April 5, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“The Ukrainians, for their part, have taken a very strong defensive position, dug in well and seem to have resolved some of their personnel problems, which were very acute last autumn,” – NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe Christopher Cavoli pointed out that Ukraine managed to find a solution to “some” problems with personnel shortages, including expanding the pool of recruits and optimizing the distribution of military resources.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Noël Barrot has said that the Coalition of the Determined in support of Ukraine is preparing options for monitoring the truce, but is now demanding a concrete (even if negative), response from moscow to the ceasefire proposal.

France and the United Kingdom are ready to take responsibility for coordinating partners’ efforts to support Ukraine and will continue efforts to ensure the Alliance’s ability to maintain peace and stability throughout the North Atlantic area.

“We decided that the path of Ukraine into NATO is irreversible … but it was never promised to Ukraine that NATO membership would be part of a peace deal,” said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

“The shortest answer to your question is that putin should never try to capture a single square kilometer of Ukrainian territory again. When he knows that there are deterrence measures, defenses that ensure that Ukraine can no longer be attacked,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte outlined his vision of “lasting peace” in Ukraine.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Caspar Veldkamp has stressed that his country expects to see Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in the Hague on April 24-26, and demands that Allies increase support for Ukraine, and at the same time strengthen international pressure on russia to establish peace.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the administration of US President Donald Trump expects russia to be ready to end the war. “We want to understand whether they (the rf) really want peace. If so, there is a path to peace, and we are ready to help. If not, it is better to find out about it earlier so that we can adjust our policy accordingly,” the US Secretary of State concluded.

Ministers of Foreign Affairs of European countries have accused russia of disrupting ceasefire talks in Ukraine and called for pressure on moscow.

“I think everyone in Europe understands that everyone will pay for russia’s any armed aggression against NATO. And it is much cheaper to invest (in defense) right now than to have consequences... russia will remain a threat to NATO,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Margus Tsahkna.

United Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE Neil Holland has said that russia continues massive attacks on Ukraine and refuses to cease fire, which shows the kremlin’s unwillingness to move towards peace. The fact that russia actually refuses to comply with the ceasefire agreements should have consequences for it, and a deadline must be set for the kremlin’s final decision on whether or not to participate in this agreement. This was stated by Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly. The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on eight crypto wallet addresses linked to the russian crypto exchange Garantex and the Yemeni Houthi movement.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on eight crypto wallet addresses linked to the russian crypto exchange Garantex and the Yemeni Houthi movement.

The Finnish national broadcaster Yle TV1, which broadcasts the matches of the country's national football teams, decided not to show the match of the women’s League of Nations belarus – Finland, as the rb supports the rf in the war against Ukraine.

As of March 28, 2025, russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves amounted to $645.6 billion, having decreased by $4.8 billion (-1.7 %) over the past week.

In the rf, the profitability of exports of certain grades of thermal coal in the eastern direction went into the negative zone in March. Over the last week of the month, the figure decreased to minus 358 rubles a ton.

Sales of new passenger cars in russia in March 2025 fell by 45.5 % year-on-year.

“avtovaz” may stop the assembly line due to the collapse of car sales.

The construction of new residential buildings in russia has decreased by 24 %.

High rates in the rf hit the sale of household appliances, electronics and computers. The sales dropped by 15 %. Consumer loans, which were an important source of demand for these goods, declined sharply.

Authorities of the rf are preparing to save “pochta rossii”(“russia’s post” – Transl.) which has been suffering losses for the third year in a row, at the expense of the russians. Every year, the national postal operator will be able to receive about 5 billion rubles, which the budget will collect in the form of fines for violations of traffic rules. This will be possible due to the fact that in 2025 fines have been increased 1.5 times, and the amount of the discount on their payment during the grace period was reduced from 50 % to 25%.

In the first quarter of 2025, russian streamings released 24 original series, by 40 % less than a year earlier. The industry attributes the reduction to an increase in the cost of production.

russian cellular operators will not be able to launch next-generation 5G communications until 2030 due to Western sanctions and the problem with access to frequencies currently used by state television.

The campaign launched by the rf to increase the birth rate resulted in censorship on television, where they began to drown out the word “abortion”.

The state duma has refused to grant russian propagandists, the so-called “war correspondents”, the veteran status.

In March, reserves of water in reservoirs in the temporarily occupied Crimea decreased by 3 million cubic meters.

The leadership of the German Foundation of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora memorial complexes has not invited russian and belarusian diplomats to participate in the commemorative events on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of those concentration camps

The Polish Sejm has adopted a resolution on the presidential elections in belarus with an absolute majority of votes. The Sejm condemned the ongoing repression in the rb against representatives of the opposition, independent journalists and civil society organizations. One of the most important points of the resolution is the recognition by the Sejm of “a free and sovereign Belarus as one of the key pillars of stability and security in the region”.

The fall of the russian car market in the first quarter affected the sales of the belarusian brand belgee. In March, 2,428 belgee cars were sold in the rf, which is by 11.1 % fewer than in the same period last year.