January 10, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The United States is allocating a $500 million military aid package to Ukraine, which includes: AIM-7, RIM-7, and AIM-9M missiles for air defense; air-to-ground munitions; support equipment for F-16s; armored bridging systems; secure communications equipment; small arms and ammunition; and spare parts, ancillary equipment, services, training, and transportation.

In 2025, Norway and Denmark will allocate EUR 178 million for arms purchases in the Ukrainian Defense Industry based on the Danish model. In 2024, the Armed Forces of Ukraine received weapons worth almost EUR 538 million under this model.

The United Kingdom, together with other NATO member states, will send 30,000 FPV drones worth £45 million to Ukraine as part of the Drone Coalition.

Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger has said that the first 10 Lynx IFV armored personnel carriers have arrived in Ukraine for testing.

Participants in a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (Ramstein format), together with allies, have approved eight roadmaps that define the key goals of the Ukrainian Defense Forces until  2027.

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh has said that since the beginning of russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has received a total of more than $126 billion in military aid from the member countries of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (Ramstein format).

“It is very good that we are meeting here today at Ramstein... because we need to do everything possible to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs, in terms of training and equipment, to prevail in this fight”, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said.

Minister of Defence of the FRG Boris Pistorius has said it is necessary to preserve the Ramstein format, within which the Ukraine Defense Contact Group is meeting.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas has said that the European Union is ready to take a leading role in helping Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin believes that Ukraine continues to build up its potential in the war against the rf.

“Frankly, I do not foresee Trump’s disengagement from Ukraine. I do not read this from his statements”, said Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni.

“putin is not waging war, putin is purposely murdering Ukrainian citizens, destroying cities and infrastructure. He is a mass murderer who will be held accountable for all these war crimes”, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavský said about the russian guided missile strike in Zaporizhzhia.

Germany has allocated 400 thousand US dollars to strengthen Ukraine's capacity to provide strategic planning for forestry and state forest cadastre.

rf

The United States supports Ukraine's decision to stop the transit of russian gas to Europe, as it sees it as a significant blow to russia. This was stated by White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby.

Prime Minister of Finland Petteri Orpo has said that the government cannot open the border with russia: “the threat assessment of the eastern border remains unchanged”, and russia “is still ready to let individuals across the border without proper documents”.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Kęstutis Budrys has called for a “strong and decisive” response to attacks on the Baltic Sea critical infrastructure.

brigadier general of the islamic revolutionary guard corps behrouz esbati has accused russia of misleading iran by telling it that russian jets were bombing Syrian rebels when they were actually dropping bombs on open fields”. According to him, in 2024, as Israel struck iranian targets in Syria, russia had “turned off radars, in fact facilitating those attacks”.

In 2024, the kremlin spent at least 11.5 trillion rubles on the war against Ukraine, and the budget for the current year provides for military spending of 13.49 trillion rubles. They will reach 32.5% of all expenditures and will be unprecedented since the soviet era. For comparison, in the first year of the war, the government spent 17% of the budget on the army and weapons purchases, in 2023 – 17%, and in 2024 – 29.5%.

The russian government will allocate 2.25 billion rubles for the development of equipment for 5G Advanced and 6G communication networks in 2025-2030 instead of the 11.5 billion rubles previously planned. moscow has cut funding for the development of telecommunications equipment amid increased spending on the war against Ukraine.

russian oil companies reduced the launch of new wells in 2024 by 12.3% compared to the previous year, and decreased production drilling by 1.2%. The reasons for the significant drop in new wells commissioning and production drilling were the rising drilling costs, oil production restrictions under the OPEC+ pact and lower commodity prices.

The russian automotive market will face a plummet in sales in 2025, while car prices will continue to rise. While last year about 1.6 million cars were sold in the country, this year the number of transactions may fall by 15-20%. The main factors that will affect the decline in sales will be an increase in the key policy rate, lower loan approvals, rising prices due to an increase in the utilization fee and a weakening ruble. Car brands are already raising prices and canceling discounts on their models in 2025. At least, this applies to the Chinese Haval, Tank, and russian uaz. From December 22 to January 3, foreign cars went up by 100-500 thousand rubles, while the cost of russian models increased by about 80 thousand rubles.

Tougher requirements for taxi drivers under the law, problems with finding drivers, and the rising prices for cars have reduced the russian businesses’ interest in working in this sphere. The number of registrations of specialized companies and private entrepreneurs decreased by 20% over the year.

The growth of non-payments due to the problems accumulating in the russian economy, high interest rates and difficulties with settlements in foreign trade is forcing businesses to return to the prepayment scheme popular in the 1990s.

According to different estimates, the drop in russian citizens’ demand for real estate abroad in 2024 was up to 25%, as it is becoming increasingly difficult to register real estate abroad and make payments for it.

According to market research, in 2025, the number of transactions with primary real estate in the rf may decrease by 30-35%. This means a decrease in sales from 7.5 trillion rubles in 2023 to 5.3 trillion rubles in 2025. In a pessimistic scenario, when the key policy rate of the central bank continues to rise and household incomes decline, the volume of new housing sales may decline even further – to 4.9 trillion rubles. Besides, over the next three years, the price for a square meter in the baseline scenario will increase by about 15%, while the margin may be up to 10%, or go into the red, compared to 15-60% in 2023. These factors will result in more than 30% of developers suffering losses in 2025.

A prayer service was held in the kuban for “granting God's help” in the area of the fuel oil collection.

rospotrebnadzor’s office in saratov region found no excess of air pollution in engels, where an oil depot is burning after a drone attack.

speaker of the state duma of the russian federation volodin has announced a ban on video games due to “propaganda of values alien to russia”.

The central district court of tula upheld the claim of the local office of rospotrebnadzor and recognized the information on the sale of goods with LGBTQ+ symbols on the website of the online store Shein as prohibited in russia.

The English rugby club “Gloucester” has banned its athlete kirill gotovtsev from playing in a T-shirt with the rf’s flag. “Gloucester” has added that after an internal discussion, the club decided not to ban the rest of the players from wearing T-shirts with the national flag.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Estonia is demanding that the Estonian orthodox church of the moscow patriarchate sever all ties with the russian church authorities.

In November 2024, the negative balance of the rb in trade in goods increased by $675 million to $4.245 billion.

During the ceremony of awarding special prizes to cultural and artistic figures, lukashenko said that the country managed to avoid economic collapse because it ignored sanctions: “Forget about sanctions. There are no sanctions”.

candidate for president of the rb sergei sirankov has proposed to restore monuments to stalin in the country. “We urge you to restore the heroic memory of one of the founders of the belarusian soviet state, the leader of the victorious soviet state, j.v. stalin, and propose to restore monuments to j.v. stalin in the rb, to return his status as a faithful father of the belarusian statehood”.

In 2023, total alcohol consumption in the rb amounted to 11.5 liters per person. According to the World Health  Organization, if the average alcohol consumption exceeds 8 liters per person, it is considered a critical point.

A teacher who was a member of the election commission in 2020 has been convicted of “extremism” in rechitsa.