June 26, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“Allies reaffirm their sovereign commitment to support Ukraine, whose security contributes to our security, and to this end will include their direct donations to Ukraine’s defense and contributions to its defense industry in the calculation of their own defense spending,” reads the NATO Summit declaration.

Norway will provide Ukraine with more than $644 million to purchase drones from Ukrainian and other European manufacturers.

Germany will provide Ukraine with more than EUR 100 million for the production of long-range attack drones, including the An-196.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer has announced a new package of military aid to Ukraine, financed by the proceeds from frozen russian assets. The £70 million package includes 350 modern ASRAAM air-to-air missiles, modified to be launched from Raven ground-based launchers.

Ukraine and Denmark will jointly produce long-range drones and missiles. Denmark will also build a plant worth more than $47 million to produce Ukrainian weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of the “Build with Ukraine” initiative. The arms production will be financed by partners.

“For this (unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine), we need two things. First, we need continued support for Ukraine. The five Nordic countries have already pledged more than $15 billion in military aid in 2025. Secondly, increasing pressure on the russian military machine, which requires a large and coordinated package of sanctions on both sides of the Atlantic, accompanied by tariffs against russia,” said Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Iceland in a joint statement.

Lieutenant General Alexus Hrynkevich, the US nominee for Supreme Allied Commander Europe, has said that Ukraine can win the war against russia.

“It (russia) bombs, kills, violates international law, never taking responsibility for its actions. russia cannot continue to kill with impunity.” President of France Emmanuel Macron condemned the massive attack on Dnipro and russia’s strikes on other Ukrainian cities in recent weeks.

“We are active primarily in three central areas (in Ukraine): restoration of the destroyed infrastructure at various levels, especially in the energy sector. This is our main focus. The second is strengthening the local economy and providing employment opportunities at the municipal level. The third area of activity is advising the Ukrainian Government in the light of the EU membership process,” explained representative for the Executive Board of the German Society for International Cooperation Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel.

“Today, the strongest army among NATO countries is not from NATO, the strongest army is the Ukrainian Army. It is the most progressive, the only one that knows what war is about,” said former Deputy Chief of Staff of the NATO Response Force, retired Major General Michel Yacovleff. The General also pointed out that the deployment of an international military contingent in Ukraine, which is planned after the ceasefire is reached, would be the first operation in Europe without US participation and would radically change the security architecture of Europe.

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The decision of the NATO summit, adopted in The Hague with the support of US President Donald Trump, confirms russia’s status as a common threat to the entire Alliance.

NATO members, “in the face of profound security threats and challenges, in particular the long-term threat posed by russia to Euro-Atlantic security and the persistent threat of terrorism,” agreed on a new target for defense spending of 5 % of GDP.

President of Finland Alexander Stubb has called this year’s NATO Summit “historic” as the Alliance returns to a collective comprehensive defense system to deter russia, and countries increase their defense budgets to 5 %.

“We must fear that russia may continue the war beyond Ukraine. We must be so strong together that no one dares to attack us. We will make the Bundeswehr the most powerful conventional army in Europe,” said Chancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen believes that now is the time to increase pressure on russia to push it to a ceasefire in Ukraine. “putin is the only one who does not want a ceasefire, and now is the time to push him to do so,” she said.

“We know our neighbor very well. russia will pose a threat to NATO and the European Union until putin changes his goals,” said Prime Minister of Estonia Kristen Michal.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski has said that for his country, proximity to russia is the best argument to keep defense spending at a high level.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Caspar Veldkamp expects that by the end of the month the EU will adopt the 18th package of sanctions against russia.

Five countries bordering russia and belarus in the East of Europe, intend to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines to use them to protect their borders. The plan is to mine the entire border with russia from Finland to Poland.

russia has supported Iran with its “clear position”, – said russian president’s press secretary Peskov. At this, Tehran asked moscow for new air defense systems.

russia’s electricity exports to China have declined  by 44 %.

Starting July 1, the average electricity transmission tariff for businesses will exceed the all-russian ceiling of 11.6 % in 45 regions, and for households – in 53 regions.

Barley exports from russia in the ending agricultural year amounted to 3.6 million tons. This is half as much in annual terms.

