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

The US Department of State has approved the possible sale of air-to-surface missiles and related equipment to Ukraine for an estimated $825 million. This involves the purchase of up to 3,350 Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) missiles and 3,350 global positioning/inertial navigation (GPS/INS EGI) systems.

Belgium will provide Ukraine with additional military aid in the amount of EUR 100 million this year as part of NATO’s new initiative, Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL). The country’s Government is also considering the potential possibility of sending its troops to Ukraine after the ceasefire and plans to expedite the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Chief of the Defence Staff of the United Kingdom, Admiral Anthony Radakin, has assured that his country has long-term plans to provide Ukraine with large-scale support after the end of the war started by russia. “I think it will also be air, and for the future Ukraine, it will also include space and cyber. Modern warfare is five-domain warfare,” Radakin pointed out.

“At the level of the European Union, our contribution to security guarantees consists of a training mission, a military mission, and support for Ukraine’s defense industry. All three elements are also open to neutral countries,” said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.

“...Terrible attacks on Kyiv, killing so many innocent civilians, show yet again that we cannot be naïve about russia,” said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Lithuania believes that one way to improve the effectiveness of Ukrainian military training is to deploy training missions, particularly in western Ukraine.

The Police and Border Guard Board of Estonia has launched a two-year project to train a total of 84 senior and middle-ranking Ukrainian police officers from the National Police Headquarters, the Patrol Police, and police academies on establishing the rule of law and increasing trust in law enforcement officers.

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The new, 19th package of the European Union’s sanctions against russia may include restrictions on russian energy and financial services, as well as secondary sanctions. This was announced by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.

The European Commission is developing a scheme that will simplify the transfer of nearly EUR 200 billion in frozen russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine in the future.

EU member states have submitted applications for SAFE loans for defense production for the full amount provided for by the program – EUR 150 billion.

“We cannot change our geographical location. We are russia’s neighbors. This means that we must prepare our Armed Forces and society for a possible conflict. We are ready to defend our country,” said Minister of Defence of Estonia Hanno Pevkur.

Finland and Poland are considering the possibility of re-wetting dried peatlands to create protective barriers against russia’s potential ground invasion.

Migration authorities of Finland have denied asylum in the country to 70 % of russians who have applied for it.

Approximately 40,000 military personnel will be involved in the exercise, which will be held in the Baltic states and Poland in response to the belarusian-russian exercise “Zapad-2025”. This information was provided by the Commander of Lithuania’s Army Raimundas Vaikšnoras.

For the first time since the start of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, funding for the army and weapons purchases has consumed every second ruble collected from taxpayers to the federal budget. The share of war spending in treasury revenues in the first quarter of 2025 was 50.1 %, and at the end of the second quarter, it was 48.2 %.

russia’s international reserves decreased by $3.7 billion within a week.

Exchange prices for premium-95 petrol at the St. Petersburg International Commodity Exchange have increased by 0.33 % to 78,671 rubles for a ton.

There were interruptions in the supply of motor fuel in a number of settlements in the Khabarovsk Territory.

“Lukoil”’s net profit in the first half of the year halved compared to the same period last year, having amounted to ₽287.023 billion. Sales revenue declined by almost 17 %.

Sibur, russia’s largest petrochemical holding company, reduced its net profit by 2.7 % in January-June 2025 compared to the same period last year, to 147.3 billion rubles.

The net loss of Segezha, a leading russian forestry holding company, increased by 68 % in the first half of the year, having reached ₽15.9 billion.

The wave of nationalizations in russia, which soon after the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine swept hundreds of companies worth $50 billion, continues to accelerate. In particular, the prosecutor general’'s office filed a lawsuit against the country’s largest music publisher, “Muzyka”, for state revenue.

The moscow Arbitration Court has officially declared the bankruptcy of the russian company SR Space, which positioned itself as a potential competitor to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“Rosavtodor” is preparing a new concept for the “Platon” toll system for vehicles weighing more than 12 tons throughout the country. A total of 73 million rubles was paid just to create an advertising campaign for the competition. Logistics companies have already responded that they are operating at a loss: “We are trying to survive, but we are already having to cut back: on the one hand, the Chinese are putting pressure on us, and on the other, there is the “glitchy” Platon and other fines”.

New banking security rules will come into force in russia on September 1. Credit institutions will block “suspicious” cash transactions, and customers will not be able to withdraw more than 50,000 rubles from ATMs within 48 hours.

All school and parent chat rooms will be transferred to the national messenger Max on September 1.

In 73 regions of russia, school teachers are paid salaries below the minimum wage.

High school students should be taken on excursions to detention centers, police stations, and court hearings, said a member of the presidential council for human rights merkacheva.

russian schoolchildren will be taught to celebrate “chekist day”. The “Prosveshcheniye” publishing house, which produces state textbooks, has added the day of the security service employee to the calendar of educational events. Along with “chekist day”, other dates that are “significant” for children have been added to the list, such as the anniversary of the “reunification” of temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories with russia, as well as jubilee of director and propagandist nikita mikhalkov.

72.16 % of migrants’ children were not accepted into schools in St. Petersburg.

In Chelyabinsk, there is no more space on the “Zov Alley” where participants in the war against Ukraine are buried. Relatives are being told to pay 100,000 rubles for new plots.

rosfinmonitoring has updated its list of terrorists and extremists, having added Maksim Shelkovnikov from Novosibirsk region, who turned 14 in June. He was the youngest person on the list, but there is already another 14-year-old teenager on it. In July, rosfinmonitoring added Amir Shagatov from Orenburg, who turned 14 in April. There are also older minors on the list – 32 15-year-olds, all of whom are considered to be terrorists.

Officially, 3.4 % of the population of belarus live below the poverty line. But many more people live on very small amounts of money. 40 % of belarusian families live on less than 1,000 rubles ($310) per month.