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

“The bottom line is that putin has to sell his oil. He sells it to China. He sells it to India. He sells it to Brazil. And these countries are now going to be quite significantly affected because they are doing business with russia, and russia will have no friends. It will have no trading partners. And its ability to finance this war will end,” US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said that US President Donald Trump still has leverage to bring the war in Ukraine to a diplomatic end.

US Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, responded to the rhetoric of deputy chairman of the security council of the rf medvedev by addressing the russians and emphasizing that US President Trump seeks peace not conflict, but is ready to take decisive actions if necessary.

US President Donald Trump has said that the United States is fully prepared for a nuclear conflict with russia. Trump has confirmed that he has ordered the deployment of US nuclear submarines following medvedev’s statements.

The United States and NATO are working on a new approach to supplying Ukraine with weapons, based on paying for American weapons with funds from European allies.

“This is great news and I welcome Germany’s leadership! This will help ensure Ukraine is able to defend its skies, protect its people and deter russia’s aggression,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte commented on Germany’s decision to provide Ukraine with two additional Patriot air defense systems.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski has announced work on the next two military aid packages for Ukraine.

“My sober assessment is that putin is not ready to seriously negotiate. He still has maximalist and imperialist ambitions. The battle Ukraine has fought, with UK, European and American support, is immense,” said David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom.

russian businesses have faced a new wave of problems in the United Arab Emirates, which after the war became a major hub for parallel imports and financial ties between russia and the outside world. In recent months, UAE banks have launched a “purge” of companies from russia, the number of which has exceeded 4,000 in the country, and have tightened control over payments.  20 % to 30 % of russian companies in the UAE have faced audits, transaction restrictions or direct account closures. The UAE seeks to identify clients whose activities have little or no connection to the country. In addition, banks monitor compliance with sanctions: accounts are closed not only for sanctioned companies, but also for those who work with counterparties on the blacklists of the USA, EU, and UK.

The trade turnover between russia and Bulgaria in 2024 amounted to $1 billion, which is by 74 % less than in 2023, when it reached $4.2 billion.

In its publications, the Azerbaijani publication Minval Politika has begun replacing the names of russian cities with those that have fallen out of use. Thus, in one of the articles, Orenburg was called Orinbor, and Kaliningrad was called Königsberg. The Volga River also got it – now it is called Itil in local media publications. The reason was another round of conflict between the two countries: the night before, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded an apology from the russian TASS news agency for a story in which the city of Khankendi was called Stepanakert, the  name that had been used until 2023.

Amid falling yields and the unavailability of imported seeds, agricultural companies reduced sugar beet shipments by 51.3 % year-on-year to 1.9 million tons from January to June, despite an overall increase in the area under the crop. As sugar beet production declines, so does sugar production. In the first half of 2025, the country produced 654.4 thousand tons of white sugar without additives, which is by 28.4 % less than in the same period of the previous year.

As one of the largest energy powers in the world and the third largest crude oil producer on the planet, russia is on the verge of a full-blown fuel crisis for the third time in the last 7 years. In August and September, the country may again face petrol supply disruptions. The ban on fuel exports imposed by the authorities last week will not resolve the problem: the volumes sold abroad are negligible compared to domestic consumption – about 2.5 million tons in the first half of this year.

The net profit of the energy company “T Plus” for the first half of the year amounted to 7.57 billion rubles, which is by 43 % less than in the same period in 2024.

KAMAZ’s net loss amounted to RUB 20.8 billion in the first half of the year. In the same period last year, the company posted a net profit of RUB 641 million.

The gap between the full cost of cash loans (FCL) and the yield on deposits in the top 20 banks of the rf can reach 22-24 pp. As of the beginning of August 2025, the average interest rate on deposits for a term of up to one year is 14.4-16.2 % per annum. At the same time, the average minimum interest rate on cash loans is almost 24.8 % per annum, and the average maximum is 38.7 % per annum.

The state duma has proposed to amend the law ‘On Education in the rf” to allow foreign citizens and stateless persons to study in forms 10-11 of russian schools exclusively at their own expense.

The Ministry of Labor has proposed not to hire migrants without knowledge of russian in the service sector. In particular, for positions that “require social interaction”. These include salespeople, drivers, and doctors. The measure is “aimed at improving the quality of services”. Currently, foreigners who come to russia under the quota are exempt from taking the russian language exam. The agency believes that this rule should be revised.

Since the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the number of HIV cases among russian military personnel has increased by 2000 %. The sharp increase is due to both frontline conditions – unprotected sex among the military and drug use – and the policy of russian authorities, who, under the guise of protecting “traditional values”, have increased pressure on HIV prevention and education organizations.

Since 2022, the rf has been consistently among the top five global leaders in terms of new HIV infections, behind only South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria and India. In 2021, russia accounted for 3.9 % of all new HIV cases in the world – more than Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia or Kenya.

The media face of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Tkachev, has said that physical punishment is bad, but there are cases when it is unavoidable. For example, if a child behaves “too defiantly”. “To use physical punishment more or less correctly at least sometimes, a complete family is needed. A child needs to have an image of mercy and severity,” Tkachev said. “People who suffered in their lives grow up better people”.