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

The European Commission has welcomed the adoption by EU member states of the 20th package of sanctions against russia and released its technical details.

The new 20th package of EU anti-russian sanctions includes, in particular, 120 new individual sanctions, as well as multi-tiered economic restrictions targeting key sectors that fuel russia’s war against Ukraine. The package lays the groundwork for a future ban on the maritime transportation of russian crude oil and petroleum products; it introduces a comprehensive list of 36 entities covering the production and processing segments of the russian energy sector, including exploration, production, refining, and transportation of oil. 46 more vessels from russia’s “shadow fleet” have been added to the “blacklist”. The new sanctions package introduces controls on the sale of tankers and a ban on servicing russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers and icebreakers. The EU has imposed a ban on transactions by four financial institutions in third countries for circumventing EU sanctions or for links to the “russian financial messaging system”. In the trade sector, the package introduces new restrictions and bans on exports and imports to further weaken russia’s military-industrial complex.

The 20th sanctions package imposes restrictions on 58 russian defense industry companies and associated individuals, targeting suppliers of critical high-tech goods from third countries, including China, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and belarus. As part of the fight against propaganda, the new measures target mirror media outlets that circumvent the broadcasting ban on well-known propaganda channels by disseminating russian content online.

Leaders of EU member states are insisting on speeding up preparations of the next, 21st package of European sanctions against russia. This was announced by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas. She is convinced that the European Union must review its “red lines” regarding punishing russia for the war against Ukraine and analyze what additional sanctions it can impose.

“We will keep upping the pressure until russia stops the war and returns to its borders,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Margus Tsahkna.

It is necessary to continue putting pressure on russia by imposing broader sanctions until the war ends and reparations are paid. This was stated by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Baiba Braže.

Greece has become the 22nd country to join the agreement establishing a Special Tribunal on the Crime of the rf’s Aggression.

President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda has said that he opposes the separation of Ukraine and Moldova on their path to the European Union.

France plans to propose that Greece transfer 43 Mirage 2000 fighter jets, along with spare parts, to Ukraine, in exchange for which Athens could receive favorable terms for the purchase of Rafale aircraft.

The Ministry of Culture of Sweden and UNESCO have allocated 12 million Swedish kronor for conservation work and support for the Khortytsia National Reserve in Zaporizhzhia.

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Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk has stated that russia’s attack on a NATO country is possible within the coming months, not years.

Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama has stated that his country has no ties to russia. “We have no… dependence on russia… no investments, no russian gas, no russian crap…,” he said.

Kyrgyzstan has become the first republic of the former ussr to fall under European restrictive measures for aiding russia. From now on, exports of European CNC machine tools and telecom equipment, including routers and switching equipment, to Kyrgyzstan are completely banned.

Tax hikes for small businesses have led to a more than 20% drop in revenue for the russian budget.

The collection of ferrous metal scrap, which fell in 2025 to its lowest level in the past 16 years, may decline by nearly 7% more in 2026. The reason is a reduction in steel production. Under these circumstances, scrap prices are at rock bottom, making the scrap collection business unprofitable and forcing companies to exit the market en masse. In 2025, 25% of companies had already left the market, and this year, given the new tax changes, up to 30% more market participants are expected to go out of business.

The children’s goods industry in the rf is declining overall: against the background of a falling birth rate and consumers switching to frugality, sales in 2025 fell by 8% year-on-year. Sales of arts and crafts supplies decreased by 13%, and toy sales – by 5%.

The number of companies and individual entrepreneurs in russia’s agricultural sector has decreased by 2,700 over the past three years. The industry’s main problem is the disparity between purchase prices for agricultural products and the ever-increasing costs of production inputs (prices for seeds, fertilizers, fuel, and equipment rise by 15–30% annually).

The rate of land degradation in russia, resulting in a decline in fertility, is approximately 1.5 million hectares per year. This is equivalent to 3–3.5 million tons of grain.

By the end of 2025, the net profit of leasing companies in russia had halved. This financial result was the worst in the last three years.

In russia, the commission paid to owners of Wildberries pickup points in 2025 decreased by 25% compared to the previous year.

Demand for barbershops in russia fell by 22% in early 2026.

The board of directors of nlmk, russia’s largest steel producer, has recommended not paying dividends for 2025. nlmk last paid dividends based on the results of 2023.

The net loss of the developer “samolet” for 2025 amounted to 2.3 billion rubles, compared to a profit of 8.2 billion rubles in 2024.

russian children’s goods retailer “korablik” has faced the threat of bankruptcy. The chain, which was one of the largest in the children’s goods market, could not withstand its debt burden and falling demand.

In russia, authorities plan to revoke the licenses of over 90% of telecommunications operators, cable TV providers, and internet service providers.

The widespread use of VPNs has increased the share of foreign internet traffic in russia to 30%.

A majority of russians support at least one of the most popular conspiracy theories. Over 41% believe in the existence of a secret world government, and 5% believe the Earth is flat.

moscow region has become at least the 12th region in the rf to ban the sale of fuel to minors amid a rise in cases of sabotage.

The largest road contractor in belgorod region, “belgoroddorstroy” LLC, through which tens of billions of rubles in budget contracts pass, showed a sharp deterioration in financial results at the end of 2025: the company’s profit plummeted more than tenfold.

Due to a lack of funds, tambov region plans to amend the regional law on capital repairs so that repairs of lifts will no longer be financed from the mandatory capital repair fund.

The 20th package of EU sanctions against russia includes a belarusian oil company and the belarusian-Chinese military-industrial enterprise “Volat-Sanjiang”. The EU has also banned transactions involving the belarusian digital ruble and imposed a number of other restrictions on the rb.

In belarus, the logo (watermark) of “Radyjo Svaboda – Belarus” has been added to the list of “extremist materials”.