military purposes), the state enterprise Plant of Precision Electromechanics (part of the State Military Industrial Committee of Belarus, according to the EU, produces, including ballistic missiles).
The list also includes SE “Belarusian Lotteries” (part of the Department of Presidential Administration of Belarus, has the exclusive right to organize lotteries), the company “Belbet” (online casino, managed by SE “Belarusian Lotteries”), LLC “Ridotto” (develops applications for online games), LLC “Tsybulka-Bel” (agricultural company, according to the EU, owned by German citizen Jorg Dornau).
The sanctions were also imposed on Sergei Avakov (CEO of Planar), Yuri Chorny (director of the Plant of Precision Electromechanics), Dmitri Shvedko (entrepreneur, majority shareholder and director of Ridotto), Mikhail Denisenko (director of the State Enterprise Belarusian Lotteries).
In addition, sanctions were imposed on the Central Election Commission of Belarus, its members, a number of judges, the manager of the presidential affairs of Belarus, Yuri Nazarov and his deputies.
The Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (ICIT) will review anti-dumping measures against imports of cement from Russia, Belarus and Moldova to Ukraine due to their expiration.
According to a report in the Uryadovy Courier dated May 22, 2024, the anti-dumping duties previously in force by the decision of the ICIT dated May 21, 2019, are extended for the duration of the review procedure.
It is noted that the Commission considered the relevant request for review from PrJSC “Dickergoff Cement Ukraine”, PrJSC “Ivano-Frankivsk Cement” with the support of PrJSC “Kryvyi Rih Cement”, and also studied the report of the Ministry of Economy on the results of the anti-dumping procedure for the review of customs duties due to the expiration of their validity.
“The request contains sufficient evidence that the termination of anti-dumping measures against imports into Ukraine of cement originating in the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Moldova, applied by the Commission’s decision of 21 May 2019, is likely to lead to the resumption of dumping and injury,” the ICIT said in a statement.
The Ministry of Economy has been entrusted with the review of anti-dumping measures. Stakeholders are to register within 30 days.
According to Alyona Omelchenko, Partner and Head of International Trade Practice at Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm, who represented the interests of Ukrainian cement producers, the review process may take up to one year.
“This decision of the Commission is extremely important for the work of Ukrainian enterprises. The initiation of the review of anti-dumping measures by the ICIT will extend the period of application of duties and prevent dumped imports from entering the market until the final decision is made,” Omelchenko said in a press release.
As reported, in 2019, the ICIT applied anti-dumping duties on imports of cement clinkers and Portland cement to Ukraine under codes 2523 10 and 2523 29 at the level of 57.03% for cement from Belarus; 94.46% for cement from Moldova; 114.95% for cement from Russia. The duties were set for a period of five years.
The overwhelming majority of residents of all regions of Ukraine express a negative attitude towards the Russian Federation, according to the results of a sociological survey conducted by the Razumkov Center sociological service.
“Negative attitude is most often expressed towards Russia (94%), Belarus (81%), Iran (73.5%), China (60%), Hungary (46.5%). Negative attitudes towards Russia are expressed by the vast majority of residents of all regions – from 90% of the eastern region to 97% of the central region,” reads the press release on the results of the survey.
The researchers also specify that 95.5% of those who communicate mainly in Ukrainian at home have a negative attitude towards Russia and 88% of those who communicate in Russian.
At the same time, according to the results of the poll, only 2% of respondents express a positive attitude to citizens of the Russian Federation, 77% express a negative attitude and 14% express a neutral attitude.
“Positive attitude to citizens of Russia is expressed by 4% of residents of the eastern and southern regions, 2% of residents of the central region and 0% of residents of the western region. Negative attitude is expressed by 70%, 56.5%, 80% and 84%, respectively. Among those who communicate primarily in Ukrainian at home, a positive attitude towards citizens of Russia is expressed by 0.6%, among those who communicate in Russian – 5%, negative attitude – 82% and 59.5%, respectively,” – indicate the Razumkov Centre.
