January 18, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer has said that in the near future his country will provide Ukraine with 150 artillery barrels and a new mobile air defense system. In total, in 2025, the United Kingdom plans to transfer to Ukraine 15 new Gravehawk mobile air defense systems, which are being developed under joint funding with Denmark. Kier Starmer has also assured that London is ready to play a full part in possible peacekeeping efforts in Ukraine.

Annually, Ukraine will receive at least 3.6 billion US dollars in military aid from the United Kingdom – this is enshrined in the agreement on a 100-Year Partnership between the countries. The parties also agreed on providing our country with 2.2 billion pounds at the expense of proceeds from frozen russian assets.

“UK support to Ukraine continues: £100 million lifesaving humanitarian funding, including for UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Red Cross Ukraine; £40 million to support the economy, unlocking millions in private lending to increase growth and trade”, the country's Foreign Office said in an official statement.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Caspar Veldkamp has ​​announced EUR 27 million in aid to Ukraine: EUR 20 million will be directed to strengthening the energy network of our country and a further EUR 7 million contribution to NATO’s Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine.

Ukraine and the Netherlands are working on launching a new format of bilateral cooperation in the form of an intergovernmental conference.

Italy has sent another package of military aid to Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken believes that the new White House administration led by Donald Trump has the necessary prerequisites to help Ukraine conclude a good deal to end the russian-Ukrainian war and establish lasting peace.

Potential US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has supported strengthening sanctions against russia as part of a strategy to put an end to the russian-Ukrainian war.

Chancellor of the FRG Olaf Scholz has said that he does not expect the United States to halt military aid to Ukraine after President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20.

Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Moldova, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania, Turkey, and Greece in a joint communiqué condemned any support by the international community of the rf in the war with Ukraine and the participation of military personnel of third countries in hostilities against our country. The signatories also supported Ukraine’s Peace Formula and opposed the adoption of any initiatives regarding the future of Ukraine without its participation.

“In these difficult times for the people of Ukraine, they find humanity to support their neighbors. And this is at the time when the kremlin is leaving the citizens of Moldova to freeze”, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Moldova Mihai Popșoi.

NATO Military Committee Chair Admiral Rob Bauer has said that there are no indications that russia is preparing for peace, so NATO member states should put more effort into military cooperation with partners and enhance support for Ukraine. At the same time, he announced that the Alliance is taking over part of the responsibility for coordinating military aid to Ukraine, which was previously carried out by the United States.

Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO's Transformation Commander, has said that the Alliance should use the experience of almost three years of war in Ukraine to be better prepared for a possible attack by putin. This is the task of the new center in Poland – the Ukraine-NATO Joint Analysis Training and Education Centre (JATEC), which will be opened next month. Representatives of NATO, civilian experts and Ukrainians will study lessons learnt in spheres such as drone warfare, air defense, artificial intelligence and civilian resilience.

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The United Kingdom and Poland will begin work on a new defense and security agreement to protect Europe from russian aggression and do more to combat disinformation and hybrid threats.

Lithuania has started patrolling the Baltic Sea as part of the NATO operation.

Estonia will allow its Navy in the Baltic Sea to respond to potential threats with force, the country's Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said. “This means the Navy, in the event of a threat and when necessary, will have the right to use force across Estonia’s entire maritime territory, including its exclusive economic zone”, said Pevkur.

The countries of the Group of Seven and partners in a joint statement on behalf of the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism assured that they see the rf's attempts to manipulate public opinion in the West through its propaganda broadcaster rt (russia today).

The cost of transporting 100,000 Urals oil shipments from the Baltic ports of primorsk and ust-luga to India rose to an average of $6.0-$6.3 million from $4.7-$4.9 million a week earlier. The cost of shipping Urals shipments of 140,000 tons from novorossiysk to India rose to $5.5 million from $4.3-$4.5 million last week. The cost of daily excess downtime for a 140,000-ton Suezmax tanker rose to $90,000, an 80,000-ton Aframax – to $80,000, while a week ago the overall range was $55,000-$60,000.

