Junior Digest

Mumbai, Apr 19,2023: India emerged as the second largest steel producer in the world with per capita steel consumption having gone up from 57 kilos to 78 kilos during last nine years, said Minister of Steel Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday.

Talking at inaugural session of three-day conference organised jointly by his department and industry body FICCI, he said that the Ministry has signed 57 MoUs (memoranda of understanding) with 27 companies for specialty steel under the PLI (production linked incentive) scheme, which is expected to generate investment of about Rs 30,000 crore and create additional capacity of about 25 mt (million tonnes) of specialty steel in next five years.

This will also act as a multiplier to create more than 60,000 jobs for our Amrit Pidi and contribute towards achieving the goal of becoming the third largest economy by 2030-31, he was quoted as saying in a press release here.

Scindia further said, “The Steel Ministry is in the process of aligning up policies with the Gati Shakti Master Plan, which will complement the Rs 100 lakh crore investment plan for infrastructure development over next five years. This will boost the demand of steel in various sectors, thereby enhancing steel usage.”

Talking about various technologies being developed such as hydrogen-based steel making as demonstrated by hybrid plant in Sweden and hisarnar technology by Tata Steel Europe coupled with CCUS that holds huge promise, he said, “The commercialisation of these technologies might take some time.”

Speaking on the occasion, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Minister of State in the Ministry of Steel, said, “For the last eight-nine years, all kinds of meaningful solutions have been received from many such conferences and the Ministry of Steel is providing new heights to the steel industry by implementing such suggestions and solutions. This is the reason that in 2013-14, where steel production capacity was about 100 million tonnes and crude steel production was about 82 million tonnes, in 2022-23 the steel production capacity was 154 million tonnes and crude steel production was 125 million tonnes.”

“This historic growth has been possible due to the business-friendly policy, reforms and transparency in the steel sector of our Government, under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and under the leadership of our Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia. I have full confidence that we will achieve the targets set in the National Steel Policy by 2030-31,” he added.

April 19,2023:India is on its way to becoming the world’s most populous country, overtaking China with almost three million more people in the middle of this year, data released by the United Nations show.

The demographic data released on Wednesday by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates India’s population at 1.4286 billion against 1.4257 billion for China.
The United States is a distant third, with an estimated population of 340 million, the data by the UNFPA’s State of World Population Report, 2023 showed.

The report says eight countries will account for half the projected growth in global population by 2050: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.
The data reflects information available as of February 2023, the report said.
Population experts using previous data from the UN have projected India would go past China this month. But the latest report from the global body did not specify a date for when the change would take place.

UN population officials have said it was not possible to specify a date due to “uncertainty” about the data coming out of India and China, especially since India’s last census was conducted in 2011 and the next one due in 2021 has been delayed due to the pandemic.

Although India and China will account for more than one-third of the estimated global population of 8.045 billion, the population growth in both Asian giants has been slowing, at a much faster pace in China than in India.
Last year, China’s population fell for the first time in six decades, a historic turn that is expected to mark the start of a long period of decline in its citizen numbers with profound implications for its economy and the world.
India’s annual population growth has averaged 1.2 percent since 2011, compared with 1.7 percent in the 10 years previously, according to government data.

