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

Ukraine has received EUR 2.3 billion from the EU as part of the sixth tranche of the Ukraine Facility.

Since the beginning of 2025, the European Union has provided Ukraine with EUR 28.7 billion in financial support, and a total of EUR 70.7 billion since the start of the full-scale war.

US President D. Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has called the latest negotiations to end russia’s war against Ukraine “productive”.

“This year he (putin) has achieved only very limited progress – minimal territorial gains, less than 1 % of Ukrainian territory compared with the beginning of the year. And according to our estimates, up to 1.1 million people on the russian side have been killed or wounded. This is horrific. But this is the situation we are dealing with,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called putin the main obstacle to peace in Ukraine.

“...The decision on peace rests solely on Ukraine’s shoulders. They (Ukrainians) are suffering so much that we cannot blame them for any decision they make,” said President of Romania Nicușor Dan.

“If putin says ‘no’, we need to radically change our game plan, including transferring Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine so that it can strike missile and drone production facilities in russia,” – Republican Senator Lindsey Graham believes that if peace proposals are rejected, russia should be recognized as a “state–sponsor of terrorism for kidnapping 20,000 Ukrainian children and, more importantly, the ships carrying sanctioned russian oil should be detained, as is done in Venezuela”.

US Senators Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat) and Mitch McConnell (Republican) believe that the only way to bring the war to a just end is to strengthen Ukraine’s position.

Deputy Chief Spokesperson for the European Commission Olof Gill has stressed that the EU will continue to actively participate in peace initiatives to establish peace in Ukraine.

“Over the next six months, support for Ukraine will remain a priority for the Cypriot presidency. Of course, it could not be otherwise, given that we, Cyprus, the Republic of Cyprus, have a direct understanding of what invasion means, what occupation means, what violation of fundamental principles and rights means,” said President of Cyprus Nicos Christodoulides on his country’s presidency of the EU Council.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Norway Eirik Kristoffersen has said that his country is consolidating the training of Ukrainian military personnel in Poland, closer to the border with Ukraine, at the largest training camp in Jomsborg. According to him, Norway is studying the lessons of the war in Ukraine at both the tactical and strategic levels. “I don’t think putin’s goals have changed since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022: he wants to have a larger piece of Ukraine as part of russia, have a russia-friendly regime in Kyiv, and stop any rapprochement between Ukraine and Western security structures,” said Kristoffersen.

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On December 22, the EU Council extended economic sanctions against russia for another six months: they will remain in effect until July 31, 2026. These are economic sanctions that were first introduced in 2014 and significantly expanded in February 2022 in response to russia’s full-scale invasion.

The cost of shipping containers with cargo from China to russia and Europe differs several times over – $6,159 versus $1,957 per container.

The volume of non-payments by state-owned companies to russian businesses in 2025 soared approximately 2.7 times in annual terms. This refers to contracts concluded within the framework of state procurement. While in 2024 there were 200 cases totaling 1.5 billion rubles, this year there were 548 cases totaling almost 4.03 billion rubles. The situation with state corporations’ non-payments is systemic. Companies delay payments for a period of one to three months, which effectively turns unpaid money into an interest-free loan. Non-payments have become widespread since the end of 2024. This is due to the decline in revenues of state-owned companies and the high cost of credit.

In 2025, russia failed to meet its fishing quota, which was set out in the Strategy for the Development of the Agricultural and Fisheries Complex. The rf failed to meet both the baseline and conservative scenarios, which predicted catches of 5.2 million tons and 5.08 million tons, respectively. The annual catch is about 5 million tons.

In the rf, over the past nine years, the number of enterprises engaged in the processing and canning of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks has decreased by 32 %. The average annual investment in fish processing has not been growing since 2021.

In russia, the dynamics of investments in crop production in physical terms (in units of equipment, square meters, etc.) has been declining over the past four years. In the first nine months of 2025, the indicator decreased by 6.7 % compared to the same period last year.

In January–December 2025, the number of franchise applications in the rf decreased by 21.2 % year-on-year. Demand for clothing shop franchises decreased by 53.6 % over the year, for fast food franchises – by 36.9 %, and for coffee shops – by 25.3 %. The reason is the economic downturn.

Tariffs for technical inspection of passenger cars in russia will increase by an average of 9.7 % from January 1, 2026. For comparison, the indexation in 2024 was 7.4–7.5 %. The highest tariff is in Chukotka – 5,400 rubles per passenger car. Among the most expensive regions are also st. petersburg (2,000 rubles), Amur region (1,850 rubles), and Nenets Autonomous Okrug (1,750 rubles).

In 2025, 73 % of all data leaks from russian organizations came from the public sector.

Only 13 % of russians hope that their companies will pay them an annual bonus.

russian employers have begun to point out a widespread lack of professional skills among russians. In 2025, 93 % of companies faced this problem. Against this background, employers have increased the proportion of vacancies for applicants with little experience (1 to 3 years): the number of such offers reached 4.4 million, or 43 % of the total.

The shortage of personnel in the russian hotel industry reaches 30 %. One of the main problems is the low salaries of line staff.

“russian citizens are increasingly saving on food and switching to shopping at hard discounters due to the economic context,” said Katerina Lobacheva, the president of the X5 Group, the country’s largest retailer, which has more than 27,000 shops in all regions.

The WhatsApp messenger service is once again experiencing disruptions in russia. Users across the country are complaining, in particular, about the inability to send messages. roskomnadzor has slowed down the messenger’s performance by 70–80 %.

st. petersburg is once again experiencing widespread problems with mobile internet and communications.

Authorities of Yakutia are preparing major cuts in state institutions amid growing budget problems, with the deficit to almost triple next year. Around 2,000 employees of budgetary organizations will be laid off, with around 300 people already having been made redundant this year. This year’s budget for Yakutia has a deficit of 2.8 billion rubles, and next year the hole in the local treasury will increase to 7.6 billion. At this, the republic’s authorities are launching a large-scale sequestration of education spending. Funding for schools in Yakutia will be cut by 18 % next year, from 72 billion rubles to 60 billion rubles, and by the same amount again by 2028, to 50 billion rubles.

Interregional bus carriers operating in Kurgan region are gradually increasing fares by up to 30 % in December on key routes to Perm, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, Khanty-Mansiysk, and Poikovsky.

The state duma has proposed that baby formula should only be sold with a doctor’s prescription. Deputy chair of the state duma committee on protection of family, fatherhood, motherhood, and childhood Tatyana Butskaya believes that this is an “unnecessary” product for children. She previously claimed that formula “causes obesity and diabetes and is linked to autism”.

“belarus’ energy system is ready to integrate another nuclear power plant unit in 2035,” said minister of energy Denis Moroz. At this, minsk has not recouped its costs and has not repaid russia’s loans after the launch of the first two units of the belarusian nuclear power plant.

The Partizansky District Court of minsk, which had previously overturned its decision, again recognized the materials on the Council of Europe website as “extremist”. The resource reappeared on the updated “Republican list of extremist materials”.

belarus, known for its dairy products, has begun importing such products from russia. Of the total amount of $40 million (29,000 tons), which is the estimated value of russia’s dairy exports, belarus accounts for $4 million, or 10 %.

The growth rate of the belarusian economy will continue to slow down in 2026. GDP growth is expected to be between 0.5 % and 1.5 %. This is stated in the macro forecast for belarus for the next year.

minsk needs more than 40,000 workers. There is still a shortage of drivers, builders, and medical professionals.