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

Ukraine has received an additional EUR 4.36 billion from the European Union as part of Ukraine Support Loan.

“The EU remains united and unwavering in its support for Ukraine. As the largest donor, the EU has provided EUR 231.5 billion since the start of russia’s war of aggression. And as efforts to achieve lasting peace for Ukraine continue, so does the EU’s support for strengthening Ukraine,” reads a statement from the European Commission following talks on securing a lasting peace in our country, in which Ukraine, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, NATO, and the World Bank participated.

The European Commission has held a meeting with representatives of partner countries – including Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Norway, and others – to strengthen enforcement of sanctions against russia and counter efforts to circumvent them.

The European Commission has emphasized the feasibility of concluding Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations by 2028. “It is important that Ukraine continues to speed up the pace of reforms so that the country can achieve its ambitious goal of concluding accession negotiations by the end of 2028,” the statement reads.

In the near future, the European Commission plans to submit a proposal to the EU Council to amend the EU’s Draft Common Position (DCP) on Cluster 5, taking into account the proposed special conditions for Ukraine’s agriculture sector.

The General Court of the EU dismissed russia’s lawsuit seeking to overturn the ban on its ships entering European ports.

Switzerland has implemented measures from the European Union’s 21st sanctions package against russia and belarus. The restrictions include freezing the assets of hundreds of individuals and organizations, a ban on cooperation with a number of banks, and tighter export controls.

Switzerland will also invest approximately $36 million (30 million Swiss francs) in the development of a competitive and sustainable private sector in Ukraine as part of the “CORE: Competitiveness for Ukraine’s Recovery 2026–2031” program.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Andy Burnham has stated that putin will not participate in next year’s G20 leaders’ summit, which the UK will host.

Minister of Defence of Japan Shinjirō Koizumi has stated that Japan will never waver in its consistent stance of solidarity with Ukraine.

The government of the FRG views the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) decision regarding russia’s admission “very critically” and will soon discuss with the Ice Hockey Federation of Germany the possible implications of this decision for the 2027 World Championship.

President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov has warned “gazprom” that he may return the country’s gas infrastructure – which is currently owned by the russian company – to state control if “gazprom” fails to carry out the Republic’s gasification in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the gas sector.

The government of the rf has authorized the ministry of finance to raise up to 1 trillion rubles on the domestic market in excess of the borrowing limit set for 2026. The share of russia’s federal budget expenditures allocated to servicing the national debt will rise to 9.4% in 2027 and to 10.6% in 2029. Borrowing remains the main source of funding for the budget deficit, which will increase this year to 7.3 trillion rubles, or 3.2% of GDP.

Since the beginning of the year, the new-construction market in russia has lost more than 150 billion rubles. This is the total amount by which buyers have terminated shared-equity housing construction contracts across the country. This is by 46% more than during the same period last year.

In October, the profitability of wholesale of petrol and diesel fuel in russia fell by 17% and 6%, respectively.

Sales of new passenger cars in russia in October 2026 fell by 19.8% compared to the same period last year. Sales by russia’s largest automaker, “avtovaz”, dropped by 10.7% that month.

As of September 2026, the implementation of 38 data center projects in russia – with a total planned investment of approximately 188 billion rubles – has been suspended. One of the reasons is a shortage of energy resources. Besides, there are many other factors leading to the suspension of data center construction. These include the high cost of debt financing and the difficulty of scaling up without compromising the project’s economic efficiency.

Since the beginning of the year, russian authorities have sold 380 billion rubles worth of confiscated property. This is more than four times the figure for all of 2025, when the sale of confiscated property brought in 88 billion rubles.

In russia, demand for construction workers has doubled over the past year.

In September 2026, the number of russians registered with employment services as unemployed increased compared to the same period last year in 54 regions of russia. The largest increase was recorded in the yamalo-nenets autonomous okrug – 54%. In the republic of mari el, the number of unemployed rose by 33%; in belgorod region – by 26%; and in ivanovo region – by 25%.

A record budget shortfall of 370 billion rubles has emerged in the russian healthcare system.

The reform of healthcare workers’ pay has once again been derailed. The budget of the compulsory health insurance fund for 2027 and the planning period of 2028–2029 does not allocate funds for the transition to a unified salary calculation system. This system was intended to reduce the two- to threefold disparity in healthcare workers’ pay across different regions and halt the exodus of specialists. This year, the fund’s budget was finalized with a deficit of 82.1 billion rubles. Next year, the funding deficit for the compulsory health insurance system will double and exceed the record high set in 2025 – 136.6 billion rubles. Healthcare workers from various regions are complaining about salary cuts of a quarter, and in some cases, a third. Doctors and nurses are having their incentive payments for seniority, workload, and quality of work eliminated.

State funding for the russian healthcare system is nearly three times lower than in developed countries and falls short of the level recommended by the WHO by nearly half. This is leading to a “catastrophic” decline in the population. A member of the state duma’s healthcare committee aleksei kurennoy made this statement during a session of the state duma. According to his forecast, russia’s population will decline by at least 600,000 people each year.

russia has failed in its efforts to replace imported medicines and is increasing its purchases from the West. Its dependence on expensive, high-tech medications – which russian manufacturers are unable to produce on their own – remains particularly significant. In the first eight months of 2026, foreign medicines accounted for 56% of the nearly 700 billion rubles spent in russia on medicine purchases.

More and more russian regions are reducing or canceling payments to the families of soldiers killed in the war against Ukraine due to a lack of funds and local budget shortfalls. The combined budget deficit across all regions could reach 2 trillion rubles per year. In saratov region, a decision by the regional government to reduce death benefits for soldiers tenfold – from 1 million to 100,000 rubles – took effect on November 1. Since early autumn 2026, the region has become at least the fifth region in russia where, due to budget problems, authorities have reduced, postponed, or canceled one-time payments to the families of servicemen killed in Ukraine.

In st. petersburg, not a single new large-scale commercial public space has opened since the beginning of 2026. And over the previous three years, only five such facilities were added to the market.

Following st. petersburg and irkutsk region, layoffs of public sector employees due to a lack of funds in the budget began in the krasnoyarsk territory, the khanty-mansi autonomous okrug, and omsk region.

In nakhodka, funds ran out for security at schools and kindergartens, as well as for school buses. School bus services were also canceled at a number of schools in belgorod region due to funding delays and a lack of funds to purchase fuel.

Rubbish truck drivers in novorossiysk and gelendzhik have not received their salaries since June.

Mass layoffs of kindergarten staff have begun in surgut.

The World Bank has called russia an obstacle to belarus’ sustainable economic growth. “The declining effectiveness of stimulus measures and high inflation are worsening the economic outlook, while further isolation from global markets and dependence on russia are undermining the foundations of sustainable and broad-based economic growth”.

An arbitration tribunal rejected “belaruskali”’s request to move the case against Lithuania from Geneva to Dubai, Singapore, or some other neutral jurisdiction outside the European Union.

belarusian sellers on “wildberries”,  whose goods were destroyed in fires at warehouses in russia, have begun receiving individual compensation offers that effectively cover only 5–7% of their losses.