March 29, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Germany will soon transfer to Ukraine new batches of weapons to help the country fight against russia’s new attacks. According to Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Annalena Baerbock, Ukraine will receive additional air defense systems, UAVs and radars. “Our response to putin’s war is peace through strength. Peace through European unity and determination,” added Baerbock.

The Government of Denmark will allocate DKK 300 million (almost EUR 40 million) to an innovation fund to support Ukraine’s growing need for rapid technological development on the battlefield. The innovation fund will focus in particular on technology spheres related to electronic warfare and AUVs.

Sweden will allocate more than EUR 7 million for the Drone Coalition and the Mine Action Coalition for Ukraine.

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, Trade and Climate Action has announced the allocation of another EUR 7.27 million to repair Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

“...The fact that putin is waging a war against Ukraine and is targeting it every day with bombs, drones, etc. probably shows that he is not so much concerned with Ukrainian democracy as with other things, and we should not buy this narrative of his,” said Spokesperson for the German Federal Government Steffen Hebestreit.

The European Union will allocate EUR 6 million in funding for programs to support Ukrainian women.

Ukraine and Spain have signed a declaration on creation of the Ukrainian Unity Hub.

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President of France Emmanuel Macron says that russia’s EUR 230 billion in frozen assets could be used to restore Ukraine as part of a peace deal.

The European Union has begun work on its 17th package of sanctions against russia.

In February, the growth rate of industrial production in russia dropped to meager 0.2 % year-on-year. Compared to January (2.2 %), industrial growth in the economy slowed down 11 times, and in comparison with the fourth quarter of last year (5.9 %), it slowed down more than 29 times.

In russia, the decline in gas production is accelerating as fuel supplies to Europe through Ukraine are cut off. In February, the figure fell by 11.3 % year-on-year to 57.2 billion cubic meters. At this, the February production decline rate was higher than in January, when it was 3 % year-on-year. Over the two months, 131 billion cubic meters of gas were produced, which is by 7.3 % less than last year.

The war against Ukraine is significantly worsening the epidemiological situation in russia. According to the WHO, the rf is a leader among European countries where it comes to tuberculosis among the population. A noticeable part of the increase in the number of russians infected with the disease is made up of military personnel who participated in the aggression against Ukraine. Most of them caught TB from prisoners who came to the front from colonies.

According to the results of the state career guidance conducted in schools of the rf in 2024, 27.7 % of 10th formers (almost 16,400 out of 59,080 respondents) were recommended a military profile of study. Among 8th formers, this figure was almost 15% (or 29,140 respondents). They were advised to build a future career in security agencies.

The state duma committee on state-building and lawmaking recommended the lower house of the parliament to adopt a draft law on imprisonment for up to five years for calling for sanctions against the rf.

The Council of the European Union has expanded sanctions against belarus for undermining democracy in the country, as well as internal repression and assistance to russia’s war against Ukraine. The new sanctions affect a total of 25 individuals and 7 legal entities. All in alll, the EU’s restrictive measures against belarus, which have been introduced since the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2020, now apply to 310 individuals and 46 legal entities.

In 2024, the population of belarus decreased by almost 47 thousand people. Over the 30 years of lukashenko’s rule, the country’s population has decreased by 1.1 million people. These figures do not take into account the massive emigration of people from belarus for political and economic reasons, which has been going on since 2020.

There is a catastrophic shortage of potatoes in the rb’s shops. The reason for this is the manual management of the country's economy, when it is economically unprofitable to grow and sell potatoes. In recent years, belarusian agriculture has been steadily degrading. The model where the state keeps prices down and farmers have to make a loss is not working.

As of March 1, in the rb, legal entities’ debt to banks on loans amounted to 60.08 billion belarusian rubles. The amount of debt increased by 12.9 % over the year. Individuals’ debt on loans to banks increased by RUB 354.7 million in February and reached RUB 26.77 billion as of March 1. This was up by 27.6% year-on-year. Debts on consumer loans increased by 48.4 % to RUB 10.45 billion, and on real estate loans – by 18.5 % to RUB 16.28 billion.