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

Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof has said that his country supports the statement by European leaders and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on ending hostilities in Ukraine.

The Ukraine Energy Support Fund has accumulated nearly EUR 1.3 billion in international aid to support the Ukrainian energy sector, but the current deficit is still EUR 400 million.

Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Støre has announced the allocation of NOK 1.5 billion (about $98.3 million) to provide Ukraine with electricity and heating.

The Japanese agency NEXI is ready to expand war risk insurance for Ukraine’s recovery.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has approved the Convention establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine.

“We constantly see that Ukraine wants peace, Europe wants peace, the USA wants peace, and that is why we welcome President Trump’s initiative to finally achieve this goal... Just today, putin targeted children. He targeted a kindergarten again. He is taking innocent lives,” said European Commission Spokesperson Annita Hipper regarding the rf’s air attack on Ukraine on October 22.

“He (putin) disregards proposals for a truce. That is why putinism must be stopped,” Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavský has sharply condemned russia’s new massive nighttime shelling of Ukraine.

Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is convinced that there is only one way to end russia’s invasion of Ukraine: to make putin realize that he cannot win on the battlefield.

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Three bills aimed at increasing pressure on russia are ready for approval by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The first initiative calls for recognizing russia as a state sponsor of terrorism for kidnapping Ukrainian children, the second introduces economic sanctions against China for supporting russia’s military campaign, and the third calls for the use of frozen russian assets in the USA and their regular transfer every 90 days.

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said it is time for putin to feel the increasingly high price of his desire to continue the war.

The European Parliament has agreed on its position on the draft regulation to completely phase out imports of russian gas and oil, which is a new step towards the EU’s adoption of this decision.

South Korea has reduced its imports of thermal coal from russia due to a more favorable price offer from Colombian suppliers.

putin does not plan to personally attend the G20 summit, which will take place at the end of November in South Africa. South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute.

Imports of Chinese laptops and tablets to russia decreased by a third in the first three quarters of 2025.

The new tax reform in russia in 2026, designed to mobilize resources in the context of the war against Ukraine, will affect at least one in ten entrepreneurs, many of whom will close down or go into the “shadow”.

Large associations of food producers and retailers have warned the russian government about price increases due to plans to introduce a new tax on product labeling.

Video game developers have also warned the rf’s government about a sharp decline in profitability due to tax increases.

AvtoVAZ will operate on a four-day week until at least the end of 2025. The company’s management has also introduced the practice of transferring key employees to auxiliary positions. Some of the staff who used to work at the machines now clean metal shavings from the conveyors, tidy up the basements, and participate in repair and painting work.

The food retail market in russia is undergoing a transformation amid an economic slowdown and rising inflation: discounters are replacing supermarkets and hypermarkets. In the first nine months of 2025, 67 large-format stores with a total area of over 185,000 m² closed. Since 2017, the share of supermarkets and hypermarkets in the retail trade structure has almost halved, from 37 % to 21 %. The market has been flooded with discounters, whose share has increased from 49.9 % to 63.4 %. The strongest growth was shown by so-called stores for the poor or hard discounters, which save on fittings and limit their product range in order to keep prices low. In eight years, their share has grown from 4.8 % to 16.4 %.

In the rf, since January 2025, the number of visits to nail salons and studios has decreased by 5–8 % compared to the same period in 2024.

In the first six months of 2025, russian authorities suspended 25,300 criminal cases for reasons unrelated to the search for or illness of the defendant, compared to 648 such cases in 2019. Last year, articles were added to the Criminal Code of the rf that allow for the termination of criminal prosecution or the imposition of a suspended sentence in connection with participation in the war against Ukraine.

russia plans to introduce fines for college students who violate their targeted training agreements. Currently, if a student refuses to work after graduation, they only have to reimburse the customer’s expenses for material incentives, such as scholarships, travel, or accommodation.

“roskomnadzor” has announced the start of blocking Telegram and WhatsApp.

In russia, bloggers began to be fined for advertising on Instagram.

The rf plans to ban access to the Internet without identification via passport, driver’s license, or bank details.

Several regions of russia are experiencing a shortage of pertussis vaccines. State hospitals in the Krasnodar, Perm, and Altai Territories, as well as in Ryazan region and the Komi Republic, are running out of Pentaxim vaccines, which are for children under 6 years of age. Some clinics have run out of the vaccine completely and have been without it for some months now. In 2023, russia saw a record number of whooping cough infections in the last 30 years — 52,783 cases. In 2024, the number decreased to 32,500, but that’s still 10 times more than in 2022.

russian regions covered by the northern delivery mechanism have asked the authorities to triple the amount of budget loans to finance the program. This request has cone amid reports that at least two regions – Yakutia and Irkutsk region – are experiencing disruptions in the delivery of food to remote areas and problems with access to medical care due to the lack of funds.

Guarantees of free secondary vocational education and references to municipal elections have been removed from Yakutia’s Constitution. At this, the head of the region will be given the right to dissolve the regional government. “None of the amendments violates the rights of citizens,” said the governor of the Republic.

The Barnaul Brewery – one of the largest enterprises in the region – has officially switched to a four-day working week amid the deteriorating economic situation at the enterprise.

The Council of the International Ski Federation (FIS) has voted against the participation of athletes from russia and belarus as individual neutral athletes in the FIS qualifying competitions for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The demand for the “immediate and unconditional” release of political prisoners in belarus is contained in the European Parliament’s draft resolution “The Situation in belarus Five Years After the Fraudulent Presidential Elections”.

After the mass launch of smugglers’ balloons from belarus to Lithuania, Prime Minister Inga Rūginienė has said that if such actions are repeated, the country will completely close its border with neighboring belarus. “There will be no concessions to belarus on this issue,” she added.

The government of Lithuania has decided to cancel the 2002 agreement with russia that regulated travel for citizens of both countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which initiated this decision, has said that because of russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the agreement “is no longer used and has lost its relevance”.

The volume of bilateral trade between Germany and belarus in January–July this year decreased by 70.6 % compared to the same period in 2024. Back in 2020, Germany was among the top three countries selling goods to belarus (after russia and China).