May 7, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Ukraine and NATO are joining forces to strengthen counteraction to fiber-optic FPV drones. The key areas of cooperation will be detection and prioritization systems (radar, optical, acoustic, thermal, hybrid), fast and accurate tracking of small high-speed targets, kinetic and non-kinetic weapons systems (including directed energy, nets, and smart munitions).

“America can use various economic instruments to force russia to respect certain actions. So if anyone is in a position to force  putin to make peace, it is America, the President of the United States,” President of Poland Andrzej Duda called on US President Donald Trump to increase economic pressure on russia.

Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk has said that it is unacceptable for European leaders to visit moscow on May 9 while russia is waging a full-scale war against Ukraine. “...No European has the right to pretend that they do not see where the threat lies and how important it is to preserve solidarity and the European community,” he emphasized.

“Right now, on the eastern border of Europe, we are witnessing Ukraine fighting a fierce battle for its continued existence as a nation and for its own peace and security. The threat from russia goes beyond Ukraine and is increasingly manifesting itself in hybrid forms,” said Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer and President of France Emmanuel Macron have called on russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire.

“In any case, I look forward to working with President Erdogan to end the senseless but deadly war between russia and Ukraine – now!” said  US President Donald Trump about the results of his conversation with President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations will allocate $150 million to support rural communities in Ukraine affected by the war.

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The UK authorities have begun preparing for russia’s  military attack and are developing an updated version of the war plan, which was last revised in 2005. The document  is called the National Defense Plan. It will define the sequence of actions in the first days of a conflict if the UK is attacked.

A survey by the British research company YouGov has shown that a significant number of Western Europeans believe that World War III will break out in the next 5–10 years. 41  to 55  % of respondents in Europe consider the likelihood of a new war to be “high” or “quite high”. 72 to 82 % of respondents in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain named russia as the main source of threat.

Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digitalization Krzysztof Gawkowski has said that the country is facing russia’s  unprecedented attempt to interfere in the presidential election. According to him, this is happening through “the spread of disinformation combined with hybrid attacks on Poland’s critical infrastructure in order to paralyze the normal functioning of the state.” He pointed out that the attacks were aimed at water utilities, thermal power plants, energy supply facilities and public administration bodies. The level of the russian cyber threat in Poland has more than doubled compared to last year.

The Military Intelligence and Security Service of Latvia emphasizes that russia has stepped up surveillance of NATO military activity in the Baltic Sea, as well as demonstrations of force and provocations.

Lithuania will spend almost EUR 1 billion to mine the border with russia and belarus.

The Attorney General of Canada has started the procedure of confiscation of the AN-124 “Ruslan” aircraft belonging to the russian airline “volga-Dnepr” and located at the Toronto-Pearson airport.

russia’s budget deficit has doubled from 1.8 to 3.6 trillion rubles due to declining oil and gas revenues, and the russian authorities are considering forced cuts in federal budget expenditures. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the kremlin has spent two-thirds of the NWF’s free money on patching up budget holes and injecting money into state corporations, so,  as of April, the fund was left with only $39.5 billion in liquid assets.

The price of russian oil in rubles has decreased  below four thousand rubles a barrel, the lowest level in the last two years and by 40 % less than budgeted. The average price of a blend of urals and ESPO fell to $48.92 or 3.9 thousand rubles a barrel, while the state budget of the rf was calculated at 6.7 thousand rubles.

Mobile operators in the rf  will start providing the fsb and the ministry of internal affairs with full names, passport details and residential addresses of subscribers. They will do this at siloviki’s request and through the interagency electronic interaction system, which is connected to government agencies, banks, insurance companies, operators, etc.

Most cable cars in russia pose a danger to users due to problems with foreign software that stopped being updated after companies withdrew due to the war in Ukraine.

russia is facing an acute shortage of physics and chemistry teachers, – said member  of the  state duma oksana dmitrieva. According to her, the situation is so serious that in a number of secondary schools there is simply nobody to teach these subjects: “Every fourth school has no teachers of physics, and four out of ten schools have no chemistry teachers.” Over the past 20 years, the number of teachers of physics in the rf  has halved: from 61,100 in 2002 to 31,000 in the 2022/23 school year. More than 30 % of them are of retirement age.

As of the end of 2024, 20 % of large families in russia were below the poverty line. In total, 2.65 million families across russia now have three or more children. Thus, more than 500 thousand of them live with incomes below the poverty line.

The State Border Guard Service of  Lithuania has  reported that a group of migrants threw stones and sticks at Lithuanian border guards after having been  denied  the entry from the territory  of the rf.

According to the IMF, in 2014, belarus’ GDP in terms of US currency amounted to $78.7 billion.  In 2024, it was just under 71.2 billion. During the same period, the figure grew by 43 % in Latvia, by 75 % – in Lithuania, and by 67 %  – in Poland. In russia, the growth was 5.5 %, in Ukraine – 42 %.

After the start of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, only 15-20 % of belarusians have pro-European views. At this, 66 % of belarusian citizens adhere to pro-russian guidelines.

A significant part of the propaganda book “The genocide of the belarusian people”,  edited by the lukashenko regime’s prosecutor general andrei shved, is devoted to the events of 2020, which are presented under the label of collaborationism and neo-Nazism. This section takes up more space in the book than the actual chapter on Nazi crimes during World War II.

Independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council have called on minsk to release belarusian political prisoners with disabilities and serious health problems.

The rb continues to have problems with potatoes in shops, which began in February. In some shops, belarusian potatoes are more expensive than Iranian watermelons.

belarusian sugar factories have lost more than a quarter of their profits in the struggle against prices. In 2024, Slutsk sugar refinery saw its profits decline by 8.7 %, Gorodeya sugar refinery – by 23.9 %, and Zhabinka sugar plant – by 34.8 %. In total, in 2024, sugar factories earned by 25 % less profit than in 2023.