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

Two new Patriot air defense systems have been put on combat duty to defend Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure.

Ukraine has officially joined the single roaming zone with countries of the European Union.

Switzerland has begun its annual chairpersonship of the OSCE. “In the face of war in Europe, Switzerland is committed to a just peace in Ukraine, based on international law and the Helsinki principles. We will use our mediation experience to promote dialogue, trust, and security”, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland Ignazio Cassis commented on the priorities of the chairpersonship.

Estonia has been chairing the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) (Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia) since January 1. Priorities of the Estonian chairpersonship include continuing comprehensive support for Ukraine and maintaining a leading role in exerting pressure on russia.

The EU countries plan to approve the 20th package of sanctions against russia by the fourth anniversary of the rf’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In 2025, Ukraine managed to attract more than $45 billion in international security assistance, which is the highest figure since the start of the full-scale war and by nearly 30 % more than last year.

Over the past year, the Ukrainian defense industry received more than $6 billion in foreign funding.

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President of the International Olympic Committee Kirsty Coventry has emphasized that russian athletes will not be able to compete under their country’s flag at the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina in February this year, even if a peace agreement is reached with Ukraine.

Poland’s National Security Bureau has stated that russia and belarus have intensified provocations in the airspace in recent months and expects a repeat of provocations in 2026.

President of Finland Alexander Stubb mentioned russia in his New Year’s address. He said that relations between the two countries have changed forever. Since 2023, Finland has closed all eight passenger crossings on its eastern border.

The central bank of the rf has warned of budget cuts if oil prices do not rise.

From January 1, 2026, the base rate of value added tax levied in russia has increased from 20 % to 22 %. According to experts, a 2 % increase in the VAT rate will lead to an overall increase in prices in the first half of 2026. Besides, from January 1, 2026, bank commissions on card transactions will be subject to VAT, in particular, this will affect acquiring and processing. Now VAT on them will be 22 %; for 20 years, there was an exemption from this tax. Starting in 2026, customs duties for customs operations related to the import of various goods into russia will also increase. The cost of customs clearance for a number of goods imported into the country will increase. For example, for radio electronics, it will increase almost 2.5 times – from 30,000 to 73,860 per batch, regardless of its volume.

“russia has lost trillions of dollars due to the reduction of the cost of its oil and petroleum products,” said head of the st. petersburg international mercantile exchange igor artemyev.

From January 1, the income tax rate for persons recognized as “foreign agents” in the rf has increased to 30 % (instead of 13–22 %). Besides, “foreign agents” will be deprived of all tax benefits and deductions enjoyed by russians.

Starting January 1, 2026, microfinance organizations will have to request official confirmation of borrowers’ income for loans up to 50,000 rubles or assess them based on the average per capita income in the region. And this – despite the fact that members of the state duma are not required to submit declarations of their income.

In russia, losses from economic crimes reached 316 billion rubles in the first 11 months of 2025, a record high for the past three years. In total, more than 101,000 such crimes were detected last year.

russian airlines carried an estimated 108.5 million passengers in 2025, which is by 2.7 % fewer than in 2024. In particular, passenger traffic at moscow’s “domodedovo” airport fell by almost 11 % compared to 2024.

In 2025, mobile internet was shut down more than 11,900 times in russian regions. The absolute leaders in terms of the number of shutdowns among russian regions were nizhny novgorod (202 days with shutdowns) and rostov (200) regions, as well as moscow (199).

Case files on lawsuits seeking to declare people missing or dead have begun to disappear from russian courts’ websites. Currently, there are no such lawsuits registered in 2025 on the websites of courts in 50 regions, whereas a month ago there were data on almost 44,000 cases there.

Due to a shortage of coal in Yakutia, nearly 122,000 people may be left without heating. Fuel problems have arisen in ust-aldan, churapcha, tattinsky, megino-kangalassky, amginsky, and gorsky districts.

In addition to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and the republics of the north caucasus federal district, the trans-baikal territory and the republic of buryatia have been added to the year-round ban on cryptocurrency mining until 2031. Please, be reminded that the rf has imposed a ban on mining in 13 regions of the country to stabilize the power system.

More than 400 catering establishments may close in moscow in 2026, which is by 10 % more than in 2025.

In tyumen, businessmen are selling off their takeaway outlets. The number of offers to sell businesses in the field of ready-made takeaway outlets has increased by as much as 73 %.

In 2025, Lithuania intercepted 635 balloons that flew in from belarus. This is 2.8 times more than in 2024, when 226 such balloons were intercepted. It is noteworthy that in 2023 there were only three.

belarus ranks third in the world in terms of the number of sanctions imposed.

Since 2020, more than 8,000 people have been convicted in belarus in politically motivated criminal cases. In total, at least 9,282 people have faced criminal prosecution for political reasons, and these figures are growing every month. At the end of December 2025, there were 1,131 political prisoners in belarus (167 women included).