Washington [US], April 12,2023: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its flagship World Economic Outlook projected that India will be the fastest growing economy in the world amid financial sector turmoil, high inflation, ongoing effects of the Russia-Ukraine war, and three years of COVID.
IMF on Tuesday lowered its growth projection for 2023-24 to 5.9 per cent from 6.1 per cent earlier but despite a significant drop, India continues to be the fastest-growing economy in the world, the World Economic Outlook figures revealed.
The IMF projects India’s inflation to slow to 4.9 per cent in the current year and further to 4.4 per cent next fiscal year.
IMF growth forecast is lower than the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) projection. The central bank predicted 7 per cent GDP growth for FY 2022-23 and 6.4 per cent in the ongoing fiscal that started on April 1.
The government is yet to release full-year GDP numbers for 2022-23.
Meanwhile, the international lender flagged concerns about inflation, debt and risks to the financial sector from rising interest rates. It warned that if banks cut lending further, the global output will reduce by another 0.3 percentage point in 2023.
“Despite the fillips from lower food and energy prices and improved supply-chain functioning, risks are firmly to the downside with the increased uncertainty from the recent financial sector turmoil,” the report said.
The IMF projects growth to bottom out at 2.8 per cent in 2023, picking up to 3 per cent in 2024. Inflation is expected to stay elevated at 7 per cent for the rest of the year, before declining to 4.9 per cent next year.
Supply-chain disruptions and rising geopolitical tensions have brought the risks and potential benefits and costs of geoeconomic fragmentation to the center of the policy debate, added the report.
FDI flows are increasingly concentrated among geopolitically aligned countries, particularly in strategic sectors.
Several emerging market and developing economies are highly vulnerable to FDI relocation, given their reliance on FDI from geopolitically distant countries.
In the long term, FDI fragmentation arising from the emergence of geopolitical blocs can generate large output losses, especially for emerging market and developing economies, added the report.
Tentative signs in early 2023 that the world economy could achieve a soft landing–with inflation coming down and growth steady–have receded amid stubbornly high inflation and recent financial sector turmoil.
Although inflation has declined as central banks have raised interest rates and food and energy prices have come down, underlying price pressures are proving sticky, with labor markets tight in a number of economies.
Side effects from the fast rise in policy rates are becoming apparent, as banking sector vulnerabilities have come into focus and fears of contagion have risen across the broader financial sector, including nonbank financial institutions.
Risks to the outlook are heavily skewed to the downside, with the chances of a hard landing having risen sharply, added the report.
Public debt as a ratio to GDP soared across the world during COVID-19 and is expected to remain elevated, posing a growing challenge for policymakers, particularly as real interest rates are rising across the world.
China’s growth rate is projected to be 5.2 per cent in 2023 and 4.5 per cent in 2024 against its growth rate of three per cent in 2022.
The US’s growth forecast for 2023 is 1.6 per cent, France 0.7 per cent, while Germany and the UK are a dismal -0.1 per cent and -0.7 per cent, respectively.
Most countries will, however, avoid recession in 2023 despite the COVID pandemic lingering and tightening financing conditions as the Russia-Ukraine war continues.

Tokyo, Apr 24,2023: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday he is not thinking about dissolving the lower house of parliament for a snap election, a day after his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won parliamentary by-elections in four of five seats.

“As we have to carry out important policies one by one, I am not thinking of dissolution and a general election for the moment,” Kishida told reporters at the prime minister’s office.

There has been speculation that Kishida may have been planning to call an election after the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima next month amid improvement in approval ratings for his cabinet.

On Sunday, the ruling LDP led by Kishida secured four of the five seats up for grabs in parliamentary by-elections, while the opposition Japan Innovation Party won one.

The LDP beat opposition party candidates in three constituencies of the House of Representatives, or the lower house, and one constituency of the House of Councillors, the upper house.

Japan Innovation Party defeated the LDP to newly secure a lower house seat, while the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lost in all three constituencies where it fielded official candidates.

New Delhi, Apr 12,2023: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Anil Chauhan on Tuesday called for greater collaboration to augment space-based defence capabilities in India.

The CDS made the statement after inaugurating the ‘Indian DefSpace Symposium 2023’, being organised by Indian Space Association (ISpA).

In his address, Gen Chauhan said, “Today’s symposium will assist all of us to center our national security, while identifying possible solutions to address future challenges. The aim for all of us should be towards developing dual-use platforms with special focus towards incorporating cutting-edge technology and we must expand our NAVIC constellation, provide agile space-based ISR and ensure secure satellite assisted communications.”

“ We also need to explore the field of miniaturisation of satellites and reusable launch platforms to mitigate cost, challenges and accelerate the pace of augmenting our space-based capabilities. The populating of space domain and the emergence of dynamic threat environment to our space assets also demands that we enhance our space situational awareness capability. There’s also a requirement to safeguard our assets with counter space capabilities. We must build resilience and redundancy in a space-based infrastructure,” a release quoted the CDS as saying.