In russia, from January to November 2024, the retail sale of antidepressants increased to 16.1 million packages, which is by 16.8% more year-on-year and exceeds the figures for all of 2023 (15.3 million). Sales in 11 months of 2024 turned out to be higher than in the peak year of 2022 – when 13 million packages of antidepressants were bought in the rf.

The car leasing segment in the rf will show negative dynamics in 2024, market participants expect a reduction in the number of transactions by 5–7%, and their volume by 12–20%. The main reasons are high credit rates and inflation.

Investments in russian IT startups fell by 23% after putin's demand to develop high technologies.

The spill of several thousands of tons of fuel oil in the Black Sea became the “biggest environmental disaster” in russia since the beginning of the 21st century, said viktor danilov-danilyan, scientific director of the institute of water problems of the rf.

The demand for trips to Anapa has decreased by 40% year-on-year. The main reason for the decrease in demand is environmental problems that arose on the Black Sea coast due to the spillage of fuel oil from tankers that had an accident.

Since February 2022, 108 russian officials and members of parliament – both at the federal and regional levels – have declared that they want to take part in the war with Ukraine. 18 civil servants went to the front to avoid criminal responsibility, another 20 people did not take action after declaring their intention to go to war. At least 62 officials, who did make it to the front as volunteers, had preferential conditions during their service. Half of the officials who went to war spent six months or less in the service.

a russian plane dropped a Kh-69 cruise missile on the village of aleksandrovka in voronezh region.

Several russian diplomats who came on an excursion to the British Parliament building in London at one point left their group and entered the House of Lords, which was closed to visitors. They were expelled from there by security. Subsequently, a letter was sent to the members of both Houses with a warning not to invite diplomats from russia to the Parliament building, even privately.

The russians themselves are to blame for the fact that the Ukrainian Army launches missiles into the territory of the country – this is how God punishes them for abortions, said archpriest of the russian orthodox church andrei tkachev during a sermon.

Retailers have spoken out against social shelves with free products in stores. head of the association of retail trading companies karavaev called this idea “redundant” and “complicated”. sergei mironov, the leader of “a just russia – for the truth” party, proposed to legislatively oblige shops to set aside separate shelves for those in need.

Before the elections, belarusians, with whom the security forces hold preventive talks, are forced to sign a document “on the inadmissibility of violating the law”. It warns about responsibility for “extremist activity”. Also, all those who had been detained for political articles or other reasons for surveillance, are summoned to the police or to the management of institutions and enterprises. Often in police stations, people encounter embittered security officers who shout and threaten.

Since 2020, repression in the rb has affected 136,000 people. Several hundreds of thousands of belarusians were forced to leave the country.

In November 2024, the median salary in the rb was 1,792.2 rubles. After deducting taxes, the employee gets 1,541.3 rubles. This is equivalent to $454. Compared to May 2024, it has increased by only $2. The median salary is always lower than the average salary, but it better reflects the situation with salaries in the country. For comparison, the average salary in November 2024 was 2,331.8 rubles overall or 2,005.3 rubles ($591) net.

According to the annual review of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), as of December 1, 2024, the rb was fourth in the ranking of countries where journalists are most actively persecuted. According to the document, for the second year in a row, the rb leads the group of states in the Europe and Central Asia region in this ranking. According to CPJ, as of the specified date, 31 journalists were in prison in the rb. russia (30), Egypt (17), Vietnam, iran and Eritrea (16 each), Azerbaijan (13) follow the rb in the ranking.

After inspections, offices of russian companies in the rb are recognized as “permanent offices of a foreign organization”, which are not covered by the guarantees of the 1995 agreement on the avoidance of double taxation. After receiving this status, companies are charged additional local income tax and interest, despite the payments already made to the russian budget.

On January 29, in grodno, the rb, a married couple with a baby detained in the summer will be tried under five political articles: insulting lukashenko; organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them; inciting racial, national, religious or other social enmity; slander about lukashenko; insulting state symbols.