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

Ukraine and France have signed a Declaration of Intent on Cooperation in the Acquisition of Defense Equipment for Ukraine. Primarily, it concerns 100 Rafale F4 aircraft for Ukraine’s combat aviation by 2035, SAMP/T air‑defense systems, air‑defense radars, air-to-air missiles, and aerial bombs. The Declaration also provides for the possibility of technology transfer and joint aircraft production with localization in Ukraine. President of France Emmanuel Macron has stressed that Ukraine will be the first country to deploy the new SAMP/T air defense system with improved capabilities.

France is preparing another defense package for Ukraine by the end of the year.

President of France Emmanuel Macron has put forward three conditions for granting Ukraine “reparations loans” based on russia’s frozen assets: compliance with international law; financial guarantees from EU and G7 member states; and purchases must be made within the European defense industry.

Ukraine has agreed with Greece on the prompt supply of gas from January 2026 to compensate for its deficit amid russian shelling.

The European Commission has proposed three options for providing financial support to Ukraine over the next two years: bilateral grants, a loan from the EU budget from borrowings on external markets, and a loan using russia’s frozen assets.

“The scale of Ukraine’s financing gap is significant. According to preliminary forecasts by the International Monetary Fund, assuming that the war ends at the end of 2026 and taking into account all the support promised by the EU, member states, and international partners, Ukraine will still face a huge shortfall that cannot be overcome without new financing,” said President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen regarding the prospects for financing Ukraine. She identified four key parameters for providing financial assistance to Ukraine: rapid access to funding, with the first payments to be made at the beginning of the second quarter of 2026; no additional fiscal burden on Ukraine; a flexible approach and fair distribution of the “burden” of financing Ukraine with the EU’s international partners.

According to European Commission’s estimates, Ukraine will need more than EUR 71 billion in financing in 2026, the lion’s share of which will be for military needs.

The IMF mission has begun work in Ukraine on launching a new Extended Fund Facility program.

Lithuania has handed over to Ukraine a new package to support its  energy infrastructure. “We collected this equipment from different parts of Lithuania, and it has been successfully delivered to Ukraine. We are confident that this equipment will help to restore the operation of power lines and substations of the Ukrainian power system more quickly,” said Director General of Lithuania’s electricity transmission system operator Litgrid Rokas Masiulis.

Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk has said that the country’s special services consider Sunday’s incident on the Polish railway between Warsaw and Lublin to be a deliberate act of sabotage. This is the railway line used by trains between the Ukrainian border and Warsaw.

Ukrzaliznytsia has signed an agreement to purchase 55 electric locomotives from the French company Alstom.

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US President Donald Trump has said that Republican lawmakers in the US Congress are continuing to work on draft legislation that would allow for tough sanctions against any country that does business with the rf.  “As you know, I’m the one who proposed it... so any country that does business with russia will be subject to very severe sanctions. They might add Iran to that list,” said Trump.

Putin may order an attack on one of the NATO countries within the next 2–4 years, and one of russia’s most likely targets could be the Baltic states. This was stated by European Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius.

Minister of Defence of the FRG Boris Pistorius has said that a war between NATO and russia could start before 2029.

russian oil continues to fall in price due to declining demand in India and China, followed by  US sanctions against “Rosneft” and “Lukoil”. The price of Urals crude – the main export brand of russian oil companies – was falling   to $36.61 per barrel at the end of last week during shipment from the port of Novorossiysk. Discounts on Urals compared to North Sea Brent reached $23.51 per barrel, a record low since March 2023. Before the US sanctions, russian oil was sold in russian ports at $12–13 less than Brent. But since then, the discount has nearly doubled and is approaching the record set in early 2023 of $40 per barrel.

russian cargo airlines see a threat of aircraft grounding and market exit in the next three years. The main reasons are aging fleets, shortages of personnel and spare parts, long queues for repairs, and high repair costs.

The volume of the russian container market may decrease by 4–6 % by the end of 2025.

russia’s largest silicon plant, “Kremniy EL” (part of the “Rusal” group), will suspend production from January 1, 2026.

In 2025, russia saw by 34 % more power outages and power grid failures per month than in 2024.

Latvia has once again extended for another week its ban on evening and night flights in the airspace along the border with russia and belarus

The new global Economic Freedom of the World ranking showed a decline in belarus’ position. belarus continues to slide down the list, now ranking 121st  in the world. The key reasons for the decline were weak institutions, expanding state participation, and strict regulation of business.

Food inflation is accelerating in belarus, having reached 7.7 % in the first 10 months of this year. At this, some goods have become significantly more expensive. The leaders in price growth over the first 10 months of this year were cocoa powder (+70.2 %), apples (up almost 1.6 times), ground natural coffee (+33.5 %), salted herring (+26.6 %), instant cocoa powder (+26.4 %), chocolate (+25.4 %), potato chips (+22.6 %), cornflakes (+21.1 %), and instant coffee (+20 %).