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

2/5/2025
singleNews

“Thanks to the Ukraine Fund and the G7 loan, we have closed Ukraine’s budget shortfall for the entire year 2025. In parallel, we must speed up the immediate delivery of weapons and ammunition. This will be the focus of our work in the coming weeks,” said President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

“The war in Ukraine is not only a war on European soil. It is a war that threatens the foundations of the entire international community. Rewarding the aggressor, rewarding the violation of territorial integrity is a threat to everyone. That is why our position is clear: The EU will support Ukraine for as long as it takes and as much as it needs. We will strengthen Ukraine's position under any circumstances for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace. A peace chosen by Ukraine and Ukrainians,” said President of the European Council António Costa.

“Our support for Ukraine is not charity, it is not altruism, it is also self-preservation. Because if putin wins, no one will be safe – not Ukraine, not Europe, not even the United States,” said President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola.

“Ukroboronprom and the Polish Armory Group have signed a memorandum of cooperation in the production of ammunition, maintenance of armored vehicles and artillery, and strengthening of air defense systems.

Europe's largest low-cost airline is developing a plan to start flying to Ukraine within four to six weeks after the end of the war.

In 2024, Ukraine increased its agricultural exports by $0.69 billion compared to 2023.

The Netherlands has employed 59% of Ukrainian refugees.

The United Nations Development Program, with financial support from Spain, will restore eight war-damaged Ukrainian schools.

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On February 5, the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU countries will start discussing proposals for the 16th package of anti-russian sanctions.

“It is extremely important that member states continue to immobilize russian assets. We can now continue to think about how to find the most creative way to use those assets to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom. We have to show the kremlin that the longer the war lasts, the higher the price for russia will be,” said President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Latvia's State Security Service predicts that the rf’s malicious activities in the country will increase in 2025.

The Austrian oil and gas company OMV has reported that the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce has ruled in its favor in an arbitration proceeding over russian gas supplies to Austria and awarded compensation by “gazprom export” in the amount of EUR 48 million.

The member states of the International Maritime Organization (a specialized intergovernmental agency of the United Nations) has accused russia of negligence that led to the destruction of oil tankers in the Black Sea. They called on the rf to take all possible measures to prevent environmental damage that can be caused by the accident.

sanctioned russian oligarch alisher usmanov’s villa in the German community of Rottach-Egern, Bavaria, has been put up for auction for EUR 25 million.

The rf’s government has approved the confiscation of private property of foreigners in russia.

Imports of machine tools from abroad should be banned by law if there are russian equivalents on the market, – said first deputy prime minister denis manturov.

deputy minister of agriculture afonina has acknowledged that imports of agricultural seeds to russia decreased 2.5 times in 2024.

russian manufacturers sharply reduced the production of agricultural equipment: in 2024,  they assembled products totaling 237.1 billion rubles (VAT included), which is by 12.5 % less than a year earlier. The production of machines for soil dressing has fallen the most – by 61%. Manufacturing of new equipment has declined against the background of falling sales in the domestic market. In 2024, they decreased by 17.6 %, to 198.4 billion rubles with VAT. Shipment of almost all categories of agricultural machinery decreased too.

minselkhoz of the rf has warned about the summer invasion of locusts as a result of the warm winter.

member of the state duma of russia from the faction “A just russia – for the truth” sergey mironov has proposed to introduce in the country a state duty on migrants’ money transfers. For the whole of 2024, citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan who work in russia had transferred more than $ 14 billion to their countries.

The ministry of defense of the rf has proposed to conscript into the army the russians with syphilis, hypertension, psychosis and schizophrenia.

The government commission on law making has approved a positive response to the initiative of chair of the state duma’s committee for defence andrey kartapolov, who proposed to strengthen the responsibility for failure to inform the military commissariat about one’s moving within three months.

russian scientists will be banned from cooperating with foreigners without the fsb’s permission.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, the russian raiffeisenbank suffered a net loss of EUR 240 million. The RBI recorded a loss from the russian asset for the first time in a few years – this was not observed in the Covid-19 pandemic or in 2022 after the start of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The largest book publishing houses in russia have faced a shortage of printing materials for the production of children’s, youth and collector’s books and have already begun to transfer their printing to China. By the beginning of 2025, the shortage of printing materials for book processing reached 30% of publishers' needs. The country also has virtually no productive and highly efficient equipment for complex printing, and what is available is heavily worn out and difficult to replace due to sanctions. Increase in prices for book products in 2025, in addition to sanctions restrictions, is due to a 20% rise in the cost of printing services, more complicated logistics of paper and other materials, as well as an average 4-7% increase in marketplace commissions.

