January 28, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“We are one month away from the date that will mark three years of war against Ukraine. Now is the time to say that we have failed to make our support for Ukraine sufficient for its victory. We must learn this lesson for the future and continue our military, financial and economic assistance to make Ukraine stronger. A stronger Ukraine means better chances for us to keep a long-lasting and sustainable peace for Europe,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Kęstutis Budrys.

On January 31, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is going to adopt the “Europe’s Commitment to a Just and Sustainable Peace in Ukraine”. The document will be prepared during the session and is expected to outline the parliamentarians' vision of Europe’s role in future peace negotiations.

The bilateral screening process of checking Ukrainian legislation for compliance with EU law, which is actually the first stage of accession negotiations, will last until the autumn of 2025.

European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Aja Labib has said that since the beginning of russia's full-scale aggression, the EU has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine totaling more than EUR 3.6 billion.

235 communities have applied for the Ukraine Recovery Program backed by the European Investment Bank. The total project amount is UAH 19.27 billion.

During russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, Norway, within the European evacuation project for Ukrainian patients, has helped transport about three thousand people to hospitals in Europe.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Margus Tsahkna believes that the EU should expand the use of russia's frozen assets in the interests of Ukraine, including their main part, not just proceeds from immobilized funds.

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The EU Foreign Ministers have agreed to extend sanctions against russia for another six months.

Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Noel Barrot has said that putin's regime has already lost about EUR 400 billion due to EU sanctions, which is equal to three years of financing the war against Ukraine, so these effective restrictions will be extended. He also has said that the EU is preparing sanctions against three russians involved in cyberattacks against Estonia.

President of Poland Andrzej Duda has said that gas flows from russia to Western Europe should never be restored, even if russia and Ukraine reach a peace agreement. Duda has said that the “nord stream” gas pipelines, which have not been in use since 2022, “should be dismantled.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Kęstutis Budrys has pointed out that the rf’s “shadow fleet” is not only a problem of circumventing sanctions, but a more serious issue that threatens the environment and critical infrastructure.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Baiba Braže has said that one of the vessels possibly involved in the damage to the Latvian underwater fiber optic cable belongs to the rf’s “shadow fleet”.

dictatorial regimes in the rf and the rb should stop using anti-Nazi narratives to justify their geopolitical ambitions, – Lithuanian delegate Emmanuelis Zingeris said at the opening of the winter session of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Session.

In 2024, one of the largest gold mining companies in russia, “seligdar” holding, reduced its production of ligature gold by 8% to 7.62 tons.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, the volume of concessional mortgage lending in russia set a quarterly anti-record: in three months, banks issued 109,500 concessional mortgages worth 610.9 billion rubles. This is the worst figure since the second quarter of 2022 and almost three times less than in the last quarter of 2023, when banks issued loans worth 1.7 trillion rubles.

In russia, commercial sales of CCTV cameras decreased by 15%, to about 3 million devices in unit terms. This is explained by the suspension of many projects due to the increase in the central bank's key rate.

The shortage of qualified professionals in the rf has become one of the key problems in recent years. In particular, the agricultural sector needs more than 200 thousand people. In different areas of the agro-industrial complex, there is a shortage of 30% to 50% of workers. At this, given that the industry is becoming increasingly technologically advanced, it needs, first and foremost, highly professional specialists with knowledge of modern technologies. For many years, russia has been experiencing a steady downward trend in the number of employees engaged in agriculture. For example, in 2017, there were 4.46 million people, in 2023 – 4.2 million people. Most agricultural workers are senior people who have nobody to pass on their knowledge and experience to. The industry maintains a low level of incomes: according to rosstat, the average salary in the agricultural sector in 2023 was about 50 thousand rubles.

Due to a shortage of funds and rising costs of servicing credit obligations, in 2025, “rosseti sibir” will completely stop financing its investment and repair programs.

New fuel oil emissions have been detected at 17 sites on the Russian Black Sea coast. The total length of the contaminated parts of coastline is over 63 kilometers. They reach the beaches of anapa and other resorts in the krasnodar territory.

The rf’s authorities are discussing the possibility of launching a unified electronic registry to control LGBTQ+ people.

The government of the rf has supported a draft law that changes the procedure for citizens’ conscription for military service. It stipulates that the decision on conscription not implemented during the conscription campaign will be valid for the next conscription periods within a year from the date of adoption.

