June 6, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action.

Defense support for Ukraine based  on the “Danish model” will increase to EUR 1.3 billion in 2025.

Belgium will provide annual assistance to Ukraine worth EUR 1 billion till 2029 and a mine countermeasures ship.

Norway is allocating $700 million for drones for Ukraine and $50 million to the NSATU Trust Fund to support Ukraine.

Sweden is allocating EUR 50 million for the NSATU (NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine) and NATO CAP (Comprehensive Assistance Package) projects for Ukraine, which train Ukrainian military servicemen and support Ukraine.

The European Council accepted Norway’s voluntary financial contribution of one billion Norwegian kroner (EUR 86 million) to support the Ukrainian Army through the European Peace Fund.

Minister of Defence of the Netherlands Ruben Brekelmans has announced that his country will provide Ukraine with a large package of military aid in the field of maritime security totaling EUR 400 million, which will include more than 100 ships, patrol boats, transport boats, interceptors, special operations ships, 50 sea drones, as well as weapons systems, sensors, spare parts and training for Ukrainian specialists.

Canada will provide Ukraine with $45 million for drones, electronic warfare equipment, IT solutions, and Coyote and Bison armored vehicles.

Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Turkey, and Estonia have joined the Electronic Warfare Coalition.

Lithuania has simplified the procurement of weapons from its manufacturers, including for Ukraine.

At a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (Ramstein format), the partner countries agreed to create a mechanism for defense production: “Ukrainian producers can invest in partner countries, and companies from partner countries can build their mega-factories in Ukraine.” The Western partners also offer to pay for the production of weapons on their territory and to supply the products to the Ukrainian Armed Forces as long as the war lasts.

The United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund may be launched by the end of the year. Against the background of this news, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has reaffirmed the United States’ support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and efforts to achieve a lasting, durable peace. “No one who financed or supplied the russian war machine should be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine,” Bessent added.

Ukraine and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have signed a loan agreement to provide Ukraine with financial assistance in the amount of 471.9 billion Japanese yen (over three billion US dollars), which will be serviced from frozen russian assets.

“This war must end. Ukraine is demonstrating constructiveness in the negotiations. To put pressure on russia, we need tougher sanctions from both the US Congress and the European Union,” said President of Finland Alexander Stubb.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavský has reiterated his call to increase sanctions pressure on russia to force it to make peace.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway Espen Barth Eide has pointed out that russia’s behavior in the negotiations with Ukraine shows that the kremlin is not interested in any agreements.

The EU has extended the lifting of restrictions on imports of Ukrainian steel and iron for another three years.

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“...given putin’s behaviour and refusal to be reasonable, the Senate will soon provide President Donald Trump with more tools in his toolbox, and they will not be carrots,” said US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

“The Europeans keep telling us that russia is the biggest threat, and we agree, in the Euro-Atlantic space, it is,” said US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has said that the EU is ready to unite with the United States and simultaneously impose sanctions on russia to force putin to enter into peace talks. The EU is currently planning the 18th package of sanctions against the rf: “We are primarily concerned with sanctioning russian energy and drying up russia’s sources of finance.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the FRG Johann Wadephul believes that russia has not demonstrated readiness for a dialogue on a settlement in Ukraine. In view of this, he called for the adoption of the 18th package of EU sanctions against the rf as soon as possible.

The Parliament of Finland has supported the extension of the state of emergency, which allows the country to reject asylum applications from migrants crossing the border with russia.

The government of the rf is increasingly worried that the “controlled cooling” of the economy, as deputy prime minister novak called it, could become unmanageable. The economy is slowing down sharply after two years of rapid growth, said minister of economic development reshetnikov: “We see more and more real sector industries showing a decline in output. The growth rate of consumer demand is slowing down.”

The liquid part of the russian national wealth fund decreased by almost 500 billion rubles, or $4.2 billion, in May.

Falling commodity prices, tougher sanctions and the rf central bank’s record-breaking rate since the early 2000s have hit the finances of russia’s largest companies. In March, the balanced financial result of russian organizations (profit minus loss) plummeted by 34 % to 1.45 trillion rubles. Compared to the same month last year, businesses lost about 750 billion rubles in profits, and every third company operating in russia became unprofitable.

In the raw material heart of the russian economy – oil and gas production – balanced profits almost halved (to 789.5 billion rubles), and 40 % of enterprises closed in the red in the first quarter. Food producers lost more than 13 % of their balanced profits, clothing factories lost almost 30 %, and the furniture industry – 33 %. The profits of construction companies decreased  by a third. The financial result of oil refineries declined by 94 %, or more than 17 times.

The coal industry remained deeply unprofitable, with two-thirds of companies already in the red: the balanced loss of coal miners over three months reached 79.9 billion rubles and is approaching the figure for the entire last year (112.6 billion).

In May, russian steel and pipe producers shipped 1.8 million tons of metal for export via the “russian railways” network, down by 10 % from April. Exports of steel billets amounted to 980.4 thousand tons compared to 1.04 million tons in April, and of pig iron – 185.1 thousand tons, which is by 25 % lower than the 245.3 thousand tons shipped in April.

The growth of real wages in the rf in March 2025 slowed  down to 0.1 % in annual terms.

russian wheat exports will decline by 20 % this season.

The prosecutor general’s office of the rf has declared the work of the British Council, the organizer of the IELTS English language test, undesirable. The agency claims that the Council members are implementing projects “to systematically discredit the domestic and foreign policy of the rf” as well as to promote British interests and values in the field of education, culture and youth policy.

The ministry of digital development, communications and mass media of the rf has proposed to ban calls from foreign SIM cards. The ban will be introduced by default.

The Lithuanian Government has approved a draft law that would introduce a national regime of economic sanctions against belarus and russia. It will now be considered by the Seimas. The draft law was proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It provides for the Government to be empowered to impose sanctions on individuals and companies, freeze their assets and apply sectoral sanctions. Lithuania wants to apply the regime of national sanctions if the EU does not extend the restrictions on the rf and the rb imposed because of russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Poland stops 97-98 % of migrants’ attempts to cross the border. This was announced by Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration Tomasz Siemoniak. According to him, the situation on the border with the rb remains tense.