January 24, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“We really need to increase, not decrease, our support for Ukraine,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte emphasized the need to strengthen support for Ukraine, stressing that it is vital that russia does not win. At the same time, he called on the United States to continue providing military aid to our country and said that Europeans will pay the bill. “I am absolutely convinced of this, we must be prepared to do this,” Rutte emphasized.

“We always say that Ukraine needs to sit down at the negotiation table, but the problem is that russia does not want to sit down at this negotiation table,” said President of the Republic of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs. He also called on Europe to decide to provide Ukraine with about EUR 300 billion of frozen russian assets to help Ukrainians. At the same time, the President of Latvia believes that anti-russian sanctions should be maintained after the war so that the aggressor does not regroup and regain economic power.

“We must put Western power on the Ukrainian scale. By the way, if the EU wants to be authoritative, it could at least announce its support for Trump's sanctions. And I believe that now even Orban will be forced to agree,” said former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis.

Minister of Defence of the FRG Boris Pistorius, speaking about the potential ability to end the war between russia and Ukraine, has said that first of all, we should talk about “a ceasefire, and then about a sustainable peace for Ukraine, which means that Ukraine needs security guarantees from all other countries.” He also hopes that our country will receive additional military aid from Germany in the amount of about EUR 3 billion before the early elections in Germany on February 23 this year.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Annalena Baerbock considers it appropriate to send the Bundeswehr troops to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine after the war.

Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenković believes that the future peace agreement should ensure respect for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and not become a deal to consolidate the russian occupation.

European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis promises that in 2025 the European Union will provide Ukraine with EUR 35 billion in financial assistance under the G7 ERA loan initiative and the Ukraine Facility program.

The EU, Denmark, and Lithuania have signed the “Ukraine2EU – EU Integration Support Program for Ukraine”, designed to support Ukrainian institutions on their path to European integration.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski hopes that Ukraine will be able to open two negotiation clusters with the EU in the first half of 2025.

Ambassador of the EU to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová has pointed out that there is a growing realization among European leaders that it is hard to talk about a ceasefire if it is not combined with the need for effective security guarantees for Ukraine.

German Patriot air defence systems have begun to defend the skies over Rzeszow Airport, Poland, which is important for Ukrainian logistics in the war.

Ukraine and Sweden have agreed to develop a bilateral agreement to support the implementation of joint defense projects.

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“I would also like putin to hear this message: “We see you, we know what you're doing, and we will not shy away from taking decisive action to defend this country (the United Kingdom),” UK Defense Secretary John Healey has warned russia after the Royal Navy tracked the russian spy ship “yantar”, which “is used to collect intelligence and map critical underwater infrastructure.”

“I was very, very happy with Trump's position to impose additional sanctions on russia. We know that the russian economy is doing terribly badly, and the sanctions will help.” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte fully supported US President Donald Trump's campaign of pressure on russia to end the war in Ukraine. He expressed hope that Europe would also step up with sanctions to “choke off the russian economy” and lessen moscow's war coffers.

“We have to take the measures which would force putin to ask for peace and peace talks. I don't want to ask putin to sit down at the negotiation table, I want him to ask us to sit down at the negotiation table on how to end this war and resolve the existing problems,” said President of Poland Andrzej Duda.

The European Commission is making sure that russia and its economy suffer from the EU sanctions and wants to ensure that russia pays for all crimes and actions in Ukraine. This was stated by European Commission Spokesperson Anita Hipper. “We want to make sure that through all sanctions, the toughest sanctions, russia pays for all crimes and actions. We are analyzing how we can make russia feel pain and pay more.”

In preparation for a meeting of EU countries in Brussels, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the FRG Annalena Baerbock has called on her colleagues to “pave the way for coordinated measures” against russia. In particular, she proposes to limit the accreditation time and freedom of movement for russian diplomats in Europe.

Minister of Defence of Germany Boris Pistorius has said he still sees a possibility that russia will try to attack NATO countries in 2029-2030.

Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo has said that all the sanctions imposed on russia should remain in place regardless of negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. He has also stated the need to strengthen the restrictions by including russian pipeline gas, lng and fertilizers in the 16th package of sanctions.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Kęstutis Budrys calls on NATO to take more decisive action against russian sabotage attacks. According to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, NATO's response to these attacks does not have to be symmetrical.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Canada has frozen more than 457 million Canadian dollars (more than 350 million US dollars) of russian assets as part of sanctions against the rf.

The High Court of England and Wales has sided with Google and banned russian TV channels from demanding the seizure of the corporation's assets to recover fines imposed by a russian court, which have already exceeded the total GDP of all countries many times. The ban applies to the commencement of new or continuation of ongoing proceedings on this issue in any jurisdiction, except for the United States or the United Kingdom.

The Senate of the Czech Republic has approved a law that effectively bans russians from acquiring Czech citizenship.

The agreement between russia and iran on a “comprehensive strategic partnership” shows that the rf remains dependent on iran’s military support, but the level of distrust between the countries remains, and tensions in relations will impede the expansion of their cooperation.

Indian state-owned Indian Oil Corp is looking for alternative oil suppliers to replace russian ones after the introduction of new US sanctions against russia.

The government of Estonia has approved a draft law requiring religious associations to change their charters and completely renounce ties with the russian orthodox church.

Inflation in russia has exceeded 10%. The main drivers of price growth over the past week have been household appliances and russian cars, which have risen in price by 2%.

In 2024, russia reduced exports of petrol through ports and border crossings by almost 30% year-on-year to about 4 million tons. The decline in shipments was due to the ban on petrol exports, as well as seasonal and unscheduled refinery maintenance.

