January 15, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“When putin invaded Ukraine, he thought he'd conquer Kyiv in a matter of days. In fact, after the war began, I was the one who visited the center of Kyiv, not he. putin did not do that”, said US President Joe Biden.

“Pursuing a policy of peace through strength is vital to Ukraine's survival and America's security. The United States and its allies and partners must continue to support Ukraine and strengthen its position for negotiations that will one day lead to an end to putin's war”, reads a joint column by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin.

“Peace can only last if Ukraine comes to the negotiation table from a position of strength. For this, it needs our continued help, more weapons and faster”, reiterated NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Germany's contribution to the military aid has amounted to 16% of all the aid our country has received.

Minister of Defence of the FRG Boris Pistorius has confirmed the information that Germany has ordered 54 new RCH 155 wheeled howitzers for Ukraine. He has also pointed out that the German Government has prepared everything necessary for additional EUR 3 billion aid to Ukraine, but negotiations are underway to find sources of funding.

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos is convinced that in 2025 it will be possible to open two clusters with Ukraine in negotiations on membership in the European Union.

Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria have agreed on joint steps to cooperate with international institutions regarding the large-scale environmental disaster in the Black Sea caused by fuel oil pollution after the accident of russian tankers.

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Ten countries of the European Union are calling for a complete ban on the import of russian gas, both pipeline and liquefied one. The document outlining the initiative has been signed by Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Ireland and Finland. The proposal envisages two approaches: an immediate total ban or a gradual reduction in imports under the REPowerEU strategy, which was adopted in 2022. According to this strategy, the EU intends to completely abandon russian gas by 2027, replacing it with supplies from other countries and the development of renewable energy. However, the authors of the document insist on speeding up the implementation of the plan.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, speaking in the European Parliament, has said that if the European Union does not allocate more money for defense, the prospects for Europeans will be bleak. Rutte has called on European governments to increase military spending above the current average of 2% of GDP. “If we don't do it, we are safe now, but not in four or five years. So if you don't do it, get out your russian language courses or go to New Zealand”.

The NATO Secretary General has also announced that the organization is launching a new mission to protect submarine cables in the Baltic Sea region. According to him, it will be called “Baltic Sentry”. “It will involve a range of assets, including frigates and maritime patrol aircraft, among others, and will enhance our vigilance in the Baltic”, Mark Rutte said. He also said that it is planned to deploy a small fleet of naval drones, to provide enhanced surveillance and deterrence”.

Eight NATO member states that have access to the Baltic Sea have announced an action plan in response to suspect cases of damage to underwater infrastructure. It includes “measures in accordance with the international law of the sea and the principles of freedom of navigation to prevent and respond effectively” to damage to critical undersea infrastructure, as well as to bring those responsible to justice. At the same time, the leaders of the signatory countries emphasized the threat posed by the “shadow fleet” of russian tankers carrying russian oil without complying with the “price ceiling”.

“...the very fact that russia is seeking to deepen military cooperation with North Korea sends a very clear message that russia is insincere about any negotiations and is not interested in peace at all”, said Anitta Hipper, a representative of the European Commission.

Risto Lohi, a representative of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, has said that when the Finnish commissioners boarded the “eagle” tanker, the crew threatened to cut the second Estlink1 power cable and the BalticConnector gas pipe between his country and Estonia.

EU countries have approved Switzerland's inclusion in the European defense project Military Mobility, which allows for the rapid deployment of troops across Europe without delays at borders.

The new round of tougher US sanctions, which targeted “surgutneftegaz”, “gazprom neft”, and more than 180 tankers of the kremlin's “shadow fleet”, jeopardizes the sale of oil abroad in the volume of up to 800 thousand barrels a day. As a result, russian oil companies may lose 27.5 % of sea oil exports, which amounted to 2.9 million barrels per day as of early January.

