Russians killed an elderly man in Chernihiv Oblast
Viacheslav Chaus, head of the Chernihiv Oblast Military Administration, reported that a 74-year-old man was killed as a result of Russian artillery shelling the city of Semenivka in the Chernihiv Oblast on December 17, 2024.
Russians also damaged a residential building.
In total, over the past day, Russian forces struck the territory of Chernihiv Oblast 18 times. Local authorities recorded a total of 40 explosions.
By way of background, Ukraine urges the international community to unite in restoring global security under the UN Charter and strengthen sanctions against Russia to enforce compliance with international law. Following Russia’s initial invasion in 2014, Ukraine has pursued the liberation of its territories within its internationally recognized 1991 borders, while developing comprehensive reintegration strategies and policies for all liberated areas.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced that the United States has granted an exemption from sanctions against Gazprombank, allowing Hungary and Turkey to pay for Russian gas.
Bloomberg revealed that suppliers supporting Russia’s defense industry have discovered a sanctions loophole to purchase microchips from US-based Texas Instruments (TI), circumventing existing international restrictions.
Bloomberg revealed that certain Russian distributors have integrated information from Texas Instruments’ online store, TI Store, into their trading platforms.
This integration allows Russian customers to view details about semiconductor stock availability and prices. They then place orders, which are fulfilled and delivered through companies located outside Russia, the report states.
Most orders were processed through websites like getchips.ru and altchips.ru – platforms blocked in the US and Europe but still accessible within Russia. These sites mirror the product listings from Texas Instruments’ official online store, facilitating seamless procurement.
Sources cited by Bloomberg suggest that Russian distributors may have gained access to the company’s proprietary application programming interface (API), a technical tool that enables software to communicate and exchange data.
Earlier, over 1,300 Russian military companies and 2 million industry workers still operate, many of them without international restrictions, a member of the Sanctions Policy Working Group of the Crimean Platform Expert Network, Bohdan Bernatskyy, told at the Third Parliamentary Summit of the Crimea Platform in Riga.