russian owners of clothing brands recognize the most acute problem – the lack of russian fabrics and accessories, which have to be imported from abroad for modern clothing models: “we have 5, maximum 10% of raw materials from russia, the rest is imported. From russia we have only synthetic sintepon, threads, and down.” Due to the high dependence on imported fabrics and components, the cost of clothing production is increasing dramatically. Payments to suppliers are made in dollars and euros, and these currencies have doubled in value since the summer of 2022. The second problem is the shortage of personnel: as of today, the number of vacancies in the light industry has doubled since 2022.

In 2024, russians' spending on cigarettes increased by 18.9% year-on-year to RUB 1.4 trillion. The main reason for the increase in spending was the increase in the minimum price, which the government has been setting since 2021. In 2022, a pack of 20 cigarettes cost at least 112 rubles, in 2023 – 119 rubles, from January 1, 2025, the minimum price was raised to 135 rubles. As in the previous year, most cigarettes were bought in magadan region (120.9 thousand packs), in kamchatka (115.7 thousand), in the trans-baikal territory (108.7 thousand), in sakhalin region (106.4 thousand), in amur region (100.6 thousand), in jewish autonomous region (96.8 thousand), in yamal-nenets autonomous district (89.2 thousand), in murmansk region (89.0 thousand), in karelia (88.9 thousand) and in komi (88.9 thousand).

The concentration of a powerful carcinogen, benzopyrene, on the beaches of anapa that have been cleaned of fuel oil,  22.5 times exceeds the permissible level.

authorities of kemerovo region are launching a wave of massive layoffs in kindergartens amid the falling budget revenues.

russians taking part in the war against Ukraine and using foul language risk being killed, as it negatively affects their spiritual state, said the head of the information commission of the moscow city diocese clergyman aleksandr volkov. “The guys come back and say that those who swear are killed or wounded first of all. This is the law, I did not invent it, but it works,” the clergyman assured.

On February 3 and 4, the International Ice Hockey Federation held a meeting at which it was decided to extend the disqualification of the russian and belarusian national teams of all age categories because of the war against Ukraine. The rf and the rb are now banned until the end of 2026, so the teams of those countries will not participate in the 2025 and 2026 World Cups.

Poland will continue to support belarusians’ aspirations for freedom and civil society institutions, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Kęstutis Budrys has expressed support for Belarus and said that Belarus belongs to Europe. Kęstutis has emphasized that the rb is occupied by dictatorship and russia and must get rid of this in order to return to the European path.

Belarus is on the verge of an economic and demographic catastrophe, said Pavel Latushko, Deputy Head of the Joint Transitional Cabinet. According to the politician, young belarusians are leaving the country en masse, “and foreign labor is being brought to replace them”, small businesses are being destroyed by the state, while “the economy is becoming completely dependent on the unstable eastern neighbor”.

In 2024, the  Border Guard Service of Poland twice less smuggling on the border with belarus than in 2023. This is evidenced by the statistics of the agency. In total, the Border Guards stopped imports and exports of products of illegal origin worth  15.5 million zloty (about $3.8 million).

Since 2020, at least 1,896 non-profit organizations have closed in the rb.

lukashenko has discussed with the prosecutor general the issue of withdrawing currency from the rb. It turned out that not tens of millions, but hundreds of millions were transferred abroad over the year. Although the dictator had previously instructed to prevent foreign investors leaving the rb from unreasonably withdrawing their currency, earned there. “They withdraw dividends. Did they personally earn that money? They paid our people a miserable salary, then went abroad and withdrew the money. Is this normal?” said lukashenko.

“Unlike the West, the rb holds “democratic, not pseudo-democratic elections,” lukashenko stated.

The miorsk metal-rolling plant, which on lukashenko's initiative was previously seized by the authorities from private owners, mainly sells its products to russia, but failed to fulfill the stated plan. The company also hides its financial statements.

Among the military equipment seized by rebels from the M23 group at the airport of Goma (Congo), there were new belarusian “berkut-vm” UAVs.

minsk tractor plant decided to congratulate lukashenko on his “victory” in the presidential election and presented him with the “most valuable thing” – a tractor.