March 16, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The Government of Canada has contributed additional EUR 33.4 million (50 million Canadian dollars) to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund.

“Ukraine has set their position out. It is now for russia to accept it. I think that there is a coalition of the willing emerging to give Ukraine the security architecture and arrangements that they need, and to get into the detail of any monitoring of that ceasefire, going forward,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy stated that G7 allies are unanimously calling for a ceasefire “without conditions” to stop the fighting in Ukraine.

“We can’t let president putin play games with President Trump’s deal,” said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said that the russians should not be allowed to “play games” with the possibility of a ceasefire in Ukraine. At the same time, he believes that “an increase in Ukraine's military capabilities” and new sanctions will push russia to the negotiating table.

“russia must now accept the US-Ukrainian proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. russian aggression in Ukraine must end. Abuses must stop. So must delaying statements,” emphasized President of France Emmanuel Macron.

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On March 14, the Council of the European Union approved a negotiating position on the European Commission’s proposal to impose tariffs on agricultural products from russia and belarus, fertilizers included. The proposal to impose tariffs on 15 % of imports of agricultural products of russian and belarusian origin to the EU was put forward by the European Commission in January. The proposed tariffs, if approved, would apply to the rest of the russian and belarusian agricultural products that are not yet subject to EU restrictions, nitrogen fertilizers included. The EU Council expects that the tariffs will reduce russia's export revenues, thus limiting its ability to finance its war of aggression against Ukraine.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Margus Tsahkna has announced that Tallinn has imposed national sanctions against four russian citizens who were removed from the EU sanctions list at Hungary’s insistence. According to Tsahkna, amid discussions in the EU about extending sanctions, the Government of Estonia has imposed its own sanctions on all the individuals on the list “as a preventive measure”. The Estonian Foreign Minister has also called for the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights in the EU Council for systematic actions against Europe’s common interests, including support for Ukraine.

President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing an executive order to restrict entry to the United States for citizens of certain countries. It is proposed to introduce three levels of restrictions: “red” – entry is closed to all, “orange” – strict restrictions on the use of visas, and “yellow” – the country must eliminate the problem that makes its citizens “undesirable” within 60 days. belarus, along with russia, Eritrea and Myanmar is on the orange list.

Faced with a sharp drop in russian oil prices, a rising budget deficit and the rapid depletion of the sovereign wealth fund, the russian government has tapped into the last available source of cash reserves – rubles accumulated in bank accounts. The “cash cushion” which the russian ministry of finance keeps in credit institutions on deposits and under repurchase agreements has been rapidly shrinking since the beginning of 2025 and by mid-March, i.e. in two and a half months, it had almost halved. Out of the 9.99 trillion rubles that the budget kept in banks as of January 10, 6.756 trillion rubles remained by the end of February, and as of March 13, only 5.846 trillion rubles remained. The stock of rubles on deposits decreased by 35 %, from 8.882 trillion to 5.694 trillion rubles, and the funds invested in repo transactions decreased by more than 7 times, from 1.108 trillion to 152 billion rubles.

Due to inflationary risks and instability in the foreign exchange market, the bank of russia intends to toughen its monetary policy by revising the key policy rate at its meeting on March 21. After keeping it at the current level, there were no significant changes in the economy. Instead, the rate hike will make loans in the rf more expensive, as it makes borrowing more expensive for businesses and households.

The country that produces and sells gas all over the world, still cannot provide gas to its own citizens. In the Trans-Baikal Territory of russia, the deadline for the gasification of Chita has been postponed again – they cannot “find” more than 9 billion rubles.

The main challenge facing the fishing industry in the Kamchatka Territory of the rf is Western sanctions, which have made it difficult to supply both ship and processing equipment, and increased logistics costs due to the closure of a number of old and search for new markets abroad. China remained the only channel for the export of fish products from russia, and in this situation, it became the master of the situation and began to dictate low prices for the products of Far Eastern fishermen. Since February 2022, the number of participants in the Kamchatka fishing industry with negative profitability has doubled – of 73 large and medium-sized enterprises, there are currently 43 such enterprises. Investment activity is out of the question, as russian businesses are facing the issue of basic survival.

In January 2025, consumer price growth rates in the eastern part of the rf exceeded the national average (+1.2 %) in Amur Region (+1.6 %), the Khabarovsk Territory (+1.6 %), the Kamchatka Territory (+1.4 %), Irkutsk Region (+1.4 %), and the Trans-Baikal Territory (+1.3 %). At the same time, the highest unemployment rates in the Far East from November 2024 to February 2025 remain in Yakutia (5.3 %), the Trans-Baikal Territory (4.9 %), and Buryatia (4.1 %). The unemployment rate is also higher than the national average (2.4 %) in Irkutsk region (3.1 %).

The birth rate continues to decline in russia’s Far East. The lowest fertility rates are recorded in Magadan region (7.5), Jewish Autonomous District (7.8) and Primorsky Krai (8.5).

russian dealers are forced to ask prime minister of the rf mishustin to introduce car purchase incentives over the collapse of the car market, which has fallen by 25 % since February 2024.

lukashenko has said that putin is not planning to attack Europe and that if such a war was planned, he would know about it, because in that case the attack would be from the territory of belarus.

During lukashenko’s rule, 1.6 thousand settlements disappeared in belarus.

People again complain to head of the “council of the republic” kochanova about the lack of specialized doctors in belarus, in particular in Novopolotsk and Polotsk.

A court of minsk in closed session sentenced Latvian citizen Yuri Ganins to six years in a maximum security colony under three political articles – “discrediting belarus”, “slandering lukashenko” and “calling for sanctions”.