April 17, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said that most of the seven Patriot air defense systems that the allies promised to Ukraine at the Washington summit have either been delivered or will arrive soon. Rutte has also emphasized that Ukraine’s accession to the Alliance remains irreversible, but will not be an element of a potential peace deal with the rf.

Belgium will provide Ukraine with EUR 150 million in technical assistance under the Belgian Initiative to Support the Recovery of Ukraine (BE-Relieve Ukraine) project.

European Commission Spokesperson Anitta Hipper has said the EU is discussing the possibility of sending “military advisors” to Ukraine to organize training for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

European Commission Spokesperson Olof Gill has said that the European Commission is finalizing a document with new terms of trade with Ukraine after the end of the so-called “trade visa-free regime”.

The European Court of Human Rights has officially started consideration of the case concerning russia’s illegal adoption of Ukrainian children taken from Crimea after the occupation of the Peninsula in 2014.

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The United States will not conclude any bilateral agreements with Russia and will not ease sanctions until a ceasefire agreement is reached in Ukraine. This was stated by Spokesperson for the US Department of State Tammy Bruce. “There will be no negotiations, no decisions, no agreements until this slaughter stops,” she emphasized.

President of Poland Andrzej Duda has said that director of the foreign intelligence service (svr) of the rf naryshkin is spreading classic russian disinformation when he threatens Poland and the Baltic states. “Everything that NATO does is a response to russian aggression... NATO has never attacked anyone and is not attacking anyone, it is an alliance that exclusively maintains security,” said the Polish President.

“russia is using the commemoration of the end of World War II to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine... It is important for us not to legitimize this by participating in events such as this parade,” said European Commission Spokesperson Anitta Hipper.

Minister of Energy of Belgium Mathieu Bihet believes that any talk of restoring energy ties with russia is an “illusion.” Bihet has stated that the idea that one day it will be possible to return to “normal cooperation with russia”, as if “nothing happened” is a fantasy.” The Belgian Minister has also said that the country continues to support the gradual phase-out of russian liquefied natural gas imports.

Finland will keep its eastern border with russia closed indefinitely. “The risk that instrumentalised migration will resume and expand as seen previously remains likely,” the Government of Finland said in a statement.

India is taking the arms market away from russia and will sell shells, missiles, helicopters and ships to its traditional customers. One of India’s first successes is Armenia. In the period from 2022 to 2024, India sold 43 % of the weapons imported by Yerevan, compared to almost zero in the period from 2016 to 2018.

The Government of Italy will demand that UniCredit leave russia as soon as possible. This is one of the conditions for the approval of the bank’s takeover of its smaller competitor Banco BPM.

Bosch, a German manufacturer of refrigerators and washing machines, has stated that the company no longer “has any business relations with russia, and has no plans to change this.”

The plunge in uranium prices and production cuts under the OPEC+ deal have hit the russian economy’s export revenues. In the four weeks ending in April, oil companies’ revenues from the sale of raw materials abroad fell to their lowest level since July 2023. The average volume of russian oil exports fell to 3.13 million barrels a day, down by 10 %, or 320 thousand barrels a day, compared to mid-March levels. And average revenues from barrel exports fell to $1.29 billion a week. Compared to a month ago, oil producers’ revenues have fallen by 10 %, and compared to April 2014, by more than a third, or about $700 million a week. This has deprived oil companies of $220 million in weekly revenues and promises new problems for the budget, which in March already lost 17 % of oil and gas revenues compared to a year ago.

From April 2024 to April 2025, the increase in wholesale prices for potatoes in russia exceeded 280 % – from 11.4 to 42.4 rubles a kilogram excluding VAT. Globally, the average cost of wholesale potatoes is 17.5 euro cents a kilogram (approximately 17 rubles), which is half their price in the rf.

Wholesale prices are rising for almost all types of vegetable products. For example, the cost of onions has soared from 16 to 28.5 rubles over the year, beets – from 19.7 to 26.2 rubles, and cabbage – from 19.8 to 30.4 rubles. In just one week in April, prices for fruit and vegetable products in russia increased by 0.9 % on average.

Sales of apartments in new buildings fell sharply in russia: in January-March, developers sold 35 million square meters of housing, or 31% of all housing construction. The current figure was the worst in five years. Thus, at the end of March 2021, the level of housing sales in new buildings was 47 %, while in March 2024 – 34 %.

The Siberian Federal District (SFD) in russia is the region with the highest prices for automotive fuel. The cost of a liter of AI-92 petrol there reaches RUB 57.83 in the Republic of Tyva, RUB 57.11 in Irkutsk region, RUB 55.7 in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, RUB 55.46 in Altai, and RUB 54.4 in Novosibirsk region. Novosibirsk is also among the leaders in terms of the cost of AI-95 petrol, with a price of 58.32 rubles for a liter.

The cost of basic food products in Novosibirsk Region continues to rise. In March, the price of the minimum grocery basket in the region reached RUB 7,815.67, which is by 2.8 % higher than in February.

In 2024, russian garrison military courts convicted 13,699 people in criminal cases. This is a record figure since at least 2010. Of all those convicted, 6,838 people were sentenced to imprisonment, which is also the highest figure in the last 14 years. A year earlier, the courts sentenced 3,021 military servicemen to prison.

moscow police began catching potential conscripts, including in the metro (metropolitan underground railway – Transl.), on the grounds of “non-burning summonses”.

Eight countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, and Ukraine – have joined the latest package of EU sanctions against belarus. Those are the sanctions approved by the EU Council on March 27, 2025. At that time, 25 individuals and 7 legal entities were included into the sanctions list for “the situation in belarus and the country’s participation in russia’s aggression against Ukraine”.

The Ministry of the Interior and Administration of Poland expects belarus’ new provocations on the border.

The Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD) predicts a slowdown in the belarusian economy. “In 2025, belarus is expected to decelerate to 1.6 % amid a slowdown in the russian economy and a more conservative domestic macroeconomic policy”. The EFSD also believes that inflation may accelerate in the country.

In January-March 2025, the volume of cargo transportation in the rb decreased by 2.7 %.

The number of vacancies in the belarusian labor market is close to 200 thousand.

Propagandists close to dictator lukashenko believe that the mere prospect of labor migrants from Pakistan arriving in the rb should force belarusians to increase their labor productivity, as “they are not likely to compete with labor migrants.”

This year, Catholics are allowed to hold the traditional Lenten religious procession, which commemorates Jesus Christ, in the streets of cities only in one region of belarus – Grodno region.