March 25, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The partner countries of the Drone Coalition have decided to allocate EUR 20 million from a joint fund for the purchase of tactical reconnaissance UAVs for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

European Commission Spokesperson Anitta Hipper has said that the European Commission emphasizes its unwavering support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and stresses that the so-called “referenda” held by russia in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine were completely falsified.

US National Security Adviser Michael Waltz has said that the United States may offer the rf to return the abducted Ukrainian children “as one of the key steps to building trust.”

“The bandit (russia) should pay from his own property, not the interest on it... Instead, Europe should focus on how to help Ukraine use this money wisely and effectively.” Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland Szymon Hołownia believes that the rf should transfer all frozen assets to our country.

Latvia’s national airline AirBaltic wants to be the first to operate flights from all three Baltic countries to Kyiv as soon as flights to Ukraine are resumed.

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Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski has warned of the possibility of russia’s “wider aggression by the end of the decade”.

The Ministry of Defense of Lithuania has proposed to ban citizens of the country who also have russian, belarusian or Chinese passports from entering the country’s main officer training institution, the General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania.

The supply of wines from the EU countries to the rf continues to fall. In January, imports amounted to only 6.5 thousand tons of wine against 13.3 thousand tons a year earlier. Thus, supplies have more than halved.

The profitability of exports of coking coal from the rf, which increased in the first decade of March, fell by 7-10 % by the middle of the month due to lower world prices and a weaker ruble. The decline was recorded not only on the eastern route, but also on the northwestern and southern routes, which can be subsidized. Analysts do not see any fundamental drivers of demand growth, especially in China.

For russian steelmakers, the year 2025 began with a sharp drop in exports. In January-February, shipments of hot-rolled steel to foreign markets fell by 10 % year-on-year, to 1.2 million tons, and of steel pipes of all types – by 15 %, to 100 thousand tons. At this, these products are the most marginal for russian ferrous metallurgy enterprises and accounted for almost a third of export revenues in 2023.

In the south of russia, sunflower oil plants have shut down due to losses. The market situation is now such that sunflower processing is only possible with negative margins, especially for export.

Some ATMs in russia do not accept the new five-thousand-dollar bills that were introduced at the end of last year. This is due to the withdrawal of manufacturers of money-dispensing and receiving machines from the russian market. Due to the sanctions, they do not support application software and do not develop templates for the new banknotes for russia.

In February, russians were issued the smallest number of new credit cards in the last year – 1.06 million. This is by 52.3 % fewer compared to the same period last year. Credit card issuance has been declining continuously since May last year. Compared to January of this year, the number of credit cards issued in February decreased by 2.1 %.

russians have begun to turn to the services of fortune tellers, astrologers, and esotery scientists more often. In 2024, the number of people interested in esoteric practices increased by 30 % to 9.5 million people. The greatest interest in esotery is shown by russians aged 35-44 (33% of consumers of such services). Another 26 % are tarot card and astrology fans (aged 45-55). Late zoomers and millennials (25–34 years old), who are interested in predictions and astrological forecasts, make 19 % of the total audience.

In 2024, only 15 % of russians decided to spend their vacations inside the country, while in 2022, against the background of the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the imposition of sanctions against russia and the stirring up of “patriotism”, this figure was 52 %.

The chief military prosecutor's office of the rf has banned the consideration of complaints from participants in the war against Ukraine about beatings, extortion and criminal orders from frontline commanders.

Residents of Belgorod region of the rf have accused russian soldiers of having looted dozens of private homes.

In Orel region, schoolgirls who register for pregnancy will be paid 100 thousand rubles each. This is stated in the decree of the regional governor. In December, the head of the region introduced payments of 100 thousand rubles to pregnant students.

In st. petersburg, a court arrested russian orthodox church clergyman nikolai savchenko for a photo of him holding a Ukrainian flag with a trident. The photo was taken in 2014.

The economy of Chelyabinsk region, as in other regions of the rf, has faced serious challenges: almost a quarter of industrial enterprises in the region were unprofitable in 2024. Their losses increased by 65.7 % to RUB 63 billion, accounts payable increased by 22.8 % to RUB 1.37 trillion, and accounts receivable increased by 10.7 % to RUB 1.24 trillion. These figures are directly related to sanctions restrictions that require import substitution, as well as rising production costs and difficulties with working capital.

The Government of Poland has announced plans to increase patrols on the Polish-belarusian border due to growing hybrid threats.

authorities of the rb did not cooperate with international experts who received a mandate from the UN Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations in the country. They call the mandate “counterproductive” and “hopeless”.

In three years, the area of state-supported housing for the needy in the rb has decreased almost three times.