The Russian military announced on Thursday that it had launched assaults on Ukrainian forces across several fronts, while Ukraine said its forces drove back Russian offensives in multiple locations.
According to Russia's Ministry of Defense, Russian troops had destroyed Ukraine's military airport infrastructure, drone assembly and storage facilities and ammunition depots over the past 24 hours. Moreover, Russia's air defense has downed one aerial bomb, multiple HIMARS rockets and dozens of drones, said the ministry, adding that Russian troops also continued the fight against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk Oblast on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported over 100 combat clashes as of Thursday afternoon. It said that Ukrainian forces had successfully repelled multiple Russian offensives in areas including Kharkiv, Pokrovsk, and Kurakhove.
Intense fighting continues between Russia, Ukraine across several battlefields
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) reported significant progress in its re-lending programs for technology innovation and equipment renewal on Thursday, with relevant contracts worth nearly 1 trillion yuan (about 140 billion U.S. dollars) signed.
By the end of 2024, China's commercial banks had signed loan contracts with a total value of 115 billion yuan (about 16 billion U.S. dollars) with over 5,000 science and technology enterprises, and disbursed loans of nearly 50 billion yuan (about 6.8 billion U.S. dollars) to enhanced the financing accessibility for medium and small-sized sci-tech companies, according to the latest data from the PBOC.
Financial support for large-scale equipment renewal has also made notable progress, with continuous growth in loan signings and implementations.
By the end of 2024, the commercial banks had engaged with 22,000 equipment renewal projects in China, basically achieving full financing coverage, and signed loan contracts with enterprises, providing 800 billion yuan (about 109 U.S. dollars) for them to draw funds at any time.
At the year-end, the weighted average interest rate for equipment renewal loans was 3 percent, and the actual financing cost was reduced to 1.5 percent, combined with central government subsidies. 。 The PBOC said it will further optimize the re-lending process, expand the scale of equipment renewal loans, and stimulate market entities to unleash demand for equipment renewal.
China sees progress in re-lending programs for tech innovation, equipment renewal