Prices for ferrous scrap in the rf have decreased to their lowest level in three years. There is a possibility that  30 % of scrap metal enterprises will be shut up.

The volume of purchases of lift equipment in russia as part of regional overhaul programs in January-June decreased by 8.5 % year-on-year. At this, the authorities are optimizing costs by purchasing cheaper products. In total, 605,000 lifts are in operation in russia, of which 25,000 have already worked for a quarter of a century and need to be replaced. Another 60,000 will reach the end of their service life by 2030. In total, 436 billion rubles are needed to replace them, so the current expenditures of regional authorities are clearly insufficient.

In May, 1,409 new UAZ vehicles were sold in russia. This is by 40 % fewer than in the same period last year. In five months of 2025, UAZ sold 8.4 thousand new cars. This is by 33 % fewer than in the same period last year.

“Rostekh” CEO Chemezov has called expensive loans “the key reason” why the company has frozen the construction of three waste incinerators. The Central Bank of the rf raised the rate to a record high in October 2024, while the plants in question were supposed to start operating in 2022.

Microfinance organizations that provide payday loans to russians at 292 % per annum have sold a record amount of overdue debts to collectors over the past three years. Between January and May, they transferred RUB 38.4 billion in overdue debts to companies specializing in debt collection. This is by 19 % more than in the same period last year and by 73 % more than in 2023.

At least a third of russians – pensioners and public sector employees – do not feel their financial well-being has improved. As the indexation of their benefits fails to keep pace with inflation and basic food prices rise rapidly, people are forced to cut back on consumption or switch to lower-quality goods, which affects their standard of living. Food, which makes up about 40 % of the russian consumer basket, is rising in price faster than overall inflation.

Kemerovo region continues to reduce coal production and exports. In January-May, Kuzbass coal miners produced 81.8 million tons of coal, less by 6.1 % year-on-year. In the first five months of the year, 43.6 million tons of coal were exported, by 2.6 % less compared to January-May 2024. The eastbound shipment amounted to 23.1 million tons (down by 1 %) while the northwestbound shipment amounted to 14 million tons (down by 15 %). The coal production and exports have been declining in the region since the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

members of the state duma of the rf have approved a draft law which would ban the issuance of rental certificates for films which, in the opinion of the authorities, contain elements of “denial or discredit of russian spiritual values”.

Post offices began to close in russian regions due to massive layoffs of employees who are dissatisfied with their meager salaries.

The former head of the “roskosmos” state corporation, Senator Dmitry Rogozin, has threatened to send the participants of the KVN, who made an unfortunate joke about his doctoral dissertation, to the zone of the so-called “special military operation” against Ukraine.

russians will be deprived of their driving licenses for a year for “disrespect” for special vehicles with flashing lights. This is not about ambulances, but about the comfort of “state security objects”.

History textbooks in the CIS countries have negative interpretations of russia’s role, said minister of education of the rf Kravtsov. “First of all, this concerns our common past, the period when the republics were part of the Soviet Union, which actually have negative attitude to russia,” the minister said. Please, be reminded that the russian educator writes with mistakes. In particular, he congratulated the “Artek” children’s camp, located in the temporarily occupied Crimea, without the letter “д” in the russian word “праздник” (“holiday” – Transl.).

The PACE resolution “Legal and Human Rights Aspects of the russian federation’s Aggression Against Ukraine” includes an addition regarding lukashenko’s responsibility for the transfer of Ukrainian children from the territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by russia to belarus, as well as through belarus to russia. “As of August 14, 2024, at least 3,500 Ukrainian children had been forcibly transferred through or to the territory of belarus, where they had been subjected to russian political, military and religious indoctrination. This displacement was carried out on lukashenko’s direct order”, reads the document.

lukashenko has said that sanctions restrictions “only stimulate the joint search for effective solutions”, although they still should be lifted.

The government of the rb continues to manually control pricing and intends to introduce changes to the operation of markets. From now on, sellers must have a document that “justifies the calculation of retail prices for goods”.

Homosexuality is a “mental disorder” that was excluded from the international classification of diseases “for money”, – said secretary general of the belarusian Red Cross Shevtsov.