Samir V Kamat, Chairman, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said, “We at DRDO have started increasing our focus on the very critical space domain with focus on space-based surveillance, space situational awareness, protecting our space-based assets. ”

‘We are now looking at working very closely with industry as well as academia right from the development stage and have started DRDO industry-academia centers of excellence in about 15 institutions mostly within the country. We request academia, startups, MSMEs and larger companies to work with us closely so we can help our country achieve these capabilities much faster than what we have been able to do for all other systems,” Kamat said.

The Indian Space Symposium is the first of its kind event focused on creating a platform for all stakeholders who have a keen interest in boosting India’s military space capability and plans. The platform will bring together experts from multiple domains to discuss the latest trends and challenges in the field of defence, making it an excellent networking opportunity for attendees from the defence, DRDO, and government sectors, as well as industry professionals, a statement said.

It will focus on delivering space domain awareness and satellite communications to enhance military operations, and address issues related to securing funding for new space capabilities, expanding international partnerships, and developing a Defence Space Strategy in line with the National Space Strategy, the release said.

United Nation, Apr 17,2023: Lenka White – US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has lowered expectations before the Monday SpaceX Starship launch and has encouraged people to study the history of the Soviet N1 rocket.

“Success is not what should be expected tomorrow – that would be insane,” Musk told the Twitter space participants on Sunday. “So I would encourage people to review the history of the Soviet N1 rocket, which has really a very impressive rocket design. But it never reached orbit.”

This is especially relevant if what is meant by success is reaching the orbit, Musk added. But what matters here is that SpaceX is building rockets rapidly, he said.

The Soviet N series rocket was meant to bring Soviet cosmonauts to the Moon and Mars, and to launch huge space stations into orbit. However, the end result was four launch failures and the project’s cancellation.

According to Elon Musk, “scrub” or postponement of the Starship launch will probably happen on Monday. The entrepreneur said that he was not sure what exactly could go wrong or else the support team would have tackled it.

But one of Musk’s biggest wishes is that his rocket does not blow up the launch pad – this would take several months to rebuild. Musk also mentioned that the most challenging part was probably the engines – if one fails, there will be a domino effect, and it can also happen on the launch pad.

SpaceX is planning to launch the Starship rocket from its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Monday at 8 a.m. EDT (12:00 GMT) . This will be the first test flight of Starship and and Super Heavy rocket. The main goal of SpaceX is to have a fully reusable launch system for long-distance missions to the Moon and Mars. NASA plans to use Starship for its Artemis 3 mission to the moon in 2025 – the first manned crew landing on the moon since 1972.

April 16,2023:Germany will switch off its last three nuclear reactors on Saturday, exiting atomic power even as it seeks to wean itself off fossil fuels and manage an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

While many Western countries are upping their investments in atomic energy to reduce their emissions, Germany is bringing an early end to its nuclear age.
Following years of prevaricating, Germany pledged to quit nuclear power definitively after Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster sent radiation spewing into the air and terrifying the world.

But the final wind-down was delayed from last year to this year after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine prompted Germany to halt Russian fossil fuel imports. Prices soared and there were fears of energy shortages around the world – but now Germany is confident again about gas supplies and expansion of renewables.

The exit decision was popular in a country with a powerful anti-nuclear movement, stoked by lingering fears of a Cold War conflict and atomic disasters such as Chernobyl in Ukraine.

“The risks of nuclear power are ultimately unmanageable,” said Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, who this week made a pilgrimage to the ill-fated Japanese plant in advance of a G7 meeting in the country.
But the challenge caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which put an end to cheap gas imports, and the need to quickly cut emissions has upped calls in Germany to delay the withdrawal from nuclear power.

Greenpeace, at the heart of the anti-nuclear movement, organised a celebratory party at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to mark the occasion.

