What Kyiv and Moscow's corporate moves looked like by 19 July 2023
A look back at two developments in the days before 19 July 2023: new South Korean aid for Ukraine and a Russian state takeover of Western-owned business assets.
What had changed in the days leading up to 19 July 2023? Two developments, one in Kyiv and one in Moscow, pointed in different directions.
On 15 July 2023, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol made an unannounced visit to Kyiv and met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He announced that South Korea would pledge US$150 million in additional aid to Ukraine.
On 16 July 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised a temporary state takeover of the shares of French agribusiness Danone and of Baltika, a brewer owned by Carlsberg. The move was part of a wider response to private companies, these two among them, that had been reducing their business operations in Russia during the war in Ukraine.
The decisions reflected the wider corporate picture of the war. Many private companies had ceased operations in Russia, or had donated or matched donations to the Ukrainian government or Ukrainian organisations, after Russia's seizure of Ukrainian territory in 2014 and 2022. Others had applied various sanctions.