The number of available medicines continues to decline in russia: 134 vital medications have disappeared from the shelves of russian pharmacies over the past year. Among the medicines no longer sold in the country are 20 medicines against oncology, 5 antibiotics, 3 antiepileptic medicines, as well as insulin for pregnant women, immunodepressants, medicines for migraine, allergy, tuberculosis, HIV and malaria.

Materials for renovation of flats went up by almost 13% over the year, with the most noticeable price increases for dry building mixes, plumbing fixtures and flooring. At this, the demand for repair products is also declining, but this does not prevent the price increase: manufacturers pass on the cost of raw materials and logistics to the cost of production. Sales of construction materials will continue to decline in 2025 due to falling demand for housing, but this will hardly lead to lower prices.

In 2024, the price of a borscht set in russia rose by 28%.

The federation council of the russian federation has proposed to ban bringing imported fruits and berries to russia.

gazprom proposes to raise gas prices on the russian domestic market under the pretext of securing financing for its major investment projects.

In 2024, russia's magnitogorsk iron and steel plant, one of the largest enterprises in the industry, reduced steel production by 13.8% compared to 2023. The level of 11.195 million tons of production is the worst since 2019. The plant reduced sales of steel products by 9.8% to 10.622 million tons. The decline in output was due to European sanctions and the US imposing protective import duties on metals from russia.

In 2024, russians' demand for foreign real estate decreased by 24%.

In 2024, russian siloviki registered 1,191 terrorist attacks, according to the russian ministry of Internal Affairs' report on the state of crime for the past year. This is a record for the entire period of statistics (since 2003, when 561 terrorist attacks were recorded). The number of such crimes last year was almost three times higher than in 2023, when the ministry of internal affairs reported 410 terrorist attacks. Over the past nine years (in 2015, the security forces recorded the lowest number of terrorist attacks on record – eight), this figure has increased 149 times.

Frequent cases of leaks of russian companies' databases have led to a decrease in their value in the darknet. In 2024, the number of original databases on shadow forums exceeded last year's figures, with more than 60% of them being distributed free of charge. Experts predict that the situation with data leaks will worsen.

Authorities of the kuban have described the damage caused by the fuel oil spill to birds as “insignificant”. As of the beginning of January, at least six thousand birds were affected by the accident in the krasnodar territory.

The state duma’s healthcare committee intends to appeal to the russian government with a proposal to ban mandatory medical examinations of migrants in private clinics.

By the end of the third year of the full-scale invasion, the heads of all regions of the rf have stopped publishing reports with information about the russian occupiers killed in Ukraine.

According to member of the state duma sergey kolunov, starting September 1, 2025, schoolchildren in forms 1-8 in the rf may be forced to learn the singer shaman’s “patriotic” songs, those of the band “lyube” and oleg gazmanov’s songs at school lessons of music.

russian s7 airlines’ plane en route from irkutsk to vladivostok suffered an engine failure before departure.

Police officers should be involved in the marriage procedure between a russian citizen and a migrant – this initiative was put forward by the chairman of the supervisory board of the institute of demography, migration and regional development krupnov.

participants of the rf’s “special military operation” are being banned from consuming a number of products: energy drinks, milk, kefir, cheeses and cottage cheese – due to the harmful effects on the central nervous system and heart.

Last December, the price of caviar in the rb rose by 39% year-on-year. At the same time, the price of sweet peppers increased by 32%, and of potatoes – by 31%. Besides, coffee, chocolate, olive oil, rice, and fish, all imported from abroad, have risen significantly over the year. On average, food prices rose by 6.5% last year. At this, the wallets of belarusians were significantly hit by services for which they regularly have to pay. Last year, cold water supply rose by 15.4%, sewerage – by 15%, waste removal and disposal – by 18.7%, using a lift – by 17.2%, housing maintenance – by 13.2%, and other utilities – by 18.2%.

In the first half of 2024, the incidence of viral hepatitis A in the rb increased 7.5 times. This figure may be higher by the end of the year. The reason for the increase in the incidence may be products from Africa or the Middle East.

In 2024, more than 33 thousand labor migrants arrived in the rb. This is about 2.5 times more than in 2023. Most actively expats were coming from Turkmenistan.

The lawsuits filed by russian billionaires with belarusian roots andrei melnichenko (worth $21.1 billion) and dmitry mazepin ($2.4 billion), did not win in the EU court. The court sees no reason to lift the sanctions.

At least four hospitals in one of the regional centers of the rb have been ordered to make sure that inpatients attend the voting. As a result, patients are not allowed to go home on weekends and their discharge is being delayed. Moreover, even intensive care patients who are on a ventilator were instructed to be included in the voter lists.

The image with the text “Never lose your smile” has been recognized as an “extremist” one in the rb. The description of the image reads that it is an image of “the lower part of the skull with the bones crossed at the back and the inscription “Never lose your smile” on top.

Presidential candidate and first secretary of the central committee of the communist party of the rb sergei sirankov has proposed to replace the word “president” with “chairman” to refer to the highest state position in the country. He believes that the title “chairman” sounds “in the folk way”.

In the rb, at least 3,277 people have been convicted of participating in protests since 2020.

There are three new political prisoners in the rb: Igor Moiseenko, Elena Bobr, and Estonian citizen Allan Royo. According to human rights activists, there are 1,257 political prisoners in the country.

The kgb of the rb has added 17 more people to its list of organizations and individuals involved in terrorist activities. Among them is the former head of the independent trade union “Naftana” Olga Britikova. Last year, she was tried twice on protest articles. She was sentenced to six years in prison. The list also includes several people who have the status of accused under the article on inciting enmity. In total, the kgb’s list includes 1,328 individuals and organizations.

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