“Finally, nuclear energy belongs to history! Let’s make this April 15 a day to remember,” the organisation said.

In contrast, conservative daily FAZ headlined its Saturday edition “Thanks, nuclear energy,” as it listed the benefits it said nuclear had brought the country over the years.

April 16,2023:The sounds of gunfire and heavy artillery reverberate across Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, for a second day as doctors say at least 56 civilians have been killed in fighting between the army and a powerful paramilitary force.

Sunday’s fierce fighting came as the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates called for the opposing sides to “immediately end hostilities without precondition”.
Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that the sounds of heavy artillery firing across Khartoum, the adjoining city of Omdurman and nearby Bahri continued early on Sunday while an Al Jazeera television feed showed clouds of smoke billowing over the capital.

The Sudanese Doctors Union said at least 56 civilians had been killed and 595 people, including combatants, have been wounded since the fighting between the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted on Saturday.

The two sides have been competing for power as political factions negotiate forming a transitional government after a 2021 military coup. The tensions stem from a disagreement between the military, headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, about how the paramilitary force should be integrated into the armed forces and what authority should oversee that process.
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum, said the situation in the capital remained tense with civilians caught in the middle of the fighting.
“It doesn’t look like the situation is de-escalating,” she said late on Saturday. “In fact, the army has put out a statement saying that it will not negotiate with the Rapid Support Forces until those forces are dismantled and the rebel troops are dealt with.”

“We are continuing to see fighting in Khartoum near the vicinity of the presidential palace,” she said.

“We can hear shots being fired. We can hear heavy artillery being fired. It’s not clear who is in control of the palace, and there are battles over the state television. The army says it is in control of its headquarters and also the Khartoum International Airport.”

Global powers – the US, Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Nations, European Union and African Union – all appealed for an immediate end to the hostilities.

Aprl 11,2023:Myanmar’s military has launched air attacks on a central town known to be a bastion of opposition to the coup carried out two years ago.

Witnesses and local media said dozens of people were killed and wounded in the attack on Tuesday – one of the worst since the military seized control of the country.
Citing residents in the Sagaing area – about 110km (45 miles) west of the main city Yangon – news reports said ­­­­­­­­at least 50 people, including children, died in the barrage on the town of Pazigyi.

The air raids occurred as residents gathered for the inauguration of an administrative office, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng reported from Thailand’s capital Bangkok.

“At 7:35am the crowd was attacked by jets and those were followed by Mi-35 helicopters,” said Cheng, citing one rescuer at the scene.

“He confirmed 40 dead but he suspects the death toll will rise considerably – the carnage there was terrible. All the reports we’re seeing is that these were civilians, and far from being a legitimate military target.”
No immediate response from Myanmar’s military rulers was available.

Three first responders were killed in a second attack while rescue work was being carried out, Cheng reported.

Khartoum, Apr 19,2023: As many as 30 civilians were killed and 245 were injured in Sudan on April 18 as a result of armed clashes between the armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said on Wednesday.

Clashes between the Sudanese regular army and the RSF broke out on Saturday in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum and elsewhere in the country. Government forces accused the RSF of mutiny and launched airstrikes against their bases.

“The number of dead and injured among the civilian population on this day, April 18, was: 30 deaths, 245 injured,” the committee wrote on social media.

New Delhi, Apr 24,2023: The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Sunday in its meeting resolved to request the Supreme Court of India to leave the same-sex marriage issue for legislative consideration.

The BCI resolved this decision of requesting the Supreme Court to leave the same-sex marriage issue for legislative consideration, in a joint meeting held today with all the State Bar Councils in the country.

The BCI in its letter, said that India is a diverse country with a mosaic of beliefs, and any matter that is likely to tinker with the fundamental social structure should necessarily come through the legislative process.

“Any decision by the apex court in such a sensitive matter may prove harmful for the future generation of the country. We request the Supreme Court to appreciate and respect the sentiments and mandate of the mass of the country and leave the issue of same-sex marriage for legislative consideration only,” the BCI, in its statement, said.

