May 17, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Minister of Defence of Norway Tore Sandvik has assured that his country will have delivered all the promised F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine by the end of 2025.

Poland is preparing another EUR 200 million package of military aid for Ukraine, which will be transferred to our country in the coming months.

Poland’s Ambassador to Ukraine Piotr Łukasiewicz has said that it is possible that his country will transfer Soviet MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Kęstutis Budrys believes that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should be invited to the NATO summit in the Hague in June. “In the Hague, we have to agree on providing Ukraine with EUR 40 billion in military aid, because its forces are the first line of defense. We must support them because it is an investment in the security of the whole of Europe,” he said.

Chairperson of the EU Military Committee Robert Brieger has announced that the European Union plans to double the supply of large-caliber ammunition to Ukraine this year.

“We are at a critical stage when weapons must be silenced and peace must be established in Ukraine. Today, as before, we support all efforts to reach a solution, with a comprehensive ceasefire as our priority,” said President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

President of France Emmanuel Macron believes that it is necessary to continue “intensifying pressure” on russia, as it does not want  to cease fire.

Chancellor of the FRG Friedrich Merz welcomed the first direct talks between Ukraine and russia since 2022 in Istanbul. “The fact that they met today for the first time in three and a half years is a very small but first positive signal,” said the Federal Chancellor of Germany.

Increasing pressure on the rf is the main topic of the European political community summit in Tirana.

Pope Leo XIV offers the Vatican as a platform for Ukraine – russia negotiations.

The European Union is developing new sanctions against russia to increase pressure on putin, – said President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer has accused putin of sabotaging peace efforts after he refused to come to talks with Ukraine in Istanbul.

Chancellor of the FRG Friedrich Merz has said that Europe is ready to “use all opportunities” to force russia to peace and support Ukraine. “We are talking about further sanctions in the energy sector, the banking sector, as well as further steps against assets and sanctions against individuals. We are now working on this together with our European partners,” Merz said. He clarified that the issue of confiscation of frozen russian assets is also being discussed.

Advisor to the President of Lithuania Deividas Matulionis believes that russia does not really want a peace agreement with Ukraine, otherwise putin would have participated in the negotiations in person.

The European Union has adjusted the criteria used to evaluate the possibility of removing russian oligarchs from sanctions lists. The reason for the toughening was the attempts of those on the sanctions lists to challenge the sanctions in the Court of Justice of the European Union, claiming that they were “unlawful.” According to the updated procedure, the EU refuses to automatically consider the statements of sanctioned persons regarding the sale of assets after February 24, 2022, the date of the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine, as reliable. Now, to be removed from the sanctions list, it is not enough to state that the person has exited the business or transferred assets: it is necessary to provide “sufficient, timely and reliable” evidence that the person no longer falls under the sanctions criteria. In addition, in the absence of convincing information about the authenticity of such transactions, sanctions may be extended to third parties, both individuals and legal entities, who participated in the transfer of assets.

Planning to further reduce the upper limit of the oil price to put pressure on russia, the European Union expects that this measure will be supported by other international partners from the Group of Seven (G7). This was stated by Head of the European Commission’s Press Office Paula Piño.

She also added that the European Union intends to impose sanctions on the operators of the “nord stream 1” and “nord stream 2” projects to transport russian gas to Europe in order to discourage investors from supporting them in the future.

The Defence Intelligence and Security Service (MIDD) of Latvia has provided a list of recommendations that can help identify a potential russian agent. These include an untidy appearance, inappropriate military or sportswear, and a tendency to ask locals “suspicious questions”.

russia tried to spy on communications during NATO exercise in Lithuania – Bundeswehr Inspector General Carsten Breuer sees this as proof of the real threat from moscow.

The Syrian Ports Authority has signed a memorandum with the world’s largest port operator DP World (UAE), under which $800 million will be invested in the development of the terminal and logistics services of the port of Tartus. The new agreement was signed after the termination of the agreement with russia on joint management of the port with the Syrian government.

The political bloc of the putin administration recommended that the controlled media prepare the audience for the failure of the russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul. It refers in particular to a “new package of sanctions” that will be applied in case of sabotage of the peace process. Propaganda outlets are encouraged to say that the new sanctions “will not harm the country's development” and that the budget has already been “prepared with them in mind”. Loyal media outlets, according to the guidelines, are instructed to persuade the audience that russia is “successfully coping with the challenges of any sanctions”, including those on the energy sector, which, as the document says, is “developing steadily”.

The government’s subcommittee on control over foreign investments in the rf has not yet received any applications for foreign companies to return to the country, and non-residents continue to leave, – said deputy minister of finance ivan chebeskov.

The rapid acceleration of inflation after the economy was pumped up by trillion-dollar war spending has hit the pockets of russian consumers. In April 2025, the share of expenditures by russian citizens on food reached its highest level since the beginning of the full-scale war against Ukraine. On average, consumers spent 34.6 % of their expenditures on food, compared to 33 % at the beginning of the year and 28.6 % in April 2014. This figure is a record high for 5 years.

The russian server hardware market in 2024 showed a decline by more than 15 %, to 147 thousand devices sold. In monetary terms, growth was less than 1 %.

“rusal”’s board of directors recommended not paying the final dividend for 2024. The last time “rusal” paid interim dividends was in the first half of 2022.

Members of the state duma have called for “eventually” blocking the online encyclopedia Wikipedia in russia, which, in their opinion, distorts history in an anti-russian spirit.

Two russian IT companies – the developer of the “avroid” application for the russian operating system “avrora” and “giperus” server software – filed for bankruptcy in early May this year. The reason is attributed to the difficult financial situation caused by the small number of devices running on the “avrora”, which was positioned as an “Android killer”. The company’s debt to creditors reached almost 1 billion rubles.

Seven monuments to stalin were opened in russia in the first weeks of May. This pace has become a record since the days of the cult of personality of the soviet dictator.

The russian prosecutor general’s office has declared the Estonian human rights organization Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity undesirable in the country. The agency accused the Coalition of “propagating anti-russian views”, of holding events that “discredit russia’s domestic and foreign health policy”, as well as of “imposing Western ideology that does not correspond to traditional values” and of cooperating with structures that promote LGBT people.

The Novgorod district court has fined a resident of the region under a protocol on demonstration of extremist symbols. The reason for the protocol was a picture with a meme about Pepe the Frog in a rainbow clown wig. The court recognized this as a demonstration of LGBT symbols.

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has extended the suspension of russian and belarusian national teams and clubs.

In 2024, the EU countries imported $1.38 billion worth of products from belarus. This is the lowest figure in more than a decade. At the same time, exports from the EU to belarus amounted to $7.39 billion.