Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Germany and Norway are ready to buy three Patriot air defence systems for Ukraine from an American manufacturer.

The European Commission, in partnership with Ukraine, has announced the launch of the BraveTech EU initiative to promote defense innovations through the use of battlefield-proven technologies and strengthen cooperation between the EU and Ukraine.

Italy is allocating EUR 1 million to strengthen Ukraine’s cybersecurity.

Switzerland considers Ukraine’s recovery a strategic priority and plans to allocate five billion francs until 2036. The new bilateral agreement provides our country with non-repayable financial and technical assistance for the purchase of goods and services from Swiss companies for reconstruction projects in the energy, transport, engineering, construction, water supply, and emergency response sectors.

Ukraine has signed an agreement with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association to launch a five-year, $200 million PREPARE Ukraine program to prepare state and municipal reconstruction projects.

Italy will provide Ukraine with more than EUR 30 million in non-repayable aid to restore the cultural heritage of Odesa region.

Lithuania will provide EUR 21 million to implement initiatives to restore infrastructure, improve learning outcomes, and modernize educational services for Ukrainian children and youth.

Ukraine, together with the American company Fluence, has launched a large-scale project of energy storage systems with a total capacity of 200 MW at six locations in Ukraine.

German defense concern Rheinmetall has provided Ukraine with another mobile rescue station.

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The United States feels disappointment and frustration over the lack of progress in peace talks on Ukraine. This was stated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio following a meeting with the minister of foreign affairs of russia.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Kęstutis Budrys believes that there are prospects that coordinated actions by the United States and the European Union will increase pressure on russia. According to him, significant progress can be made in the coming weeks.

russia is obliged to compensate Ukraine for the damage caused during the full-scale war, – said Chancellor of the FRG Friedrich Merz. Berlin estimates that the damage amounts to about EUR 500 billion. “russia must compensate for this material damage. Until this happens, it will not and should not have access to the frozen russian assets,” Merz emphasized.

Chief of the Defense Staff of the French Armed Forces, General Thierry Burkhard believes that russia is a long-term and large-scale threat to the country and that the kremlin has determined France as “one of its priority targets.” He pointed out that russia is one way or another involved in all threats to the country and represents “a long-term, close and most multidimensional threat”. The General has pointed out that the russian threat is manifested in all spheres – in the air, in space, at sea, and in cyberspace.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski, commenting on relations with russia, said that it was moscow that chose to be the enemy of the West. He emphasized that “if russia spies, sends arsonists here, threatens us, including with nuclear weapons, then russia has decided that it is the enemy of the West.”

The European Commission may propose a “smooth” upper limit on the price of russian oil as part of a new draft 18th sanctions package.

The ministry of industry and trade of the rf will cut 5fold the spending on the state program “Development of the Electronic and Radioelectronic Industry”, under which the authorities intended to increase the share of russian goods in the electronics market to 40 %. The program budget will be reduced from 26.5 billion rubles in 2024 to 4.9 billion in 2026.

In 2024, one third of russians (34 %) could not buy the medicines they needed. More than half of them (54 %) did not have enough money to do so, while the rest could not find the medicine they needed on sale. At the same time, 75 % of russians experienced a significant increase in medicines prices last year.

Amid the shortages of medications, russian regions purchased 10 billion rubles worth of homeopathy and herbal medicines, such as plantain, chamomile, and oak bark, – to treat cancer patients.

The authorities of Belgorod region have begun to sue local residents to reduce the amount of compensation for housing destroyed by shelling.

A “tax on old age” should be established for childless russians to compensate for the state’s expenses for their support after retirement, said Gurulev, a member of the State Duma Committee on Regional Policy and Local Self-Government.

In January–May 2025, russia exported food and agricultural raw materials (except for textiles) by 13.7 % less than in the same period last year.

In the second quarter of 2025, 138,847 citizens of the rf received bankruptcy status through the courts, while 15,891 russians received it out of court, which is by 36.5 % and 25.5 % more than in the same period a year earlier respectively. The number of judicial bankruptcies of russians increased by 35.7 % over the six months and amounted to 259.8 thousand, while the total number of out-of-court procedures (+24.6 % in January–June) amounted to 291.3 thousand against 216.8 thousand a year ago.

Due to rising prices, the St. Petersburg metro (underground railway- Transl.) will purchase half the number of carriages planned. Out of 950 new railway carriages in the next five years, the metro will receive only 494 new carriages under the current leasing contract. At the same time, some of the railway carriages operating on the lines are already 45 years old.

The share of non-purpose loans secured by property in the first half of 2025 reached a maximum and amounted to 22.6 billion rubles. This is 15.5 % of the total volume of cash loans – the highest figure since the beginning of 2023. Over the year, the share of such loans increased by 10 %. The main reason for the growth was the high key policy rate and tougher regulation of retail lending.

A court in Chelyabinsk has nationalized “Yuzhuralzoloto” – one of russia’s largest gold mining companies. The documents state that the owner Strukov “effectively monopolized the strategic gold mining industry in Ural and other federal districts.” In 2019, the businessman declared an income of 4.46 billion rubles, which put him on the Forbes list of the richest civil servants and MPs.

lukashenko’s regime has added 45 more names to the “list of extremists” which now includes 5,511 people. Most of those added were convicted under the “people’s” Article 342 of the Criminal Code, related to participation in protests.

Annual inflation in belarus accelerated to 7.3 % in June. At this, food prices rose by 10.5  %.

At the opening of the “Slavic Bazaar” festival, lukashenko said that he had been studying artificial intelligence “as soon as it appeared”. He advised to “keep your head in your own hands” because “as soon as someone takes your head, we will be done with”.

State Secretary of the union state of the rf and the rb Glazyev believes that belarus and russia should develop artificial intelligence based on traditional values. In his opinion, the AI of other countries has alien values. This thought was prompted by the Grok neural network, which, according to him, “fell into racism, Nazism and glorification of fascism”.