The BCI is a statutory body created by Parliament to regulate and represent the Indian bar. It perform the regulatory function by prescribing standards of professional conduct and etiquette and by exercising disciplinary jurisdiction over the bar.

The BCI said that more than 99.9 per cent of people in the country are opposed to “the idea of same-sex marriage”. The vast majority believes that any decision of the Apex Court in the petitioners’ favour on this issue will be treated to be against the culture and socio-religious structure of our country, the BCI, in its resolution, stated.

Bar is the mouthpiece of the common men and, therefore, this meeting of today held on Sunday, is expressing their anxiety over this highly sensitive issue, the BCI said.

It further said that the issue is highly sensitive, commented upon, and criticized by various sections of society, including socio-religious groups, for being a social experiment, engineered by a selected few.

“The issue at hand is highly-sensitive, commented upon and criticized by various sections of society, including socio-religious groups, for being a social-experiment, engineered by a selected few. This, in addition to it, being socially and morally compunctive,” the BCI said.

Thus, the resolution, passed by the BCI, unanimously agreed that the issue of same-sex marriage, having a spectrum of stakeholders from diverse socio-religious backgrounds, should be dealt with after an elaborate consultation process involving different social and religious groups by the competent legislature.

The resolution of the BCI further said that ever since the inception of human civilization and culture, marriage has been typically accepted and categorized as a union of biological man and woman for the twin purpose of procreation and recreation.

In such a background, it would be catastrophic to overhaul something as fundamental as the conception of marriage by any Law Court, however well-intentioned it may be, the BCI said.

“As per documented history, ever since the inception of human civilization and culture, marriage has been typically accepted and categorized as a union of biological man and woman for the twin purpose of procreation and recreation. In such background, it would be catastrophic to overhaul something as fundamental as the conception of marriage by any Law Court, howsoever well-intentioned it may be,” the resolution of the BCI said.

The same sex marriage petitions would come up for hearing before the Supreme Court’s five-judge constitution bench likely after Monday.

April 13,2023:Group of Seven (G7) finance leaders have pledged to take action to maintain the stability of the global financial system after recent banking turmoil and to give low- and middle-income countries a bigger role in diversifying supply chains to make them more resilient.

Their communique did not mention China by name but the supply-chain language fits in with “friend-shoring” efforts by industrial democracies to work with each other to become less reliant on the Asian manufacturing powerhouse for battery minerals, semiconductors and other strategic goods.

“We commit to jointly empowering low- and middle-income countries to play bigger roles in supply chains through mutually beneficial cooperation by combining finance, knowledge, and partnership, which will help contribute to sustainable development and enhance supply chain resilience globally,” the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors said in the statement on Wednesday.

The finance chiefs of G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – met on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings in Washington, DC. They said they discussed recent financial sector developments after the failure of two United States banks and the forced sale of troubled global lender Credit Suisse.

Shunichi Suzuki, the finance minister of G7 host Japan, said stability had returned to the financial system after strong action by policymakers

“We will continue to closely monitor financial sector developments and stand ready to take appropriate actions to maintain the stability and resilience of the global financial system,” the G7 finance leaders said.

The ministers said supply chains needed to achieve efficiency and resilience, helping to maintain macroeconomic stability and make economies more sustainable. The statement cited the need to diversify the “highly concentrated” supply chains for clean energy technologies.

“In this endeavor, we will stand firm to protect our shared values, while preserving economic efficiency by upholding the free, fair and rules-based multilateral system and international cooperation,” the G7 finance leaders said, using language often employed to exclude China and other undemocratic nations.

Suzuki said the language was not specifically aimed at China but added that the G7 group viewed a high concentration of supply chains in a single country as undesirable, noting that many supply chains were highly concentrated in China.

The IMF warned in its latest economic forecasts that fragmentation of the global economy into geopolitical blocs was a significant factor in reducing longer-term growth potential, with only 3 percent growth expected in 2028. That is the lowest five-year projection since the IMF started issuing such forecasts in 1990.

