April 24, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“Crimea is Ukraine. For those who are under occupation, it is very important that others do not recognize it as russian,” said EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas regarding proposals to officially recognize Crimea as part of russia. She also believes that the United States has not used its tools to put pressure on russia.

“We support the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine. And when it comes to Crimea, our position is really clear: Crimea is Ukraine,” said Guillaume Mercier, Spokesperson for the European Commission.

President of France Emmanuel Macron’s office has pointed out that any peace agreement to end the war unleashed by the rf must include respect for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

President of Finland Alexander Stubb has said that the situation in the negotiations on a ceasefire in Ukraine is difficult, but not impossible.

“russia’s goal is to delay (the negotiation process). They believe that time is their ally. The longer they drag this process out, the better the situation will be for them in a month, two or three,” President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda has said about russia’s position on potential peace talks.

Since the beginning of the rf’s full-scale invasion, the World Bank has provided more than $51 billion to Ukraine’s state budget, $30.7 billion in grants included.

Over the three years of the Ukraine Energy Support Fund, donor contributions from 22 countries have reached EUR 1.2 billion.

Posco International (Republic of Korea) will invest $106 million in the construction of a RDF-fueled combined heat and power plant (CHPP) in Odesa with a capacity of 12 MW of electricity and 40 MW of thermal energy.

“We strongly condemn the act of vandalism committed against one of the Ukrainian places of memory in Poland. The illegally installed inscriptions and signs must be removed immediately. This is a deliberate provocation that serves, among other things, the interests of the aggressor country, russia, and aims to harm the constructive dialogue that has been going on between the two countries in recent months,” – says a joint statement by Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine Mykola Tochytskyi and Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland Anna Wróblewska regarding the placement of a provocative plaque on the mass grave of UPA warriors.

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The Government of Lithuania has approved a draft resolution of the Ministry of Finance to allocate additional EUR 187.7 million for priority arms purchases. These funds will be transferred to the Ministry of National Defense for advance payments for infantry fighting vehicles and medium-range air defense systems.

Estonia will build a military base for 250 Estonian and allied troops in the city of Narva on the border with russia.

European security services have concluded that the main directorate of the general staff of the armed forces of the rf, formerly known as gru, is behind the explosions of parcels at airports in the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland.

Employee of the russian house natalya sekurina has been arrested in Kyrgyzstan on suspicion of recruiting mercenaries from other countries.

Having lost two-thirds of its gas exports after the failed attempt to freeze Europe and a trillion rubles in net losses accumulated over the past year alone, gazprom is asking the rf’s government to cut taxes. According to gazprom’s own forecasts, the total “hole” in the company’s budget will amount to 15 trillion rubles (almost $180 billion at the current exchange rate) between 2025 and 2034.

On May 1, increased scrappage rates will come into effect in russia, which will lead to a significant increase in prices for new cars. An increase of 10–15 % in the market price tags should be expected by the autumn of 2025.

In russia, the cost of meat for barbecue may soar by 10–20 %. Over the past year, there has been a general upward trend in prices for meat and other barbecue ingredients due to sanctions, which means higher prices for feed, energy, logistics and other production costs. In early 2025, the average payment for a kebab was 3.3 thousand rubles.

The russian stock and currency markets plummeted in trading on April 23. The dollar rose by 1.5 % to 82.71 rubles on the forex market as of 12:30 moscow time, and rose to 83.1 rubles on the russian interbank market, the highest level in a week. The euro rose against the ruble by 2.2 % to 94.5 rubles, while the yuan jumped by 2 % to 11.35 rubles on the moscow exchange, setting a one-week high.

russia is going to introduce administrative liability for renting out an apartment without written consent from neighbors, and even without official registration of such a transaction. The draft law will soon be submitted to the state duma.

russian schoolchildren will again be given marks for behavior, as in the soviet era, according to a draft law being prepared by the ministry of education of the rf, said minister of education sergey kravtsov.

At the beginning of the year, sales of agricultural machinery in russia declined by more than 30 % to the level of 2024, which is considered a severe crisis by machinery manufacturers, who at the same time complain about unequal competition with belarusian manufacturers.

The belarusian construction industry suffers from long-delayed construction projects, most of which – 223 – are in the housing and utilities sector, agriculture, and industry. There are more than a hundred unfinished residential buildings. The most difficult situation is in Minsk region: there is a quarter of such facilities there. There are 75 long-delayed construction projects in Mogilev region, and more than 100 in Minsk. There are 24 long-delayed construction projects on the balance sheet of the academy of sciences of the rb, and another 12 such objects are a heavy burden on the ministry of education of the rb.