In addition, the vast majority (97%) of respondents have a negative attitude towards the government and the Russian State Duma.
At the same time, Ukrainians more often express a positive attitude towards Poland (94%), Great Britain (91%), Lithuania (91%), Estonia (90%), Latvia (90%), Canada (90%) and the Czech Republic (88%), The USA (88%), Netherlands (86%), France (86%), Germany (85%), Moldova (82,5%), Slovakia (82,5%), Israel (75%), Japan (74%), Turkey (72,5%), Georgia (70%), Romania (69%), Armenia (66%), Azerbaijan (65%). The relative majority (46%) have a positive attitude towards India.
The sociological service of the Razumkov Center conducted a sociological survey “Orientations of Ukrainian citizens in foreign policy, assessments of government foreign policy and attitudes toward foreign states and politicians” on February 22 – March 1, 2023, in the framework of MATRA program, financed by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine.
The face-to-face survey was conducted in all regions of Ukraine, except for the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions, Crimea and territories where hostilities are taking place.
Representatives of the Razumkov Center’s social service interviewed 2020 respondents aged 18 years and older. The theoretical sampling error does not exceed 2.3%. At the same time, additional systematic sampling deviations may be due to the consequences of the Russian aggression, in particular, the forced evacuation of millions of citizens.
At a meeting on Friday, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine terminated four agreements between the governments of Ukraine and Belarus on military and military-technical cooperation, said Taras Melnychuk, representative of the Cabinet in the Verkhovna Rada in Telegram.
In particular, the agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the Republic of Belarus on mutual deliveries of arms, military equipment, other material supplies and services for needs of defense and security of December 16, 1994, was terminated.
The agreement on additional confidence and security measures of April 16, 2001, on joint research and development activities in the field of weapons and military equipment of October 18, 2005, and the agreement on mutual protection of rights to the results of intellectual activities created and presented during the bilateral military and technical cooperation of October 18, 2005 were also terminated.
Ukraine’s Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (ICIT) decided on November 2 to apply a provisional anti-dumping duty of 31.37% to imports into Ukraine of glass containers originating from Belarus, Ilyashev & Partners law firm said on Friday.
“The application of such measures is the result of the Ukrainian government’s timely response to the unfair competition of Belarusian manufacturers in the glassware market in Ukraine and will allow national manufacturers to resume work more quickly to eliminate the consequences of dumping imports of goods,” firm partner Olena Omelchenko said in the release.
“Ilyashev and Partners clarified that they represented the interests of the Association of glass industry enterprises “Glass of Ukraine”, as well as its members.
According to the message, the duty will be charged on the following goods: glass vessels (canning jars, bottles) for food and beverages of 0.15 liters or more, but less than 2.5 liters, which are classified according to the UKTVED by codes 7010 90 41 00, 7010 90 43 00, 7010 90 45 00; colored glass jars of nominal capacity of over 0.33 liter, but less than 1 liter, which are classified according to UKTVED under the code 7010 90 53 00.
This decision is the first decision of the Commission on the application of restrictive measures on imports to Ukraine after February 24, 2022, the law firm said. It has noted that application of provisional anti-dumping measures is an extremely rare interim result in the practice of anti-dumping investigations in Ukraine. The last time such measures were applied by the ICMT was in 2020.
Preliminary antidumping duty is applied for a period of four months and will accrue from the date of publication of the ICMT’s decision in the Uriadovyi Kurier newspaper.
The decision on the violation and anti-dumping investigation based on the results of consideration of the complaint filed by Glass Ukraine, prepared by Ilyashev & Partners, was made by the ICMT on December 22, 2021.
The Association of Glass Industry Enterprises “Glass of Ukraine” is a public organization that unites Ukrainian manufacturers of glass containers, flat glass, glassware, art glass, as well as suppliers of equipment, materials and services for the glass industry. The Association was founded in 1997. Members of the Association produce more than 80% of glass products in the country.
