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

US President Donald Trump has said he is optimistic about the final conclusion of a peace agreement in the war between the rf and Ukraine.

“Ukraine is making every effort to achieve a just and lasting peace. Estonia stands firmly on the side of Ukraine. Support remains. Pressure on russia remains,” said Prime Minister of Estonia Kristen Michal.

“These attacks increase the suffering of the civilian population and are a violation of international law. They must stop,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain José Manuel Albares regarding the massive shelling of Kyiv on December 27.

“Ukraine needs security guarantees asap: a strong and well-funded Ukrainian Army; a future anchored in the European Union and the stability it brings; US-backed security guarantees, and the Coalition of the Willing, ready to defend Ukraine’s sky, land, and sea,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Kęstutis Budrys, who believes that russia’s shelling of Ukrainian cities on the night of December 27 is part of a campaign of terror and escalation.

“The next meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, planned for early January, should allow us to complete the planning of the security guarantees we will provide to Ukraine,” said a representative of President of France Emmanuel Macron’s office.

In December, Ukraine received $196.3 million in concessional financing from the World Bank under guarantees from the Government of Japan through the ADVANCE Ukraine fund as part of the SURGE project – “Supporting Reconstruction Through Smart Fiscal Governance”.

The Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) has transferred EUR 63.82 million to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund.

Georgia’s government has extended free access to a range of medical services for Ukrainian refugees until April 1, 2026.

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russia, which has been trying to seize Ukraine for almost four years, has found itself in a difficult economic situation. This was stated by Donald Trump. “Their economy is in bad shape, very bad shape,” said the US President.

The kremlin’s attempts to bargain with Washington for the resumption of air traffic between russia and the USA, which the russian side has been making since February, after the start of the negotiation process on the russian-Ukrainian war, have again failed. The White House refuses to compromise on this issue until the war is over.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov has said that russia has closed the criminal case into the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane shot down by a russian missile in December 2024. This became known from a letter from the russian investigative committee following the investigation into the crash. “The letter stated that the criminal case had already been closed. Undoubtedly, this step raises very serious questions for us,” Bayramov said. He pointed out that Azerbaijan’s authorities had sent an official response to russia, emphasizing that Baku expects moscow to fulfill its obligations.

Foreign brands have become much less likely to enter the russian market and more likely to leave russia. In particular, many of the 60 brands that entered the country in 2023-2024 have decided to leave. This year, half as many international brands entered russia as in the previous two years: 12 compared to 25 and 23 in 2023-2024. Most of them are companies from China, Türkiye, belarus, and Kazakhstan. Clothing and footwear brands are leaving first. They account for half of the 320 shops that closed this year in shopping centers.

The American company Google has informed russian providers of its intention to remove its Dell R720 servers, which speed up content delivery to users. This equipment is used as part of the Google Global Cache (GGC) system to store YouTube videos, maps, updates for Android apps and the Chrome browser, images from Google search, and more. The company stopped installing such servers in russia after the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine.

Citizensof the rf in Latvia are actively trying to appeal the decision to revoke their residence permits, but the courts have not issued a single ruling in their favor.

The growth of the russian economy practically stopped in November 2025, – as reported by the ministry of economic development of the rf.

Despite rosstat’s reports of a sharp decline in poverty, tens of millions of russian citizens are in a “pre-poverty” state, as they can only afford food and basic goods. This was stated by Dmitry Belousov, who heads the kremlin-affiliated Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting. Thirty to forty percent of people are very close to the poverty line – they “can only afford food and clothing”. This amounts to approximately 40 to 60 million people.

Damages from fires in russia in 2025 exceeded 20 billion rubles.

In the first half of this year, “Yandex” received a record 53,994 requests from russian authorities to disclose user data. For comparison, during the same period last year, the company was asked for information 36,540 times. Thus, the increase was almost 48 %. And while “Yandex” satisfied 80 % of such requests (29,379) in January-June last year, in the first six months of this year, it satisfied 78 % (42,320).

The government of the rb plans to fill the labor market shortage by attracting students, pensioners, and people with disabilities.