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

The government of Serbia and the United Nations Development Program have signed a EUR 2 million financial agreement to strengthen the resilience of Ukraine’s energy sector.

Over the past two and a half years, the international Seeds of Bravery project has funded 318 Ukrainian tech startups for a total of EUR 12 million.

US First Lady Melania Trump has helped secure the return of six abducted by the rf Ukrainian children to their families.

In a report assessing threats to the country, military intelligence of Latvia has named russia as the greatest source of threat in the foreseeable future.

In March 2026, the rf’s federal budget revenues from oil and gas fell by 43% year-on-year.

In March, the ministry of finance of the rf spent nearly 60 billion rubles from the national wealth fund (NWF) to cover the budget deficit. In total, in the first quarter, the ministry spent nearly 460 billion rubles from the NWF to cover the hole in the budget.

According to January–February results, 22 out of the 28 industrial sectors monitored by rosstat, were in the red. Output at steel mills plummeted by 15%, food production fell by 2%, and clothing and footwear production dropped by 11.1%. Even the military sector slipped into recession: production of “finished metal products” – a category in which the state statistics includes bombs and shells – fell by 1.9% year-on-year in January–February. Wholesale trade turnover in the country fell by 7.8% over two months, while retail trade has almost stopped growing: 0.3% in February and 0.5% since the start of the year. This is the worst result since spring 2023. Along with consumers, businesses are forced to cut costs: according to rosstat, profits in the economy plummeted by 30% at the start of the year, while major companies – “lukoil”, mmk, “severstal”, “rusal”, and the “magnit” supermarket chain – ended last year with losses. As a result, 80% of large businesses have cut or frozen investments, while three-quarters are experiencing a crisis of non-payment by counterparties.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) in the rf’s services sector fell in March for the first time in six months. The index stood at 49.5 in March, down from 51.3 points the previous month, having fallen below the reading 50 that separates growth from contraction. The services sector also experienced a sharp decline in employment in March compared to the start of 2023.

As of March 2026, there were approximately 7,600 independent bakeries operating in russia’s cities with populations exceeding one million. The number of such establishments decreased by 7% compared to 2024. Growth in the segment has effectively stalled, with its development driven primarily by chain outlets opened by large retailers.

The ministry of agriculture has proposed the russian government to cut budget expenditures on support for farmers by more than a quarter under the federal project “development of sectors and technical modernization of the agro-industrial complex” for 2027–2029. This is the first concrete initiative within the framework of the rf’s budget cuts currently being prepared.

In 2025, crop production in russia entered a deeper phase of decline: the sector’s pre-tax profit fell by 43.7% compared to 2024. This marked the sharpest annual decline since 2017. The current decline is not a one-off slump but a continuation of a broader downturn that began after the introduction of export duties and other restrictions in 2021.

“oredezh” agricultural complex, one of the largest producers of chicken eggs in the rf’s northwest, reported a net loss of 506 million rubles in 2025. The company had not been in the red since 2003.

In the first quarter of 2026, sales of Lada cars in russia fell by 17.4%.

russia’s largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery, “rostselmash”, which has faced difficulties selling equipment for the third consecutive year amid a sharp deterioration in market situation due to lack of demand, has stated that it does not plan any new investment projects in 2026.

russia’s airline azimut is rapidly approaching bankruptcy. At the end of 2025, against the background of the economic crisis and a decline in real household incomes, the carrier’s net profit fell by 30.9% compared to 2024. Gross losses increased 1.5-fold to 2.778 billion rubles, while losses from sales rose by 34.5% to 3.608 billion rubles. Other income decreased by 11.3%.

Following an inspection by rosaviatsiya, the russian charter carrier azur air was forced to remove several aircraft from its schedule. The main concerns related to aircraft maintenance.

According to the results for 2025, “uralmashzavod”, which specializes in the production of equipment for the metallurgy, mining, and nuclear energy sectors, saw its revenue decline by 26.3%.

The ministry of digital development of the rf is demanding from russia’s largest platforms in terms of audience, by April 15 to restrict access to their platforms for users with VPNs enabled.

The government’s demand to block VPNs has paralyzed the operations of russian IT companies.

The rate of connection issues when logging into Telegram in russia reached 80% on the morning of April 3. Since Wednesday, the figure has risen by nearly 7%. At the same time, the percentage of connection issues when accessing WhatsApp also rose sharply, having reached 98% compared to 92% the day before. For Signal, this figure was 92% compared to 89% the previous day.

okhotsk district of the khabarovsk territory – a remote area roughly the size of murmansk or vologda regions – has run out of petrol. Authorities have imposed restrictions on petrol sales to the public. If all goes well, fuel will be delivered to okhotsk once the summer navigation season begins in mid-June.

In March, belarus’ gold and foreign exchange reserves fell by $1.1 billion.

belarus will introduce administrative liability for promoting LGBT issues, child-free lifestyles, gender reassignment, and childlessness.