April 1, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Sweden has announced a nearly $1.6 billion military aid package for Ukraine, including support for Ukraine’s air defense, artillery, satellite communications, and naval capabilities. As part of the package, Sweden will purchase new equipment worth about $912 million from the defense industry. The country will also donate about $465 million to the funds and coalitions created within the framework of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group. $93 million will be spent on spare parts and materials from the arsenals of the Swedish Armed Forces, including machine guns, ammunition, about 100 vehicles of various types, etc. $46 million will be spent on guarantees for defense exports to Ukraine. The support package also provides for strengthening cooperation with Denmark within the established model of support for the Ukrainian defense industry.

The Netherlands has announced that it will allocate EUR 500 million for a drone production project for Ukraine. The country’s Defense Ministry has emphasized that this is part of the EUR 2 billion accelerated funding package allocated in 2025.

“We still don't even have a ceasefire, let alone a peace that needs to be protected. But the first thing to remember is that Ukraine has to decide when, what kind, and whether foreign troops should be on its land. Ukraine, and no one else,” emphasized Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Noël Barrot has said that russia should directly answer the question of whether the kremlin has any desire to go along the road of peaceful settlement.

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US President Donald Trump promises to impose secondary sanctions on russian oil if the rf fails to conclude an agreement on peace in Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer agreed during a phone call to continue to put pressure on president putin.

Co-leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany Lars Klingbeil dismissed the possibility of returning to russian gas supplies even if the war in Ukraine, which was unleashed by russia, ends. Klingbeil has pointed out that after the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Germany became independent from russian gas, and “this path must be followed consistently.” He sees no way back “at all.”

Oil getting cheaper and the ruble getting stronger, along with the outstripping growth of military spending, are putting pressure on the russian budget, inflating the deficit, and may force the authorities to borrow more or sacrifice the remaining reserves.

For russian smartphone sellers, the first three months of 2025 were the worst in history, with gadget sales having dropped by more than 26 % and by 25 % in terms of money – to 5.5 million devices worth 139 billion rubles.

The rf’s security council has called migrant communities a threat to russia’s security.

Authorities of the rf are launching a reform of the Code of Administrative Offenses to increase the proportion of convictions, which already reaches 95 % in administrative cases of individuals and 91 % for legal entities.

The rf’s prosecutor general’s office has asked the supreme court to suspend the ban on Taliban.

Amid toughening sanctions and growing economic problems, russians have begun to complain more often about salary delays. In 2024, territorial bodies of rostrud (the federal labour and employment service – Transl.) received 18.4 thousand complaints, which is by 37.4 % more than a year earlier.

In Magadan region, the prosecutor’s office initiated a review of the rehabilitation of political prisoners of stalin’s era. As a result of the analysis of archival materials covering thousands of criminal cases from the postwar period, the rehabilitation of 50-60 convicts was canceled. “Some people were unreasonably rehabilitated, despite the fact that they were accomplices of the occupiers and enemy forces. Now these decisions are being canceled,” said head of the criminal and judicial department of the prosecutor’s office maksim komarovsky.

The government of Bryansk region has included female students of secondary schools in the list of those who can receive a one-time payment of 150 thousand rubles during pregnancy.

The Saeima of Latvia is introdusing restrictions for foreigners entering the country and for its citizens traveling to russia and belarus.

The Ministry of the Interior and Administration of Poland reports that authorities of Poland have taken another set of measures to strengthen the border with the rb, including “ implementing an artificial intelligence mechanism” to “categorize alarm signals from fiber optic detection cables.”

Migration pressure on the Polish-belarusian border continues to grow. The Polish Border Guard Service has said that from Friday to Sunday, more than 620 attempts to cross the border by migrants were registered. Almost all of them were stopped.

Lithuania is to auction off trucks and fire trucks imported from the rb that were confiscated for evading sanctions. 17 milk trucks were intended for Cuba, and 17 fire trucks were to go to Zimbabwe. The vehicles were detained in the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda in 2023.

As of March 1, 2025, the debt on ruble and foreign currency loans granted by banks to legal entities in the rb, amounted to 59 billion 743 million rubles. The current amount of debt is by 12.9 % higher than as of March 1, 2024 (RUB 52 billion 906.9 million) and by 1.3 % higher than as of January 1, 2025. Overdue debt as of March 1 amounted to RUB 978.7 million (up 3.5 times). As of January 1, it stood at RUB 733.5 million (+33.4 %).