Russia pounds eastern Ukraine
Exports rose from $ 40.1b in ’20 to $ 71.4b in ’21
TORETSK, Ukraine, April 26, (Agencies): Russia pounded eastern and southern Ukraine on Tuesday as the U.S. promised to “keep moving heaven and earth” to get Kyiv the weapons it needs to repel the new offensive, despite Moscow’s warnings that such support could trigger a wider war.
For the second day in a row, explosions rocked the separatist region of Trans-Dniester in neighboring Moldova, knocking out two powerful radio antennas close to the Ukrainian border and further heightening fears of a broader conflict erupting across Europe. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Ukraine all but blamed Russia.
Russian missile fire also knocked out a strategic railroad bridge along a route that links southern Ukraine’s Odesa port region to neighboring Romania, a NATO member, Ukrainian authorities said.
The attack on the bridge - along with a series of strikes on key railroad stations a day earlier - appears to mark a major shift in Russia’s approach. Up to now, Moscow has spared strategic bridges, perhaps in hopes of keeping them for its own use in seizing Ukraine. But now it seems to be trying to thwart Ukraine’s efforts to move troops and supplies.
Southern Ukraine and Moldova have been on edge since a senior Russian military officer said last week that the Kremlin’s goal is to secure not just eastern Ukraine but the entire south, so as to open the way to TransDniester.
Two months into the devastating war, Western arms have helped Ukraine stall Russia’s invasion, but the country’s leaders have said they need more support fast.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that more help is on the way as he convened a meeting of officials from around 40 countries at the U.S. air base at Ramstein, Germany, to pledge more weapons.
“This gathering reflects the galvanized world,” Austin said in his opening remarks. He added that he wanted officials to leave the meeting “with a common and transparent understanding of Ukraine’s near-term security requirements because we’re going to keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet them.”
Fierce resistance
After unexpectedly fierce resistance by Ukrainian forces thwarted Russia’s attempt to take Ukraine’s capital early in the war, Moscow now says its focus is the capture of the Donbas, the mostly Russian-speaking industrial region in eastern Ukraine.
In the small city of Toretsk in the Donbas, residents are struggling to survive, collecting rainwater for washing up and fervently hoping for an end to the fighting.
“It’s bad. Very bad. Hopeless,” said Andriy Cheromushkin. “You feel so helpless that you don’t know what you should do or shouldn’t do. Because if you want to do something, you need some money, and there is no money now.”
In its latest assessment of the fighting, the British Defense Ministry reported Russian advances and heavy fighting in the Donbas, with one town, Kreminna, apparently falling after days of street-by-street fighting.
In the gutted southern port city of Mariupol, authorities said Russian forces hit the Azovstal steel plant with 35 airstrikes over the past 24 hours. The plant is the last known stronghold of Ukrainian fighters in the city. About 1,000 civilians were said to be taking shelter there with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders.
“Russia has drastically intensified strikes over the past 24 hours and is using heavy bunker bombs,” said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor. “The number of those wounded will be clear once the rubble is cleared.”
He also accused Russian forces of shelling a route it had offered as an escape corridor from the steel mill.
Beyond Mariupol, local officials said at least nine people were killed and several more wounded in Russian attacks on towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region of the Donbas, said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces “continue to deliberately fire at civilians and to destroy critical infrastructure.”
Ukraine’s military also said Russian forces shelled Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, which lies in the northeast, outside the Donbas, but is seen as key to Russia’s apparent bid to encircle Ukrainian troops in the Donbas from the north, east and south.
In the south, Ukrainian forces struck back in the Kherson region, while Oleksandr Kamyshin, head of the state-run Ukrainian Railways, said there were no injuries in the Russian attack on the railroad bridge in the Odesa region.
It was not clear who was behind the blasts in Trans-Dniester, but the U.S. has repeatedly warned that Russian forces could launch “false-flag” operations to create a pretext for invading other countries. About 1,500 Russian troops are based in Trans-Dniester, a long, narrow strip of land with about 470,000 people along the Ukrainian border.
KUWAIT CITY, April 26: With the increase in the value of Kuwait’s merchandise exports from $ 40.1 billion in 2020 to $ 71.4 billion in 2021, Kuwait is in 47th position globally and fourth in the Gulf in terms of total merchandise exports, according to the latest data issued by the World Trade Organization, reports Al-Rai daily.
Kuwait’s imports of goods also increased from $ 27.7 billion in 2020 to $ 33.2 billion in 2021, thereby ranking 66th globally and third in the Gulf after the UAE, which imported goods worth $ 319 billion and was ranked 21st globally, and Saudi Arabia with an import value of $ 155 billion and was ranked 32nd globally. Qatar imported goods worth $ 27.9 billion and it ranks 68th in the world.
In terms of the ranking of the Gulf countries in total merchandise exports in 2021, the UAE ranked first in the Arab world and 17th globally after exporting goods worth USD 425 billion. It is followed by Saudi Arabia in second place in the Arab world and in 18th place globally with export value of $ 258 billion. Qatar came in third place in the Arab world and 41st globally with an export value of USD 86.7 billion .
While mining and fuel products dominate Kuwait’s exports, the country’s exports of commercial services as of the third quarter of 2021 (according to the latest data available at the WTO) amounted to USD 3 billion. The value of imports amounted to USD 6.5 billion during the same period.
Exports
In 2020, Kuwait’s total exports of commercial services such as information, communication, computer, travel, transportation and financial services amounted to USD 6.7 billion, while it imported USD 17.4 billion in the same period.
Information, communications and computer services constituted the largest share of Kuwait’s exports of commercial services in 2020, with 64.44 percent of the total commercial services, and with a value of 4.3 billion.
On the other hand, the data for 2019 indicate that the United States was Kuwait’s largest partner in commercial services, followed by Britain, India, China and Germany.
Globally, China is on the top of exports, having exported goods worth USD 3.4 trillion to the world, followed by the United States of America with a value of 1.8 trillion, and then Germany with a value of 1.6 trillion.
According to World Trade Organization data, the value of global exports of goods and services amounted to USD 22.3 trillion in 2021.
In another context, the World Trade Organization lowered its forecast for global GDP growth in 2022 from 4.1 percent to 2.8 percent.
In its experts’ latest forecasts for global trade growth, issued last Tuesday, the organization indicated that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine puts the recovery of an already “fragile” global trade at risk.
The WTO has noted that the outlook for the global economy has darkened since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, prompting WTO economists to reassess their forecasts for trade over the next two years.
They expect the volume of merchandise trade to grow at three percent this year, down from its previous forecast of 4.7 percent and 3.4 percent for 2023.
The organization expects the growth of global GDP at market exchange rates by 2.8 percent in 2022, equivalent to 1.3 percent of less points than the previous forecast of 4.1 percent.
The report also indicates an acceleration of growth to 3.2 percent in 2023, approaching the average index of three percent in the period from 2010 to 2019.