February 28, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Finland is changing its approach to military aid to Ukraine and launching a new support program focused on purchasing products from its own defense industry. The Ministry of Defense of the country proposes to allocate EUR 660 million for this initiative.

At a meeting of the Coalition for Demining in Vilnius, the partners confirmed their readiness to allocate EUR 700 million for the purchase of equipment for Ukraine.

Minister of the Armed Forces of France Sébastien Lecornu has said that his country intends to propose to European states to create reserves of weapons for potential assistance to Ukraine.

Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni has stated that Ukraine's NATO membership is the most effective security guarantee for the country.

“We, the Europeans, have a lot in our hands to put pressure on russia in the negotiations,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Margus Tsahkna.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called on the USA to provide security “backstop” to any future European peacekeepers in Ukraine, saying that this could ensure a lasting peace not just a temporary ceasefire.

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Relatives of the victims of the 2014 MH17 crash, which killed 298 people, insist that there can be no reliable peace agreement without russia's recognition of responsibility for the downing of the plane. This is stated in the relevant letters sent to US President Donald Trump and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

The EU is preparing a major defence initiative, the largest since the Cold War. It intends to spend hundreds of billions of euros on security

According to Hensoldt defense supplier, even a ceasefire in Ukraine over the next decade would not change the threat NATO faces from russia. “The military – especially in Poland and the Baltic states – can feel putin’s breath,” said the company’s CEO, Oliver Dörre.

“China is the largest provider of dual-use goods and sensitive items that sustain russia’s military-industrial base and that are found on the battlefield in Ukraine. Without China’s support, russia would not be able to continue its military aggression with the same force,” said Spokesperson for the European Commission Anouar El Anouni.

Lithuanian military experts say that last year’s russian disinformation efforts were aimed at destroying Lithuania's defense capabilities and support for Ukraine.

Industrial production growth in russia slowed sharply in January. In the first month of 2025, the industry increased its output by 2.2 %, almost four times less than in December (8.2 %) and half the average for the previous year (4.6 %). Outside of the military-industrial complex, factories and plants in civilian industries are beginning to experience problems. In January, furniture production fell by 2.4 %, clothing and footwear output dropped by 3.4 %, and the growth rate of the food industry slowed twofold to 2 % compared to 4.1 % last year. Steel production decreased (by 2.7 %), and overall metallurgical production fell by 1.7 % amid problems of the largest companies in the industry, which lost Western markets due to sanctions and faced a double-digit drop in exports.

In January, russia reduced electricity generation by 3.5 % year-on-year to 114 billion kilowatt-hours. Compared to December, the volume of generation decreased by 2.1 %. Thermal power plants reduced production in January by 1 % year-on-year to 78.9 billion kilowatt-hours, hydroelectric power plants reduced production by 8.9 % to 15.5 billion kilowatt-hours, and nuclear power plants – by 5.1 % to 18.8 billion kilowatt-hours.

In January, gold production in russia decreased by 2.5 % year-on-year, and by December, output fell by 43 %.

The rally in the russian stock and currency markets, which had boosted the ruble and stock indices to annual records, came to a halt on February 26. Following lavrov's statement that russia would not be satisfied with a truce along the current front line, as “there is a constitution” that enshrines the annexation of the entire territory of four Ukrainian regions, the ruble fell sharply against the dollar, euro and yuan, and the moscow exchange index went into the red, reversing the gains of the previous five trading days.

Consumer price growth in russia accelerated again, with prices rising by 0.23 % from February 18 to 24, after 0.17 % a week earlier. Since the beginning of the month, the price increase amounted to 0.70 %, exceeding the figure of February 2024 – 0.68 %. Since the beginning of the year, inflation has reached 1.94 % compared to 1.55 % in January-February last year.

After the invasion of Ukraine, russian authorities launched a large-scale currency issue to cover the budget deficit and finance state corporations involved in the kremlin's mega-projects. From the beginning of 2022 to October 2024, the monetary base – that is, the amount of central bank money in the financial system – jumped by 8.2 trillion rubles. Compared to previous periods, the rate of money emission has almost doubled: in 2019-2022, the monetary base grew by only 4.3 trillion rubles.

In 2024, the volume of “bad” mortgage debts increased by 63 % to RUB 95 billion. The total volume of mortgage loans to russians grew by 7 % during the year and reached RUB 19.2 trillion since the beginning of January.

In February, sour cream and cottage cheese prices in the rf rose by 0.8 % over the week (by 2.7 % and 2.4 % respectively). Prices for cottage cheese increased by 0.7 % (by 3.2 %), ultra-pasteurized drinking milk – by 0.5 % (by 2.7 %), and pasteurized milk – by 0.7 % (by 2.7 %).

One of russia's largest dairy producers, “molvest”, will increase the selling price of its products by up to 15 % starting March 15. Other russian milk producers have similar intentions. The price increase is dictated by rising costs for raw materials and other components of production costs.

