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

Prime Minister of Finland Petteri Orpo has announced that his country will increase humanitarian aid to Ukraine to EUR 22 million and provide additional 52 generators in February.

Lithuania, Sweden, Canada, and Ukraine have signed an agreement to establish a special fund to support the International Transport Forum for the restoration of Ukraine’s transport infrastructure.

The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Ukraine has announced that the country had provided Ukraine with energy assistance worth over PLN 10.2 million (UAH 124 million). “PLN 5.74 million is the result of collections in the churches of the Krakow Archdiocese and donations from people of good will to the Krakow Caritas account following the appeal of the Metropolitan of Krakow, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, on January 24, 2026, for help for the residents of Kyiv,” said the statement. According to the Embassy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland, local authorities, and the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves donated nearly 1,000 electric generators and heaters to Ukrainians.

European Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis has said that the EU may impose a complete ban on maritime services for all vessels transporting russian oil.

In its annual report, Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security Service has stated that russia remains the main military threat to the Kingdom and NATO. Swedish intelligence officers emphasize that this threat is “serious and concrete” and describe the kremlin’s behavior as “opportunistic and aggressive”.

Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport Glenn Micallef has announced a boycott of the opening ceremony of the 2026 Paralympic Games in Milan-Cortina due to the participation of russians and belarusians, who were allowed to compete under their national flags.

The cumulative deficit of all budgets in russia’s budgetary system reached a historic record of 8.291 trillion rubles at the end of 2025. Compared to last year, the “hole” in the consolidated budget, which includes the federal treasury, regional budgets, and extrabudgetary funds (pension fund and compulsory medical insurance fund), increased 2.6 times, or by 5.696 trillion rubles. Revenues at all levels of government grew by 6.5% over the year, which is half as fast as expenditures, which jumped by 13%.

russian businesses do not believe that the increase in the tax burden in the rf is temporary and expect fiscal conditions to deteriorate further over the next five years. This was stated by aleksandr shokhin, the head of the russian union of industrialists and entrepreneurs – the country’s largest business association with Forbes billionaires on its board.

The economic slowdown, falling profits, and high key rate of the central bank of russia have plunged the russian debt market into a crisis of non-payments. In January 2026, russian companies failed to meet their debt securities obligations 51 times, including coupons, redemptions, offers, and covenants. Compared to January last year, the number of such cases doubled, as did the amount of missed payments – 3.38 billion rubles versus 1.78 billion. Last week alone, 10 companies defaulted.

In May 2024, after another “re-election”, putin demanded that the capitalization of the russian stock market be doubled by 2030, from 33% to 66% of GDP. Since then, it has decreased by about a third, and since the start of the war, it has halved.

The federal antimonopoly service (fas) did not record an increase in tariffs for housing and communal services. However, rosstat does not confirm the fas’ assurances. According to rosstat, tariffs in January actually increased by 2.99% compared to the previous month. The year-on-year increase was over 14%.

From 2024 to early 2026, russians began to increasingly refuse nanny and psychotherapy services due to rising prices. The top refusals also included spending on certain foods, food delivery, and pet food.

russians are losing more than $12 billion due to shrinkflation – the hidden rise in food prices due to a decrease in the volume of goods. Shrinkflation serves as a bridge between “official” and “real” inflation, which is felt by the population as inflation, undermining confidence in statistics. According to experts, russian manufacturers resort to such tricks due to the rising cost of loans, logistics, raw materials, and packaging. Although the official statistics shows inflation at 6%, real prices in russian shops are rising much faster.

russia’s five largest developers have begun to violate construction schedules for new residential buildings more frequently. The share of projects delivered late reached 12.7% by February 2026, compared to 3.2% a year earlier. In total, the top five developers are delaying the delivery of more than 1.95 million square meters.

In russia, fish prices are rising 3.5 times through intermediaries.

russian providers will terminate contracts with subscribers if they do not allow their employees, who came to replace twisted pair with optical cable without their consent, into their homes. In other words, russians will be left without internet if they refuse fiber optics and prefer classic copper cable, which was installed many years ago. The initiative comes from the ministry of digital development. The innovation will affect almost 6 million russians starting September 1.

The federal fire service (ffs), which is responsible for firefighting and emergency rescue operations throughout the rf, is facing an acute shortage of personnel. The service is short of more than a third of its staff. The overall staffing level of the ffs units is 65.5%. The greatest shortage of personnel among firefighters is in udmurtia (35%), tula (30%), magadan (27%) regions, as well as in moscow (27%). The shortage of personnel in the service amounts to approximately 91,200 people.

The administration of kotlas (arkhangelsk region) took out a loan from a commercial bank to pay the salaries of state employees. This is a common practice: regions are forced to take out bank loans because the regional budget deficit reached 3.8 trillion rubles in 2025. Some are already effectively bankrupt, such as khakassia and kemerovo region. Other cities and regions of russia are also replenishing their budgets on credit. In nizhny novgorod, the authorities received a credit limit of 500 million rubles. In ulan-ude, the budget was replenished by 263.2 million rubles. The purpose of the loan is stated as follows: “to finance the city’s budget deficit and repay debt obligations”.  Paying for such debts is expensive due to the high central bank’s rate and the market’s desire to receive additional payment for the risk.

In st. petersburg, prices in public catering may increase by 40%. At this, catering establishments in regions with lower salaries will face a reduction in their product range and will be forced to remove expensive items from their menus.

Latvia plans to remove all names of belarusian and russian settlements from road signs by the end of September 2026. The country’s Ministry of Transport has reported that there is a “growing demand” from politicians and the public to replace road signs due to the war against Ukraine.

According to the results for January-December 2025, belarus was not the leader in the Eurasian Economic Union in any of the seven main socio-economic indicators.

In January 2026, by 39% less housing was built in belarus than a year earlier. At this, with state support for those in need of improved conditions, they built by14.3% less housing.

lukashenko thanked God for the absence of a market economy in belarus.