The government of the rf also plans to support a draft law on the possibility of prosecuting foreign agents in absentia. The draft law envisages strengthening of administrative liability for violation of the legislation on foreign agents, in particular, establishing the possibility of bringing foreign agents to administrative liability in absentia, as well as conducting an administrative investigation into the activities of foreign agents.

Cheeses, jamon, ham, and sausages from the European Union are now seased at the border with the rf. russian veterinary and phytosanitary service has banned these and other livestock products from being brought into the country, even for personal use.

authorities of russia have begun to consider options for lifting the blocking of banned social networks. vice speaker of the state duma boris chernyshov has suggested that the ministry of digital development, communications and mass media of the rf should consider unblocking access to the platforms if the companies that own the social networks agree to sell more than 50% of their assets to russian investors and change their domestic policy towards russia.

Teenagers who demonstrate a negative attitude to russia's invasion of Ukraine, “discredit” the army and curse the authorities should not study at state technical schools and universities, said vyacheslav gladkov, governor of belgorod region.

russian doctors removed the russian rhythmic gymnastics champion in 2024, 20-year-old lala kramarenko’s normal meniscus instead of the damaged one.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radoslaw Sikorski reacted to the results of the presidential “election” announced by the central election commission of the rb. The Minister asked whether all those who did not vote for lukashenko would be imprisoned. “Only 87.6% of belarusians love their father? Will the rest of them be imprisoned?” wrote Radoslaw Sikorski on his page on the social network X.

Commenting on the results of the so-called “presidential election” in the rb, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Kęstutis Budrys said that the people of the country have the right to live in a free country and democratically elect their leaders. The Minister emphasized that Lithuania would continue to support belarusian society in its efforts to achieve this. “Law is not born out of lawlessness,” said the chief of Lithuanian diplomacy.

“No trust. No legitimacy,” is how Ryszard Petru, Rapporteur General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Democratic Belarus, assessed the event, which official minsk considers “presidential election”.

“They (belarusians) show us how important is the struggle for our democracy in Europe. The European family keeps its doors open for a democratic and free Belarus,” Minister of Foreign Affairs of the FRG Annalena Baerbock said.

minister of internal affairs of the rb ivan kubrakov has called the last “election” the calmest in comparison to others and thanked the citizens for their “law-abiding behavior”. Large-scale repressions have not stopped in the rb for the fifth year since the la previous presidential election. Civil society has been destroyed in the country, all opposition parties and independent media outlets are working from abroad.

Under lukashenko’s order, authorities of the rb have imposed restrictions on access to virtual hosting outside the country for the time of the presidential election. According to the document, these measures were in effect from 10:00 a.m. on January 25 to 23:59 p.m. on January 27. Officially, this is explained by the need to protect information infrastructure facilities and the data they process.

The authorities of the rb are going to take a “soft loan” from China – the relevant resolution has been published on the legal Internet portal. The ministry of finance of the rb will be responsible for negotiating and signing the agreement. The purpose, amount and other details of the loan are not specified in the document.

The ministry of information of the rb has added 30 more books to the list of publications banned for distribution, as “these books can harm national interests”. Among the banned books are: the novel “Lullaby”, by Chuck Palahniuk; “Gulag”, by Anne Applebaum; “Heartstopper” comics, by Alice Osman; “Red, White and Royal Blue”, by Casey McQuiston; “My Dark Vanessa”, by Kate Elizabeth Russell; “Narysy Gistoryi Belarusi (1795-2002)”, by Zakhar Shybek; “A Little Life” and “To the End of Paradise” by Hanya Yanagihara and others. “If facts of distribution of printed publications are revealed, the ministry will terminate the certificate of state registration as a distributor of printed publications,” the ministry of information said in a statement.

Under the decree signed by self-proclaimed lukashenko on January 27, district and city executive committees will independently decide who of the region's professionals will be provided with rental housing.

Employees of the belarusian metallurgical plant have been warned about responsibility for extremism through the zhlobin newspaper “metallurg”. The newspaper has published (“in order to prevent extremist crimes”) a list of 17 articles of the criminal code under which people were most often convicted of “politics” and the terms they were sentenced to.

On February 6, the gomel regional court in a closed session will begin to consider the case of 35-year-old local resident Yuri Zolotukhin, who is accused of high treason. After his arrest in the autumn of 2024, he was tried for distributing extremist materials.