Almost a third of logistics companies in russia are in a pre-bankruptcy state. According to experts, without proper support from the government, up to 20-30 % of logistics companies may face bankruptcy, which will lead to a shortage of vehicles and higher prices for logistics services.

In 2024, the net loss of the russian marketplace ozon increased by 39 % compared to a year earlier and amounted to 59.4 billion rubles.

russians will double their overtime hours to cover the staff shortage. The idea has already been approved by the government.

In 2024, the number of vacancies in the russian steel industry increased by 19 %.

The former representative office of the Hollywood studio Sony Pictures in russia has filed 20 lawsuits against russian movie networks totaling about a billion rubles. The lawsuits are related to debts for screenings of the studio’s films.

American social media, including YouTube, banned by the russian authorities after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, will not be unblocked anytime soon.

The Tagansky district court of moscow has found WhatsApp guilty of repeatedly committing an administrative offense related to the refusal to localize the data of russians in the country and imposed an administrative fine of 17 million rubles. LinkedIn has been blocked in russia for violating the requirement to localize data.

In 2022-2024, in the rf, 792 people became defendants in criminal cases under Articles 275 (“high treason”), 275.1 (“cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state, international or foreign organization”) and 276 (“espionage”) – four times more than in the previous 25 years taken together. At least nine people have died in custody, including seven in pre-trial detention prisons before they could be tried.

putin's envoy artem zhoga has called for the preservation of rare earth metals in the urals after putin suggested selling them to the United States.

russians can save money on their children's hobbies by encouraging them to paint, build small houses of matches or make crafts of plastic bottles, said member of the federation council olga epifanova.

A resident of Samara region threw a grenade at the local government building.

International organizations have rated the level of freedom in the russian-occupied Crimea at 2 points out of 100. This score is in line with the level of freedom in Eritrea and the dprk.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia has decided to extend the current restrictions on entry and visa issuance for citizens of russia and belarus until the end of 2026.

Starting April 29, Swedbank in Lithuania will ban not only direct but also indirect payments related to russia and belarus. The ban now includes not only payments for goods and services, but also transfers that have even an indirect connection to those countries.

belarus is at the bottom of the Freedom House's rating of political and civil liberties. The rb has scored seven “freedom points” out of a hundred, having lost one over the year. The report emphasizes the negative role of minsk in indoctrinating Ukrainian children forcibly deported from the occupied territories and “extreme” repressions. The rf has scored 12 points.

Since the beginning of the year, the neighboring EU countries have stopped more than one thousand attempts to illegally cross the border from belarus.

belarus intends to introduce fines for childfree and LGBT propaganda.

In 2024, the ministry of information of belarus blocked more than 3,150 “destructive” Internet resources. Over the past 10 years, about 15,000 destructive resources have been blocked. Among those blocked over the past year are the website of the Knigavka bookstore, the website of the IneedHelpBY initiative to help families of political prisoners, the website of the Community of belarusian railway workers, and the Pismo.bel service for sending letters to prisoners.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, the employment rate of the working-age population in the rb decreased from 84 % to 82.9 %.

The belarusian oil refinery “naftan” has been actively dismissing people for “politics”, and now it and its subsidiary “polimir” need more than 550 employees. This is 4.5 times more than three years ago.

minister of defence of the rb khrenin has commented on the combat readiness test of the belarusian armed forces and pointed out the “unprecedented desire” of those liable for military service to participate in the training. He emphasized that those liable for military service do not complain during the training and are ready to perform tasks “with willingness.”

On the fifth anniversary of the detection of COVID-19 in the rb, the ministry of healthcare declared its loyalty to the “belarusian way” during the pandemic and lukashenko's special role in fighting the infection. “Only the leader of one state – Our President! Our Father! Our Aleksandr Grigorievich Lukashenko! – could counter this global panic! With his usual wisdom, knowledge and experience of a leader, he listened to everyone – doctors, economists, politicians – and made his decision,” the healthcare ministry said in a statement.

During the 2023/2024 academic year, the vice-rector of the belarusian state university, Anna Bakun, re-educated students through special measures, which she reported to the kgb. She conducted “systematic ideological work” with students aimed at “preventing illegal actions in the field of propaganda and rehabilitation of Nazism”, took them to a meeting with a representative of the minsk prosecutor's office, where they were told about the genocide of the belarusian people; and shown a film about kgb officer Dmitry Fedosyuk with the call sign “nirvana”, who was shot dead by IT specialist Andrei Zeltser in 2021 during storming of his flat and the film “Confessions of an SBU Terrorist” about the bombing of a russian plane in Machulishchi; held a meeting with a member of the house of representatives Oleh Gaidukevich, and filmed a video for a “marathon of military songs” with them; the students were taken on an excursion to Zhodino prison.