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

Germany will fund the production of 15,000 Ukrainian STRILA interceptor drones for units of the National Guard of Ukraine.

Ukrainian and Norwegian companies will receive 93 million kroner (EUR 8 million) in support from the Norwegian government for pilot projects in the fields of renewable energy and medicine supply.

Nearly 150 candidates in France’s local elections, representing 100 cities and all political trends in the country, have signed the Charter in Support for Ukraine proposed by the Stand with Ukraine association.

“From the very beginning, I believed we needed to do two things: provide Ukraine with maximum support, both financial and military, and exert as much pressure on russia as possible. And, of course, sanctions play a key role in this,” said President of Finland Alexander Stubb.

Banks in Estonia have banned their customers from paying fees for processing visas to russia. The ban on such transactions for Estonians was introduced by the Estonian bank Coop and one of Sweden’s largest banks – Swedbank.

The oil discounts that russian oil companies were forced to grant to Chinese refineries once again cost them billions of dollars in lost revenue. By the end of 2025, the total value of discounts granted to Chinese refineries had reached $2.2 billion. Over the four years of oil supplies to the Chinese market, Beijing saved nearly $12 billion through discounts – an amount comparable to the five-year budgets of regions such as voronezh or volgograd regions.

At the end of 2025, the “bank of russia” reported a loss of 184.8 billion rubles. The regulator’s interest income fell by 35.4%, and total revenue decreased by 31.7%. Personnel expenses increased by 4.4%, even though the average headcount decreased by 3,564 employees (-8%).

The “bank of russia”’s gold reserves fell to 74.3 million troy ounces in February. This is the lowest level since March 2022. The decline has continued for the second month in a row: in January, the figure decreased by 300,000 ounces, and in February – by another 200,000 ounces.

The magnitogorsk iron and steel works, one of russia’s largest steel producers, has reduced capacity utilization to 60%, virtually halted all investments and equipment repairs, and is preparing to fire 10% of its management staff. In 2025, the plant operated at 70–80% capacity and with minimal profitability, while the group’s net loss for 2025 amounted to nearly 15 billion rubles. Currently, capacity utilization has fallen even further and stands at around 60%. The production capacity of russian steelmakers is twice the market demand, and a recovery in demand is not expected in 2026. This is the fourth major company in a row where plans for layoffs have been announced within the past week. Prior to this, layoffs were announced at the “prosveshchenie” publishing house, “yandex”, and “russian railways”. Authorities in five regions of the country have also recently announced layoffs.

In russia, the number of new neighborhood shops has dropped six times.

In recent years, about a third of cars in russia have been driving without mandatory auto insurance. As of January 1, 2025, 67.5 million vehicles were registered in the rf. At this, in 2024, over 44.6 million auto insurance policies were issued, of which over 43.5 million were long-term ones. Thus, approximately 23 million vehicles did not have mandatory insurance.

russian citizenship continues to lose its appeal among residents of other countries. In 2025, 152,400 foreigners received russian passports, which is by 27.1% fewer than the previous year. Interest in russian citizenship began to decline after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. In 2021, 735,000 residents of other countries received it, and in 2022, the number dropped to 691,000. But the real collapse occurred in 2023 – down to 378,000. In 2024, 209,000 passports were issued to foreigners.

russia needs to establish control over social media using artificial intelligence to quickly identify “radical” and “extremist” content, as well as “calls for destructive activity”. This statement was made by lieutenant general yuriy zhdanov of the ministry of internal affairs. According to him, russia should follow China’s example in this matter, where AI not only removes “prohibited” content from social media but also demands that platforms report violators to law enforcement agencies.

Members of the arkhangelsk regional assembly decided to allocate nearly two billion rubles – funds originally earmarked for raising salaries for public sector employees – toward paying off the regional debt. As a result, the average monthly salary for public sector employees in the region has fallen to 72,000 rubles. As of March 1, arkhangelsk region’s public debt had risen to a record 116 billion rubles. A significant portion of these obligations consists of high-interest loans from commercial banks (interest payments alone amount to 11 billion rubles per year). Since last year, the region has been cutting salaries for medical workers, teachers, and cultural workers. By autumn, this had led to doctors’ mass quitting. Since February, employees of state-funded institutions have been receiving notices regarding changes to their employment contracts and transfers to “part-time positions”.

muscovites were left without pay-to-use toilets due to an internet outage.

22 russian regions are not ready to implement the new law on free vocational training for ninth-graders who failed the basic state exam.

In russia, the “batya” (“dad”- Translator) charitable foundation for the support of traditional upbringing of children and adolescents has applied for 1 million rubles from the presidential grants fund to teach orphaned children in kolomna to march in formation, put on gas masks, demonstrate assault rifle techniques, shoot, assemble weapons, wield swords, sing marching songs, and provide first aid. In their justification, the applicants complain that most of the caregivers are women, so their “masculine” involvement is needed in preparing the boys for life.

Residents of sudzha district in russia’s kursk region took to the streets in protest, expressing their dissatisfaction with the cancellation of payments and delays in housing allocation. According to them, all opportunities to resolve the situation peacefully have been exhausted.

Poland is extending for another 60 days the temporary restriction on the right to apply for international protection at the border with belarus.

Lithuania has initiated the denunciation of an agreement with belarus regarding travel arrangements for residents of the border regions of both countries – an agreement that has never been implemented in its 16 years of existence.

According to Chief National Security Adviser to the President of Lithuania Deividas Matulionis, the further time goes on, the deeper belarus sinks into russia’s embrace. The rb continues to assist the rf in the field of electronic warfare; its military system is fully integrated into russia’s, and hybrid attacks against neighbors – weather balloons, detained trucks, and manipulated migration – continue.

Following the release of 250 political prisoners, their total number in belarus has dropped to 897. The last time the figure fell below 900 was over four years ago.

The investigative committee of the rb again has threatened belarusians living abroad. These threats concern participation in events dedicated to Freedom Day, which is celebrated on March 25. In recent years, similar threats have been published every year.