At least 65 oil tankers have been anchored off the coasts of China and the rf since the United States imposed sanctions on the oil and gas industry and ships of the russian “shadow fleet” on January 10. The trade halt puts additional pressure on vessels already affected by previous US sanctions, including 25 oil tankers anchored near iranian ports and near the Suez Canal.

The United States has banned its companies from providing oil production services on the territory of russia, and also added about 30 russian companies from this segment to the SDN-List, the US Ministry of Finance has announced. Restrictions on the work of American companies in russia will come into effect on February 27. The ban applies to the export or re-export of oil production services, including their sale indirectly, from the United States to any person located in russia.

The number of russian individuals on foreign sanctions lists for 2024 has increased by more than two thousand, as shown by the statistics of the X-Compliance system. As of December 31, 37,231 individuals were on the sanctions lists of the United Nations, the United States, the EU, Great Britain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, Japan, China, and Ukraine, of which 17 347 are russian citizens. russia is represented by 9,213 individuals and 8,134 companies. The 2024 statistics does not include the large-scale update of the US sanctions list in early January.

Gold and currency reserves of the rf at the end of the day on January 3, 2025 amounted to $ 609.5 billion, having decreased by $ 1.8 billion over the past week.

The Chinese airline China Southern, the largest air carrier in China, has decided to stop direct flights between moscow and Beijing from January 20 to March 30.

The government of the rf has reduced the plan for the production of domestic aircrafts in the next 6 years more than 1.5 times, according to the plan for achieving national development goals, approved on January 9. While originally it was planned that by 2030 at least 80% of liners in the fleet of carriers would be home-made, now the goal has been reduced to 50%. Moreover, the start of large-scale aircraft production, which was expected to be launched last year, has been postponed to 2027-28, and the aircraft industry's output to full capacity has been postponed to 2030. Currently, only 19% of airliners are home-made, and this share will not change this year.

russians began massively canceling tours abroad after the attack on the Azerbaijani airliner. The cancellation of flights to mineralnyie vody and Sochi by the Flydubai airline after the accident of the Azerbaijani plane hit the russian tourism business. 30% of citizens canceled vouchers for holidays abroad: they were not happy with additional costs for tickets or rescheduling the departure to a different airport. At the same time, many hotels refused to refund the money for the reservation due to the fact that they were notified about the cancellation of trips a day in advance, and January is the high season in the UAE, Asia and the Maldives due to holidays.

authorities of the rf will spend 2 billion rubles on a surveillance system for russians using video cameras.

Members of the state duma will soon consider draft laws that strengthen the legislation on “foreign agents”, said chairperson of the lower house committee on security and anti-corruption vasiliy piskarev. According to him, the new measures will “secure the sovereignty of the rf”. He pointed out that now “foreign agents” are the main “bearer” of anti-russian rhetoric, and therefore strengthening and worsening of their legal status will help protect the country.

Women in the rf in 2024 earned an average of by 43.5% less than men. While the average salary of men last year was 87.7 thousand rubles a month, women earned only 61.1 thousand. In management positions, women earn on average about 110,000 rubles a month, men – about 160,000. Among professionals, the average salary for men is 101,000, for women – 65,000. The most noticeable gap is in the information industry: men are paid 169,000, women- 110,000.

Centralized recruitment of citizens of Vietnam to russian industrial enterprises will be beneficial for the economy, said anton alikhanov, minister of industry and trade of the rf. Attracting migrants to work at russian enterprises is becoming a necessity due to the growing staff shortage, which is being discussed by business representatives and officials at all levels. Increasingly, the terms “catastrophe” and “collapse” are used to describe this situation, and experts warn of a further increase in the shortage of workers due to tens of thousands of able-bodied citizens’ going to fight in Ukraine or work in defense companies. In the second half of 2024, 53% of russian companies reported a shortage of foreign workers, and 46% said they were only “more or less” satisfied with the current volume of migrant hiring.

The city of engels, saratov region, after a massive drone attack on the morning of January 14, had problems with the supply of cold water to residential buildings.

