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

“Our security is interconnected, and we all want to see a just and lasting end to this brutal war (of the rf against Ukraine). The allies are united. United in our support for Ukraine and united in our commitment to defend every inch of the Alliance’s territory,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced new military aid announcements. He is confident that the financing of American weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine under the PURL program will be covered.

UK Defense Secretary John Healey has said that during a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, allies promised Ukraine $38 billion in military aid.

France and Norway have signed an agreement to support Ukraine in the areas of surveillance and situational awareness, as well as aviation bombs. The countries will cooperate in providing unique and necessary defense equipment by purchasing it from French manufacturers or from French stocks. In the first phase, Norway is allocating approximately NOK 4.2 billion ($440 million), and France is guaranteeing a loan of approximately NOK 3 billion ($300 million).

The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Sweden have contributed $500 million (EUR 420 million) to purchase American weapons for Ukraine under the PURL initiative.

Minister of Defence of Lithuania Robertas Kaunas has pointed out that this year his country will allocate another EUR 223 million in military aid to Ukraine. The priorities are air defense, drones, and ammunition for long-range artillery.

Minister of Defence of Germany Boris Pistorius has assured that Ukraine will soon receive interceptor missiles for its Patriot air defense systems.

“The ammunition initiative is developing positively, the results for 2025 are very good, and the ambitions for this year are also very high,” said Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic Jaromír Zuna.

The European company Stark, which manufactures drones, is opening an R&D (Research & Development) centre in Ukraine.

China will provide a package of humanitarian energy assistance to Ukraine. In total, our country has received energy assistance from at least 17 international partners.

Kyiv has received 16 generators of various capacities and two sets of 8 kW charging stations from Slovakia.

“Ukraine will not lose this war. Ukraine is inflicting enormous damage on russia”, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski.

The Saeima of Latvia has adopted a resolution in support of Ukraine and its athletes following the IOC’s decision to disqualify Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych.

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Security risks are forcing India to withdraw from a joint project with russian state corporation “rosatom” to extract lithium in Mali. Since 2021, moscow has been providing military support to the military junta that came to power in Bamako, but since last year, there has been growing evidence of the collapse of russia’s military efforts in Mali and neighboring Sahel countries.

The United States intends to provide Armenia with investments worth more than $13 billion, which is almost half of the country’s annual GDP and is intended to weaken its long-standing dependence on russia.

BMW has banned its Chinese division from exporting any cars to russia.

The rf’s ministry of justice has added the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to its register of “undesirable” organizations. The DAAD is one of the most popular scholarship programs for russians who want to get a university education in Europe. The organization is funded by Germany’s government.

Efforts by the USA and Europe to limit russia’s ability to sell its oil are forcing it to offer increasingly larger discounts to those willing to buy it. But even though these discounts have already exceeded $27 per barrel, huge volumes of raw materials still cannot find buyers. About 143 million barrels of russian oil are stored on tankers. This is approximately half of the rf’s monthly production.

“In 2026 russian economy will see a terrible decline in production, a decrease in investment, and an exodus of depositors from banks,” said deputy chairman of the state duma committee on economic policy nikolay arefiev. He added that there is a “conspiracy” in russia between the central bank and the government, which are “hiding the real inflation”. At this, the budget is currently “short of 5 trillion rubles”, said Arefiev.

To reduce the rf’s budget deficit, which has been hit by a collapse in oil and gas revenues, taxes could be increased by an additional 1.2 trillion rubles. This proposal came from sberbank, whose analysts predict that this year’s budget deficit will be twice as large as planned. sberbank proposes to collect the additional money from producers of precious and non-ferrous metals.

Against the background of ongoing sanctions and growing economic problems, russian companies began to record massive losses. In January–November 2025, 18,200 organizations reported losses totaling 7.5 trillion rubles. The share of loss-making companies last year reached its peak since the pandemic in 2020 and amounted to 28.8%.

For the third year in a row, russia has seen a decline in the area sown with wheat, which is the basis of the country’s grain exports. In 2025, 26.9 million hectares were sown with wheat – by 3 million hectares less than in 2023. In 2025, the agricultural sector also saw a 10% decline in profitability, accompanied by a sharp increase (up to 70%) in production costs (wages, equipment, and fertilizers).

Metal consumption in russia fell by 18% in 2024–2025.

Newsprint consumption in the russian market in 2025 decreased by 17.8% year-on-year. The rate of decline in demand in russia was higher than in European countries and North America. Newsprint exports from the rf fell by 13.3%.

“severstal”’s profit for the year fell by 42%, and its revenue – by 14%. “severstal” is one of the largest steel producers in russia.

Since January 1, young teachers in the Primorsky Krai have not been receiving additional payments for young specialists. Teachers’ salaries without this allowance have fallen by 15-20%. The authorities explained the decision by citing a budget deficit. Due to a lack of budget funds, payments to teachers are also being reduced in other regions. At the end of last year, incentive payments were abolished in irkutsk region. The abolition of incentive payments to young professionals will affect staff retention in schools: for novice teachers, additional payments often compensate for low base salaries and housing costs.

In bashkiria, almost all shops of the alekseevsky agro-industrial complex have closed. In the city of ufa and ufa district, 72 of 80 shops have already closed. And of the eight remaining outlets, six more will close in the near future. The VAT increase played a key role in the collapse of the business.

In kazan, the roof of a children’s clinic collapsed. In kaliningrad, the roof of a supermarket fell onto the pavement. Earlier this week, in the same city of kazan, the roof over two entrances collapsed in a building constructed in 1964, and the roof of gymnasium No. 27 also collapsed.

The russian orthodox church has called on russians to pray for the unblocking of Telegram.

The head of the russian orthodox church, kirill, has stated that ethnic and religious enclaves are breeding grounds for radical ideas and terrorism.

To overcome crime, it is necessary to block web services and messengers and leave russians with only one state messenger, MAX. This proposal was made by chief of the cybercrime department of the ministry of internal affairs of tatarstan ruslan gumerov.

Exports of investment goods from belarus fell by 15.3% in 2025. At this, imports of investment goods increased by 9.6%.

In 2025, more than 7,000 books were published in belarus, of which only 982 – in the belarusian language. The total circulation of all books exceeded 18 million copies, while the circulation of those published in belarusian was almost 2.7 million copies.