January 21, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“President Trump has made it clear that the war must stop”, said Michael Volz, a potential Advisor to US President Donald Trump.

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine and the Atlantic Council analyst John Herbst believes that the new President should continue to provide Ukraine with the USA’s assistance.

The Declaration of 100-Year Partnership between Ukraine and the United Kingdom allows for the deployment of British military bases in Ukraine.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the FRG Annalena Baerbock calls for approval of additional EUR 3 billion in Germany’s aid to Ukraine before the Bundestag elections scheduled for February 23.

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Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis has warned of the threat of russia's hybrid war and called on NATO to take decisive action to deter the kremlin's aggression. “Because putin will continue to wage war – whether in Ukraine, Lithuania or Germany”, Landsbergis emphasized.

The Ministry of Finance of Syria has banned imports of goods from russia. Products from the rf will be confiscated.

In 2024, sales of flats in new buildings under equity participation agreements in russia's largest cities decreased by an average of 25 %. The sharpest decline was in samara, with by 46 % fewer flats sold, and the most modest decline was in kazan (by 13 %). Overall, sales in the country fell by 22 %. Analysts believe that this year the number of flats sold in newly constructed buildings will decline by at least 20 %.

russian exporters may not be able to return up to 30% of their foreign exchange earnings to the country due to the tightening of US sanctions on russia's banking sector.

By December 1, 2024, the amount of interest accrued by banks but not paid by russian borrowers reached 607.8 billion rubles. This is the interest that borrowers must pay in the month closest to the reporting date to repay their loans on schedule. For the whole of 2023, the volume of such debt increased by 8.5 %, while from January to November 2024 it grew by 22.2 %. The rate of accumulation of interest-bearing liabilities showed a record growth in four years.

In russia, the number of banks with foreign participation in the authorized capital decreased from 89 at the beginning of 2024 to 85 in October. This is the lowest number in the last ten years.

russia’s authorities are discussing another option to restrict calls via messengers under the pretext of fighting fraud. Calls from all unfamiliar numbers may be banned and allowed only from those listed in the user's “notebook”.

russia’s economy is experiencing a growing shortage of key world currencies due to the tightening of Western financial sanctions, which have already affected 95 % of the national banking system. According to estimates, in 2024, russia received only about $70 billion of foreign exchange earnings in dollars and euros.

The positive balance of russia's foreign trade in November 2024 decreased to $6.018 billion from $8.831 billion a month earlier. In November, the rf's exports amounted to $31.956 billion compared to $36.392 billion in the previous month, while imports amounted to $25.938 billion compared to $27.561 billion.

The war in Ukraine unleashed by russia has had a negative impact on the lives of almost half of russian citizens (47.6%), as shown by a poll conducted in April 2024 by the institute of socio-political research of the russian academy of sciences. Almost one in four respondents (23 %) emphasized deterioration in physical and/or mental health. For 12.4 % of respondents, current expenses have increased, and 4.3 % reported that their relatives or friends had been killed or injured while participating in the so-called special military operation. Only 29.2 % of respondents said that the war had not affected their lives in any way. 9.6% admitted that their relatives or friends were involved in hostilities, and 2.3 % expressed concern about the risk of mobilization.

A sukhoi superjet 100 (SSJ-100) with side number RA-89100 of the “rossiya” airlines, which took off from moscow to saransk on the evening of January 19, had to return to sheremetyevo airport due to technical problems. This was its third flight on January 19: previously, the aircraft had flown from moscow to izhevsk and back. “The superjet has been in operation since 2017, and has been operated by “rossiya” airlines since 2021. This is the second incident with this type of aircraft in the last two days. On January 17, a “red wings” superjet flying to Yerevan with 86 passengers on board made an emergency landing at the mineralnye vody airport due to a malfunction of the air conditioning system.

The basmanny district court of moscow has arrested in absentia Director of the Narva Museum in Estonia Maria Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova in the case of military “fakes”. Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova has been on the russian wanted list since the summer of 2024. In 2023 and 2024, on May 9, the Narva Museum hung a banner on the wall with the words “putin – a war criminal” in English, which could be seen in the russian town of ivangorod on the opposite bank of the River Narva.

The occupying administration of the so-called “luhansk people’s republic” has decided to extend the deadline for forced re-registration of businesses for another year due to the lack of people willing to comply with these requirements.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Latvia has prepared amendments to the law on national security, which provide for banning citizens of the rb and the rb from holding positions in the management structures of critical infrastructure, as well as infrastructure especially important on a European scale.

The Lithuanian Department of State Security warns of a fake document circulating on Facebook claiming that Lithuanian Intelligence is training paramilitary groups of belarusians. According to the Lithuanian Department of State Security, this is part of an information campaign against Lithuania related to the upcoming elections in the rb on January 26.

north korea has refuted lukashenko's statement that pyongyang allegedly offered to hold a summit meeting.

Human rights activists in grodno report the detention of truckers on the belarusian border. At least 20 people have been detained in recent days. “The drivers’ cell phones were checked, in search of likes, subscriptions and comments on “extremist” resources. The checks were carried out regardless of how long the drivers had been outside belarus”, said the human rights activists.

The state belarusian news agency belta has reported that the world's largest media outlets are allegedly planning to cover the presidential election in the rb, while it has been recognized that most of the accredited journalists are from “friendly” russian media.