May 3, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The US Air Force has handed over decommissioned F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine for spare parts for combat aircrafts already provided by European partners.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that signing an agreement with Ukraine to establish the US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund would be a step toward ending the war unleashed by the rf.

White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt has said that the agreement on the establishment of the US-Ukraine Investment Fund demonstrates Washington’s long-term commitment to cooperation with Kyiv.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Noël Barrot has announced his country’s readiness to cooperate with Ukraine in the field of mining.

Chancellor of the FRG Olaf Scholz is pessimistic about the continuation of US military support for Ukraine.

“We welcome the agreement reached yesterday, which takes into consideration, among other things, the process of Ukraine’s accession to the EU and EU legislation, which is obviously of key importance,” said Paola Piño, Chief Spokesperson for the European Commission.

“Only Ukraine can decide its future – russia has no right to impose its conditions,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Kęstutis Budrys.

Next week, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will take part in a European Parliament debate in Strasbourg, France, on establishing a just peace in Ukraine.

The Belgian financial company Euroclear intends to confiscate about EUR 3 billion of frozen russian assets and and redistribute them to affected investors after moscow seized their money in russia.

Luxembourg will allocate EUR 1 million for psychosocial support for Ukrainian adolescents and youth.

rf

The European Union is developing the 17th package of sanctions against russia and is coordinating the introduction of new restrictions with the US authorities. This was stated by Minister of Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Noël Barrot.

The European Union and the United States have agreed to coordinate “crippling” sanctions against moscow for disrupting peace talks.

“The EU has made it absolutely clear to our partners, including candidate countries such as Serbia, that relations with russia cannot remain business as usual under the putin regime and in the shadow of russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine,” said Spokesman for the European Commission Marcus Lammert.

Economic growth in russia has slowed down sharply, the ministry of economic development has reported on the results of the first quarter. Between January and March, russian GDP grew by 1.7 %, 2.6 times less than a quarter earlier (4.5 %). Industrial growth decreased more than 5 times – from 5.7 % to 1.1 %, retail turnover growth almost halved (from 5.5 % to 3.2 %), and wholesale trade began to decline for the first time since winter 2023 – by 2.1 % a quarter. The decline in mining accelerated fourfold, from 0.9 % at the end of last year to 3.7 %, while the non-resource industry began to grow twice as slowly – by 4.7 % in January-March compared to 10.7 % in October-December.

In the first quarter of 2025, the ministry of internal affairs of the rf detected 60.7 thousand crimes related to drug trafficking. This is by 32.3 % more than in January-March last year. At this, sales increased by 51.6 % – from 29.4 thousand to 45.6 thousand cases, and its share in the structure of drug crimes increased from 64.2 % to 73.4 %.

rosgvardia (russian national guard – Transl.) has received a batch of electronic warfare systems “Vyzhigatel” from China, which turned out to be counterfeit and did not perform the function of countering drones. The total value of the supply of non-working equipment exceeded 820 million rubles.

In 2024, the amount of content on Google’s platforms that the russian authorities demanded to be removed increased by 20 % to 784,000. This figure was a record since 2009.

Belarus ranks 166th out of 180 in the press freedom ranking. This is stated in the report of the authoritative international organization Reporters Without Borders. During the year, the country moved up one position, having overtaken russia (171). For several years now, the rb has been ranked at the bottom of the list: in 2021, it was 158th, in 2022 – 155th, in 2023 – 157th, and in 2024 – 167th.