The government of the rf has canceled the requirements for keeping wild animals in circuses. According to the decree, the standards for the size of enclosures, lighting, humidity and air temperature for lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, horses, camels, which were to come into force on January 1, 2025, will not work. And it is now unknown when they will start working.

Less than 17% of the birds rescued from the fuel oil spilled into the sea from the russian “volgoneft” tankers that crashed in the Black Sea survived.

At the site of the oil leak cleanup near the stern of the “volgoneft-239” tanker that ran aground off the coast of the krasnodar territory, there is a threat of rock collapse.

In the rf, against the background of the return of former convicts from the combat zone in Ukraine, a record number of serious and especially serious crimes was recorded in 2024, the highest since 2010. The sharpest increase was in the border regions. This is evidenced by the data of the ministry of internal Aaffairs of the rf. Over the previous year, 617,301 detectable crimes occurred in the country. This is a record for the last 14 years: in 2010, 684,347 such incidents were recorded. The lowest number of serious and especially serious crimes was recorded in 2017 – 437,300. From 2018 to 2020, their number grew, in 2021-2022 it began to decline again, but in 2023-2024 it increased again.

Two residents of novosibirsk, who raped and killed a student, were released 15 years early – they both signed contracts with the russian ministry of defense and went to war against Ukraine.

In Crimea, temporarily occupied by the rf, an unknown schoolboy in a “letter to a soldier” wished the russian military, who are participating in the rf’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, “to die sooner”. russian propagandists demand to find the author of the letter and punish his parents.

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway and Ukraine have joined the EU sanctions against the rb.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Caspar Veldkamp has ​​called on the rb’s authorities to release all political prisoners. “The Netherlands calls for the immediate release of more than 1,300 political prisoners held by the regime of the rb. Human rights defenders and free media can count on our support”, he said.

The Government of Lithuania proposes to the Seimas to extend the national sanctions applied to citizens of the rf and the rb for another year – until May 2, 2026.

On January 14, the Seimas of Lithuania approved a proposal to denounce the agreement with the rb on the avoidance of double taxation of income and fiscal violations.

National Security Advisor to the President of Lithuania Marius Česnuliavičius has said that the trips of belarusians living in Lithuania to and from their homeland are suspicious. According to him, it is a matter of concern that these citizens may be subjected to pressure from the lukashenko regime.

lukashenko has instructed the new minister of antimonopoly regulation and trade to study the experience of soviet trade. “Your task is to study the experience of soviet trade and do everything possible to ensure that there is a wide range of goods on the shelves. And prices should not jump in any way, especially upwards. You should see this at trade facilities – in shops. Regardless of what kind of ownership they have, public or private”.

The belarusian state medical university has banned vacations and retaking exams before the elections. The management of the university has explained to the teachers that vacations during the election period are prohibited in order to increase the turnout. A temporary ban on retaking has also been introduced – all tests and exams should be passed by students at one go. Such is the demand to the teachers. This is done so that students from other cities leave the capital faster: it will be calmer in minsk, and students should vote properly at home.

The regional portal “Narodnya Naviny Vitsebska” and its affiliated pages in social networks and messengers have been included in the list of extremist materials. After 2020, the portal completely withdrew from coverage of political events in the region. The site published only news about everyday life and various events based on official sources.

At least eight belarusians who were traveling to their homeland for the New Year holidays were detained by the punitive authorities of the lukashenko regime.

In 2022, the owner of the “Samorodok” jewelry workshop Mikhail Laban was sentenced to 4 years in prison for slander and insulting lukashenko and government officials. In 2024, the court increased the terms of punishment – with a transfer from the colony to prison. On January 29 of this year, Mikhail will be tried again in the vitebsk regional court – this time for financing the activities of an extremist formation.

In the belarusian correctional colony “Vitba”, Denis Salmanovich, sentenced to 10 years political convict, was placed into a pre-trial prison immediately after the operation to remove the gallbladder. The political prisoner has been there for two months.