February 8, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Ukraine has received a batch of F-16 fighter jets from the Netherlands.

Lithuania has announced the transfer of a military aid package to Ukraine, which includes heavy trucks and spare parts for M113 armored personnel carriers. The Ministry of Defense of Lithuania has also reminded that military assistance to our country this year will focus on air defense, ammunition, UAVs, anti-drone systems, and support for the Ukrainian Defense Industry.

The Lithuanian company “NT Service” has donated, as part of the Radarom! initiative, 50 SkyWiper-MOTO anti-drone systems designed to protect vehicles and soldiers from drone attacks to support the Ukrainian military.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development plans to invest at least EUR 1.5 billion in Ukraine's economy in 2025. “...But if we can do more, we will do it,” said President of the EBRD Odile Renaud-Basso.

The Belgian Government will use EUR 1.7 billion of last year's proceeds from frozen russian assets to help Ukraine. The total amount of russian assets currently immobilized in Euroclear is about EUR 183 billion.

US President’s Special Envoy for Ukraine and russia Keith Kellogg has said that US President Donald Trump first “wants to stop the killing” in russia's war against Ukraine, and then “move on” to peace talks.

“I don't want him (putin) to take part in the negotiations – I want him to get out of Ukraine. He can do it in five minutes. If he doesn't, he will face an international court. He has no business on the territory of another UN member state,” emphasized Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski.

Bulgaria will receive about EUR 500 million in compensation from Denmark, the European Commission and the United States for military aid to Ukraine.

President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his position that the war in Ukraine should end in a just peace.

President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel has signed amendments to legislation to extend the protection period for refugees from Ukraine.

For the first time Ukraine starts exporting biomethane to Europe.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency and the KAKUICHI will help Ukraine implement nano-bubble technology to saturate soils with oxygen.

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US President Donald Trump is ready to strengthen US sanctions to force russia to end the war in Ukraine. This was stated by Trump's Special Envoy Keith Kellogg. According to Kellogg, the application of sanctions against russia are rated “only about a three” on a 10-point scale in terms of economic pressure. The US sanctions themselves – for example, those targeting russia's energy sector – could be at least doubled.

The special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine should start functioning after the relevant international agreement is agreed and adopted, which may happen as early as in 2025. “...If there is no court that deals with this crime, we need to create one! Therefore, our ambition is to create a tribunal this year,” said Secretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berset regarding the “tribunal for putin”. According to him, the coalition of states involved in the creation of the special tribunal has already “found compromises and solutions on all important issues”, after which “the Council of Europe is ready for the next steps.”

The United States is sanctioning an international network that channels illicit revenue to the iranian military. “This network is being designated for facilitating millions of barrels of illicit iranian oil shipments to China to fund iran’s armed forces general staff through its front company sepehr energy. Proceeds of these sales support terrorist and proxy groups,” the US Department of State said in a statement.

EU Chief Diplomat Kaja Kallas has called the Baltic states’ disconnection from the common energy system with the rf a “victory of freedom and European unity”. She emphasized that after the disconnection, russia will no longer be able to use energy as a blackmail tool against the Baltic states.

In a joint letter to the G7, Estonia, Ireland, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Czech Republic have called for additional measures to reduce the revenues earned by russia from the sale of its energy carriers.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski has said that captains of ships that damage underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, such as telecommunication cables or pipelines, should be subject to EU sanctions.

Executive Director of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol has called on the countries of the West and the East to increase uranium enrichment capacity, as currently 40% of the capacity is located in one country – russia. Diversification of this industry is necessary to stop importing raw materials from russia, – said Birol.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France has threatened the rf with consequences for the latter’s decision to revoke the accreditation of Le Monde correspondent Benjamin Kenel in moscow.

In the Czech Republic, the possibility for russians to be granted citizenship of Czechia without giving up their russian passports has been blocked indefinitely. The law establishing the restrictions has been signed by President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel.

The 2027 European Youth Football Championship will be held without russia’s national team. This information has officially been confirmed by UEFA. It has also been announced that there will be no russian team at the 2028 Olympic Games.

The International Basketball Federation has extended the suspension of the rf and the rb from competitions.

In partial 2024, trade between russia and Finland amounted to just over EUR 1 billion. In the same period of 2021, it reached EUR 11 billion.

The discount on urals oil rose to almost $16 per barrel after Joe Biden's administration imposed the toughest restrictive measures on russia's oil operations 10 days before the end of his term. As a result, the price of urals fell below $60 per barrel, and the discount of $15.7 was the largest since May 2024.

The prosecutor general's office of the rf has declared the Norwegian non-governmental organization The Independent Barents Observer AS (TIBO AS) undesirable in russia. TIBO AS is the owner and publisher of The Barents Observer, an online publication that reports on events in the Barents region, a part of northern Europe that includes the territories bordering the Barents Sea. According to the prosecutor general's office, “a significant part of the published materials has a pronounced anti-russian orientation.”

