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

On Wednesday, the European Parliament approved a proposal for an EU Council decision enabling enhanced cooperation to establish a EUR 90 billion Loan for Ukraine for 2026–2027.

“Ukraine’s security is European security... The EU is Ukraine’s biggest international supporter. Our support is comprehensive, diplomatic, financial, military, and includes backing Ukraine’s reforms on its path to the EU,” said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.

The Netherlands has announced additional aid to Ukraine in the amount of EUR 23 million to support the energy sector.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte believes that the key issue for the Alliance right now is russia’s war against Ukraine, not the situation around Greenland.

“We still feel threatened by russia; we are at the epicenter of a hybrid war,” said President of Poland Karol Nawrocki, adding that the tension surrounding Greenland does not mean that the international community has forgotten about russia’s war against Ukraine.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands David van Weel has stressed that russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are leaving millions of civilians without light and heat and posing serious risks to nuclear safety.

“russia is definitely a threat in the Arctic. russia does a lot of terrible things in general, so I would like to once again condemn its unjustified and appalling aggression against Ukraine,” said Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney.

Germany will participate in an innovative project to develop Ukraine’s drone assault units.

The Polish charity initiative “Warmth for Kyiv” has exceeded PLN 5 million. The campaign has been running for six days, during which time almost 40,500 people have made donations.

The German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) will transfer two cogeneration plants (mini-CHP) to Kyiv.

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President of Finland Alexander Stubb believes that the war against Ukraine has been a strategic failure for putin. According to the Finnish President, putin has expanded NATO, made Ukraine European, and increased the defense budgets of European countries.

Minister of Defence of Norway Tore O. Sandvik has pointed out that the main threat to the West and to all NATO members “remains russia”.

Oil imports from russia to China fell by 7.1% in 2025.

“The rf’s federal budget at the beginning of the year will be executed with a significant deficit against the background of a collapse in oil and gas revenues and significant advance spending,” said deputy minister of finance vladimir kolychev.

For the third year in a row, the government of the rf is selling gold from the national wealth fund to fill the federal budget, finance state banks, and pay for mega-projects. Between 2022 and 2025, the amount of gold on the NWF balance sheet decreased by 71%. As of January 1, the fund had 160.2 tons of gold in impersonal accounts at the Central Bank, compared to 554.9 tons in May 2022.

russian businesses prefer to save on salaries, using talk of crisis and hard times as a convenient smokescreen. Amidst the noise of alarming forecasts, talk of stagnation and tax increases, businesses are increasingly refusing to index salaries, cutting bonuses and warning employees in advance that there will be no raises. In russia’s reality of 2026, freezing salaries amid high inflation means a real decline in income, even though salaries are not formally changing. While employees do not resign en masse, team productivity falls by an average of 15-30%. Deadlines are missed, the number of mistakes increases, and customer service deteriorates. Formally, the staff is retained, but in fact, the business loses profits.

“russians should not fear sharp price increases, as the authorities are keeping the situation under control,” said putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov. Against this background, the total amount of cash in circulation increased by 1 trillion rubles over the year – five times more than in 2024. At the same time, more than 80% of the amount was converted into cash at the end of the year. The outflow from the banking system exceeded long-term highs. More cash was withdrawn by russians in December only in 2014 amid the collapse of the ruble and the economic crisis.

In 2026, a number of food and non-food products in russia will be subject to shrinkflation – a hidden form of inflation in which manufacturers reduce the volume, weight, or number of items in a package. These include snacks, sauces, cheese, biscuits, household chemicals, and toilet paper, which will be sold in rolls with fewer meters. The average weight reduction in some categories may reach 15%.

The cost of the minimum monthly food basket per person in russia in December 2025 increased by 3.58% compared to the same period in 2024. The most expensive products are in chukotka and kamchatka.

Beauty services in russia will increase in price by at least 20–50% in 2026.

Last year, a record number of used foreign cars were imported into russia since the 1990s—493,800. This is by 25% more than in 2024. If we add to this the 8,500 light commercial vehicles imported during the year, the total exceeds half a million units.

Porsche cars in russia are being blocked again. The cars won’t start and even suddenly stall while driving. In January, BMW owners also experienced blocking problems. Even owners of Chinese-built cars from global brands that were imported into russia unofficially are at risk of finding themselves in the same situation.

In 2025, 643 showrooms of Chinese brands (in the passenger car and light commercial vehicle segment) were closed in russia. This is 1.4 times more than a year earlier. The total number of sales outlets for Chinese brands in 2025 decreased by 7% to 2,600, and their share fell from 67% to 64%.

Higher education in russia has turned out to be more expensive than in 22 out of 27 European countries. At the same time, the gap between the cost of education and the average median income in russia is also one of the most significant. In most countries, the cost of education is lower than or equal to the median income. In russia, however, a year of higher education costs a russian citizen approximately eight times the median income.

russia is experiencing an acute shortage of one of the key medicines used in chemotherapy – Carboplatin. This medicine, which is used to treat lung, ovarian, bladder, and breast cancer, as well as in veterinary medicine for animals with malignant tumors, is virtually impossible to find in pharmacies. The situation with Carboplatin is yet another example of a systemic shortage of important medications in russia. At the end of December 2025, the popular antipsychotic medicine Seroquel, used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, began to disappear from pharmacies. Earlier, in November, there were reports of supply disruptions for patients with chronic kidney disease in ten regions of the country, including st. petersburg, tatarstan, and nizhny novgorod region. All this is happening against the background of 28 foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers leaving the russian market after russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Since the start of russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the fsb has killed at least 76 people during arrests.

Investigators in the rf have been allowed to use force to unlock russians’ phones.

Photojournalists working in the state duma have been banned from photographing plenary sessions. The day before, chairman of the state duma vyacheslav volodin publicly reprimanded media photographers for showing deputies “in a bad light”.

More than half (57%) of the top 30 (in the terms of audience) russian Telegram channels have created accounts on the Max messenger. However, their total audience on the new platform is estimated to be about 60 times smaller. The top 30 Telegram channels have about 87 million subscribers. Their “duplicates” on Max have only 1.4 million subscribers.

Eight countries have joined the latest EU sanctions against belarus: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, and Ukraine.

Last year, Lithuania recognized 1,721 citizens of belarus and russia as a threat to national security, public order, or public health.

The Ministry of the Interior of Lithuania has said the country plans to maintain additional forces along the border with belarus to prevent the incursion of contraband balloons.

Amid signs of economic stagnation, lukashenko has called on belarusians to “cut costs” and “save wisely” in the new year.