Washington, Apr 21,2023: Former US President Donald Trump said during an interview with the Full Send podcast that Russia and China were open to the idea of denuclearizing alongside the United States.

“We have to get rid of nuclear weapons. One of the things I was going to do and I would have done is the denuclearization of everything, because you have to take them away. Russia would have done it, and China would have done it. I used to talk to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin about it, he loved the idea of doing it,” Trump said on Thursday.

“The world is one madman away from a Third World War,” Trump warned.

There are countries in the world that, if forced, would use nuclear weapons, Trump said.

The United States is in a vulnerable position due to lack of respect on the world stage following the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Trump also said.

Current challenges related to Ukraine and Taiwan never would have occurred under his administration, Trump assured.

New Delhi, Apr 17,2023:Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has demanded that the BJP-led government at the Centre should immediately conduct the decennial Census and that a comprehensive ‘Caste Census’ be made its integral part.

In his letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, he wrote, “In the absence of an updated Caste Census, I am afraid a reliable data base so very essential for meaningful social justice and empowerment programmes, particularly for OBCs, is incomplete. This Census is the responsibility of the Union Government.”

Citing that the regular decennial Census was to be carried out in 2021 but it has not yet been conducted, Kharge said, ” We demand that it be done immediately and that a comprehensive Caste Census be made its integral part.”

The Congress president said he and his colleagues raised this demand earlier in both House of Parliament on a number of occasions also the leaders from other Opposition parties.

“You are aware that for the first time the UPA Government conducted a Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC during 2011-12 covering some 25 crore households. For a number of reasons, however, the caste data could not get published even though Congress and other MPs demanded its release after your government came to power in May 2014,” Kharge added.

April 20,2023:Cuba’s National Assembly has ratified another five-year term for incumbent President Miguel Diaz-Canel, in a move expected to result in few changes as the country struggles with an economic crisis and an exodus of citizens.

“We must assume this gigantic challenge without slowing down,” Diaz-Canel, 62, said in a speech following his victory on Wednesday. He called upon his cabinet to “face up to obstacles and resolve inefficiencies” over the next five years.
Diaz-Canal won reelection with votes from 459 of the 462 legislators present. He first assumed the presidency in 2018 and has largely rejected proposed structural changes to Cuba’s political and economic system.

“He has proclaimed himself a president of continuity when what the country is asking for, and even the agenda of the Communist Party itself, is an agenda of continuous change,” Arturo Lopez-Levy, an analyst at the Autonomous University of Madrid, told the AFP news agency.

The legislators who voted to extend Diaz-Canal’s mandate only recently faced elections themselves last month for Cuba’s 470-member National Assembly.

Critics point out that Cuba’s government does not allow opposition challengers. Half of the candidates in March’s legislative election came from locally elected municipal assemblies, with the other half nominated by groups representing other segments of society such as labour unions.

However, all candidates are analysed by election committees with ties to the Communist Party, which critics allege does not allow true opposition.

April 18,2023:President Vladimir Putin has visited the Russian military headquarters in the eastern regions of Ukraine and discussed the war with a general in charge of airborne troops who reportedly took up a powerful new role in the invasion.

Putin attended an army command meeting in the southern Kherson region and heard reports on the situation there, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. He also visited the headquarters in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region.
The Kremlin also released a video of the visit showing Putin – dressed in a heavy blue jacket – taking a helicopter to Luhansk, but did not say when any of the meetings took place. On Sunday, Putin was in Moscow for a meeting with Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu.

Russia’s leader heard reports from commanders of the airborne forces and the “Dnieper” army group and other senior officers on the situation in Kherson and Zaporizhia regions – both of which Moscow has proclaimed part of Russia.

“It is important for me to hear your opinion on how the situation is developing, to listen to you, to exchange information,” Putin told the commanders.
British military intelligence said on Sunday that Teplinsky had been given a major role in the war.
Kherson and Zaporizhia are among four Ukrainian regions Russia annexed last September, although it does not fully control any of the areas, in a move condemned as illegal by Kyiv and its allies.