Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Minister of Defence of the FRG Boris Pistorius has announced that his country will supply Ukraine with two Patriot air defense systems.

The US Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a draft defense spending budget for fiscal year 2026, which provides for one billion dollars in aid for Ukraine.

The US company Raytheon has received a contract worth up to $3.5 billion for the production of Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), including for Ukraine.

Co-Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jeanne Shaheen and Senator Lisa Murkowski have introduced a bipartisan bill, the Supporting Ukraine Act of 2025, which provides for multibillion-dollar aid to Ukraine. For the fiscal years 2026 and 2027, the lawmakers propose to allocate to our country: $30 billion for security assistance to Ukraine; $500 million for emergency assistance to Ukraine; $3 billion for the FMF program for Ukraine; an increase in the PDA program’s allocation limit to $6 billion; and $600 million to support Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, anti-corruption programs, and war crimes prosecutions. The document also calls for immediate measures to confiscate the frozen assets of the rf or to submit a plan to increase revenues from the blocked assets to obtain additional funds for Ukraine.

“... I have come here to assure the people of Kyiv and Ukrainians in general that such despicable attacks will only strengthen our resolve to support your fight for freedom, because your fight for freedom is our fight,” Denmark’s Ambassador to Ukraine Ole Mikkelsen visited the site of a Russian strike in Kyiv, which destroyed the entrance of a residential building.

“If upholding international law and condemning... waging wars of conquest is russophobia, I do not believe that the 143 countries that condemned russia’s aggression at the UN General Assembly are russophobes,” Minister of Defence of Bulgaria Atanas Zapryanov commented on his name on the list of “russophobes” compiled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the rf.

The majority of Czechs agree that the Czech Republic should continue to provide asylum to Ukrainian refugees in view of russia’s full-scale aggression, as shown by a survey.

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Against the background of russia’s aggression, Bundestag Member from the ruling Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Roderich Kiesewetter, has proposed that the country withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, which prohibits the use of anti-personnel mines.

“...I wouldn’t call him an important decision maker” – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented on the bellicose rhetoric of Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the rf Dmitry Medvedev.

Chief of General Staff of France Thierry Burkhard believes that in five years russia could become a “real threat” to Europe.

The government of India has instructed state-owned refineries to prepare contingency plans in case oil from russia becomes unavailable. Top refinery managers have been instructed to develop preliminary calculations of where and how they could buy oil to replace russian barrels.

Kazakhstan has given contracts for the construction of two nuclear power plants to China instead of russia. The country will also build three thermal power plants, estimated to cost up to $1.8 billion, without the participation of russia’s “Inter RAO”, as the company has had difficulty attracting export financing.

In the first phase of the program to write off two-thirds of the regions’ debts on budget loans, the rf will be “forgiven” RUB 160 billion in 2024 – such decisions have already been made regarding RUB 105 billion owed by 36 regions. The total amount of funds to be written off in 2025-2029 was estimated at RUB 1.1 trillion. At the same time, the ministry of finance points out that most regions have higher growth rates of expenditures compared to revenues.

Business activity in russia’s manufacturing sector decreased in July at the fastest pace since March 2022, with business confidence having declined to a near three-year low. The Purchasing Managers’ Index for the russian manufacturing sector decreased to 47.0 in July from 47.5 in June. The second sharp decline in a few months was caused by poor customer demand and financial difficulties of customers, which affected both production volumes and new orders.

In January-June 2025, sugar beet shipments by russian farmers decreased by more than 50 % year-on-year. The situation has already led to a 28.4 % decline in sugar production.

The management of a plant near moscow that produces LiAZ buses announced the switch to a four-day working week. The reason is a decline in demand and in government orders. Workers at the plant have been working reduced hours for a month now, and their salaries have been cut by 15 %. The Pavlovsk Automobile Plant, which produces PAZ buses, has stopped working. The KamAZ and GAZ plants have also switched to a four-day working week. At this, KAMAZ emphasized that sales had fallen by 30 %. Earlier, another major car manufacturer, AvtoVAZ,has announced that it also plans to switch to a four-day working week in September (car sales there have also declined by 30 %).

Petrol prices in the rf continue to rise despite the ban on export, and in August the threat of a shortage may be added to the price increase.

In July, freight transportation by railway in the rf decreased by 5.4 % year-on-year.

The Ministry of Education of the rf has recommended that teachers monitor foreign students “prone to committing crimes”. Among them – those who are “dismissive” of the subject “Talking about Important Things” and identify themselves with their “country of origin”.

The rf’s authorities have given the nationalized developer of the World of Tanks game to the son of a major kremlin propagandist, general director of VGTRK, Oleg Dobrodeyev. He previously headed another nationalized company – VK.

Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Nikitin has advised to treat the Internet outages as a “health- improving practice”.

The Federation Council has advised russians to always carry about 500-1000 rubles in cash due to communication problems. According to Senator Sheikin, this amount is “enough to safely pay for transportation and to buy bread, water or other essentials”.

In the temporarily occupied Crimea, mobile Internet was cut off at the height of the tourist season.

Over the past 5 years, the share of foreign retailers in St. Petersburg shopping centers has more than halved. As of the first half of 2025, the share of foreign players in the shopping center market is only 12 %.

The weakest links in fighting African swine fever are russia and belarus. Despite their efforts and the number of wild boars shot, European countries cannot eliminate the threat from russia and belarus.

Lithuania’s State Security Department has urged its citizens to refrain from any trips to belarus and warned that such trips could pose a threat to their safety. lukashenko has said that “military mobilization” is necessary in peacetime to maintain the stability of the economy.

The deficit of foreign trade in goods continues to grow in belarus. It reached $3.18 billion in the first half of the year. This is by 83 % more than in the first half of 2024.

The share of petroleum products and potassium in belarusian exports has decreased to 16 %.

Since the introduction of price controls, inflation has hit the poorest belarusians harder. In June of this year, prices for the group of less well-off rose by an average of 5.2 %, compared to December last year, and for the richest – by 3.6 %. For the former group of belarusians, inflation eats away at their incomes faster than for the latter group. This is because the consumer baskets of the two groups differ greatly.

In Gomel region, siloviki raid the fields of local agricultural enterprises. These are inspections carried out by KGB officers, regarding combine operators and other workers. During the raids, security forces are outraged that people are not working well.

Since 2020, at least 500 thousand people have been repressed in belarus.

Every day, phone checks, interrogations, and detentions continue at belarusian checkpoints. All detainees are placed in a pre-trial detention center in the city closest to the customs, after which they are either fined and released or subjected to administrative arrest. According to human rights activists, some are detained on criminal charges.