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

The European Commission has disbursed EUR 2.9 billion to Ukraine under the Ukraine Facility financial instrument. Of the total amount, EUR 800 million were allocated for the first time as part of a EUR 90 billion loan to support Ukraine. “With today’s disbursement, we are helping to ensure Ukraine’s financial stability and supporting investments that will form the basis of its future recovery,” said President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Ukraine has joined the European Defence Fund.

Sweden has delivered 31 tons of essential equipment to Poltava, Kyiv, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions of Ukraine.

Japan has expanded sanctions against russia. Tokyo has imposed sanctions on 33 russian organizations and nine individuals. Restrictions on payments and capital transactions have been imposed on them. Money transfers, as well as transactions related to deposits, trusts, and loans, will require authorization from Japanese authorities. The list includes, in particular, “tulamaszavod”, “motovilikhinskie zavody”, the kolomna plant, “voentorg”, the ural drone plant, the kaluga research institute of radio engineering, VNIIR “progress”, NVO “orion”, as well as the companies “alabuga development” and “alabuga machinery”.

Lithuania is rolling out a pilot version of the Ukrainian airspace surveillance system SkyFortress, designed to detect drones and other aerial threats.

“…The list of russia’s malicious hybrid attacks across Europe grows longer every day… We know that these attacks are a sign of russia’s desperation. putin is not achieving his goals in Ukraine and wants to make us pay for it,” said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

“If russia strikes our factories on European territory, that would trigger Article 5”, said European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius, amid a growing number of suspicious incidents at weapons factories across Europe.

As the most powerful country in Central Europe, Germany bears a special responsibility to provide assistance to Ukraine. “We are not mediators; we stand on the side of freedom, and that is precisely why we stand on the side of Ukraine,” emphasized Chancellor of the FRG Friedrich Merz.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Margus Tsahkna has called on European leaders to stop using the term “hybrid attacks” to describe russia’s actions, as these are targeted acts of sabotage that are part of systematic aggression and effectively constitute “a war of sorts” against Europe”.

The European Union will not succumb to russian intimidation tactics and will not contribute to the spread of moscow’s narratives. This was stated by European Commission Spokesperson Christian Wiegand.

“In this regard, russia has offered few surprises. It seems it truly feels cornered, and lately we’ve clearly seen a multitude of such reckless statements. This was one of them,” said President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda regarding russia’s nuclear threats.

“russia will use any means to threaten us, instill fear in our people, undermine support for Ukraine, and destroy our unity and solidarity, simply by testing where those boundaries lie,” –Minister of Defence of Latvia Raivis Melnis is concerned about russia’s hybrid attacks, not its nuclear threats.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury has added the russian financial company A7 to its list of transnational criminal organizations and imposed economic sanctions against it. According to the US Treasury Department, the company helped circumvent Western restrictions imposed after the start of russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Latvia’s Saeima has referred to the Legal Affairs Committee for review amendments to the Citizenship Law drafted by the coalition “National Alliance” which provide for a complete ban on dual citizenship with russia.

The Latvian Parliament has also passed a law that effectively prohibits the public broadcaster LSM from producing content in russian.

russia’s authorities have classified a record 34.9% of the 2027 budget expenditures – 17 trillion rubles. This is the highest figure in at least the last 12 years.

Expenditures for maintaining putin and the presidential administration in 2027 will rise to nearly 36.8 billion rubles. This is by 3.6 billion rubles more than planned.

The government of the rf has allocated more than 60 billion rubles annually for the ideological indoctrination and military training of children in the draft federal budget for 2027–2029. In terms of annual spending, this amount is comparable to the budgets of some russian regions. For example, orel region’s expenditures for 2026 were approved at 61 billion rubles, while those of kostroma region were set at 57.1 billion rubles.

The government of the rf plans to allocate 19.87 billion rubles to a system used to block internet resources and VPN services. This amount is provided for in the draft federal budget for 2027. In the previously approved budget, 9.87 billion rubles were earmarked for these purposes in 2027, and another 9.84 billion – in 2028. Thus, the new amount is nearly double the previous one and roughly corresponds to the expenditures planned for two years. In total, over the next three years, the russian government plans to allocate about 60 billion rubles to the system of blocking content on the runet.

The “large families” federal project, whose stated goal was to increase the number of citizens with three or more children by 15% and reduce the poverty rate among this group to 12%, will lose 40% of its funding next year. The plan is to allocate 93 billion rubles to the project, compared to 157.2 billion this year. Subsidies for state social assistance to large families will also be drastically cut: next year, 14.3 billion rubles are earmarked for this purpose – 3.2 times less than in 2026.

Spending on housing and utilities in the rf will be cut over the next three years. The government plans to save nearly 600 billion rubles on this.

The government of the rf plans to sharply increase taxes on russians’ bank deposits. In 2027, revenue from this source is expected to rise to a record 1.02 trillion rubles. This is 1.6 times more than 631.9 billion rubles, which the government will receive in 2026.

The shutdown of ports on the Azov and Black Seas has presented russian farmers with an unprecedented problem: tens of millions of tons of fresh crops are left without buyers and risk sitting in storage until at least next year. Up to 20 million tons of grain – roughly one-sixth of the total harvest gathered by mid-September – may remain unsold.

Demand for steel in russia over the first eight months of 2026 fell by 16% compared to the same period last year.

The foodservice market felt the impact of the government’s tax changes and russians’ shift to a frugal lifestyle. In July, the total number of establishments in russia fell by 7.8% year-on-year. Bakeries closed most frequently – there are now by 13% fewer than a year earlier—followed by fast-food outlets – by 11.8%, “coffee to go” locations – by 10.6%, and traditional coffee shops – by 10.2%)

russians will face a sharp increase in the fee for returning train tickets to support the “russian railways” (rzd) budget. Whereas the fee was previously a fixed rate of 3.7 rubles per returned ticket, it will now amount to 10% of the ticket’s cost. According to last year’s results, rzd’s net profit fell 22-fold – from 50.7 to 2.2 billion rubles – while the company’s debt reached a record 4 trillion rubles.

Funding for the preferential auto loan program in russia is set to be cut by nearly two-thirds in 2027. Next year, 17 billion rubles are expected to be allocated for preferential vehicle leasing, compared to this year’s 37 billion rubles.

In tatarstan, a state of emergency has been declared in 41 districts due to crop losses.

The ministry of education and science of the rf has sharply reduced – by one-third – the number of academic competitions whose winners receive priority admission to universities in 2027.

belarusian banks’ at-risk loan assets have grown by 14.1% over the past year – to nearly 133 billion rubles. Overdue loan debt owed by legal entities increased 2.3-fold over the year. The volume of loans issued to individuals grew by 20.4% over the year, while overdue loan debt increased by 17.4%.

In the first eight months of 2026, the rb’s trade deficit in goods amounted to $3.4 billion. In trade with countries outside the CIS, the deficit exceeded $6 billion.

From 2020 through the end of September 2026, at least 2,078 NGOs – including associations, labor unions, foundations, nongovernmental organizations, and associations – had been dissolved in belarus.