The volume of foreign investment in the rf continues to decline rapidly and as of the end of 2024 has fallen to its lowest level in the last 15 years. In the first three quarters of last year, foreign investors withdrew another $44 billion in direct investment from the real economy, bringing the total to $235 billion. In 2023, russia lost $80 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI), and in the first year of the full-scale war – $138 billion. In three years, the cumulative total of FDI in the economy, which before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine amounted to almost $500 billion, fell two fold, or by $262 billion.

In the rf, hundreds of foreign citizens have faced bank account blocking after being included in the register of “controlled persons”. At the same time, all foreigners claim to be in russia legally.

The federal penitentiary service and the ministry of internal affairs of the rf compile lists of convicts potentially suitable for signing a contract for military service, including those who have not expressed such a desire.

Draft law: the russian authorities will be able to declare an entire organization an extremist organization based on the sentence handed down to even one of its members.

According to the institute of applied economic research, only about 10 % of russians who left the country after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the announcement of mobilization, returned to russia. Earlier, russian authorities claimed that “almost half” of the russians had returned to the country.

The state duma committee on culture has recommended that a draft law on the protection of the russian language be passed in the first reading. The document restricts the use of anglicisms and foreign language words on shop signs, in the names of residential complexes, villages and city districts.

putin demands to limit the intake to universities of the willing to study economics and law.

russians born in the 1990s and 2000s, who are called Generation Z, are not able to work efficiently and effectively. This was shown by a study conducted by moscow state university, said dean of the faculty of economics aleksandr auzan. “They are like a duck that walks, flies, and swims – but does all three things poorly.” According to him, young russians do not strive to achieve anything in life but “like leisure more”. At the same time, they have a poor memory due to the lots of gadgets.

In January 2025, the total volume of consumer loans (mortgages, cash loans, car loans, and pos loans) issued in the rf amounted to 441 billion rubles – the lowest since April 2022. In annual terms, the figure decreased by 47 %. Moreover, this result is the lowest for the first month of the year since 2017.

Over the past year, the area of flats in new buildings in moscow has decreased in all segments. Business class flats saw the largest reduction in area – by 14 %, to 50 sq m. In the comfort class segment, the flats decreased by 12 % (to 43 sq m), and in the economy class – by 9 % (to 38 sq m).

The russian ministry of transport has promised to transfer russians to flying taxis. Experts believe that such technologies will not be affordable for 99 % of citizens.

15 new fuel oil spots have been recorded on the Black Sea coast.

Thousands of people in the komi republic cannot receive subsidized medicines due to malfunctioning of the “parus” medical information system, which the federal ministry of healthcare forced the regions to switch to.

Authorities of vologda region are planning to consider a complete ban on abortions in the region, in private clinics included.

The petrogradsky district court of st. petersburg has ordered a graduate of the st. petersburg university of chemical and pharmaceutical sciences to pay almost 300,000 rubles for refusing to go to the temporarily occupied Mariupol to work as a pharmacist.

The st. petersburg ethnographic museum has closed a room with an exhibition on Jewish culture. They decided that it would be “more appropriate” to present the Caucasus, “novorossiya” and Crimea.

A participant in the war against Ukraine, accused by the Ukrainian authorities of torturing and killing civilians in the city of Bucha, has been appointed to the government of orenburg region. nursultan mussagaleyev will work as acting deputy minister of regional and information policy.

mikhail ivanov, a member of the bryansk regional duma and head of the “orthodox russia” movement, has proposed to send “difficult” teenagers to monasteries for re-education.

In udmurtia, a puppet show “kolobok goes to the army” was shown in a kindergarten. The fairy-tale character met various animals and told them that he wanted to serve. At the end of the play, he returns to his grandparents and says he will join the army when he reaches the right age.

The EU intends to increase duties on belarusian and russian fertilizers to 100 %.

The Parliament of Latvia has put forward an idea to impose restrictions on travel to the rb. They believe that tourists are at risk of detention and recruitment, and that Latvian authorities have limited capacity to provide assistance.

The Norstat research center has conducted a public opinion poll to find out Latvia’s residents’ attitude to lukashenko. Among ethnic Latvians, 61 % have a very negative or rather negative attitude to him. Among russians and russian-speakers, support for lukashenko is much higher: 39 % and 38 %, respectively, approve of his actions. Besides, the share of people who abstained from evaluating him is also high among this category of respondents – 44 % and 43 %, respectively.

Authorities of the rb have supplied the postal service with new lists of political prisoners who are prohibited from being sent money.

The rb continues to inspect legal entities founded or owned by citizens of so-called “unfriendly” countries. The inspections are related to the implementation of the government’s decree, under which belarusian organizations must notify executive committees at the place of registration “about the amount of profit and (or) dividends paid to foreign participants and owners of property from unfriendly countries”.

Information screens in the minsk underground railway were switched on on the 11th day after the election. At the request of the authorities, they did not work for two weeks, from January 23 to February 5.