The World Bank will provide an additional $116 million to restore heating systems and support the energy resilience of seven Ukrainian cities whose critical infrastructure was seriously damaged by Russian attacks. These cities are Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih, Kremenchuk, and Slavuta.
Christian Fröding, Major General of the Bundeswehr and head of the situation center for Ukraine at the German Ministry of Defense, emphasized the need to develop “smart countermeasures” against Russian drones in Ukraine, since using traditional means—such as missiles for the Patriot air defense system—is illogical against Shaheds, which cost between 30,000 and 50,000 euros, while a single Patriot missile costs over 5 million euros.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev urged Ukraine to “not agree to the occupation” of its territories.
Ukraine can collect $6.9 billion from Gazprom based on decisions of international arbitration courts.
The EU, as part of its latest anti-Russian sanctions package, for the first time imposed restrictions on two Chinese banks for cooperation with Russia — Suifenhe Rural Commercial Bank and Heihe Rural Commercial Bank.
Azerbaijan will appeal to the International Court to hold Russia accountable for the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) passenger plane crash over Grozny, announced President Ilham Aliyev.
Due to Russia’s war against Ukraine, Western countries have stopped investing in Russia’s economy and have shifted focus to investments in non-aligned countries such as Mexico, Brazil, India, and Saudi Arabia.
Chinese car manufacturer Zeekr has banned Chinese auto dealers from selling its premium electric cars to Russia after June 30.
The price of a ton of ferrous scrap in Russia has dropped to 15,250 rubles, the lowest since summer 2020 — prices are now below the profitability threshold for scrap collection businesses. The decline is due to a significant reduction in electric steel production in Russia, which uses scrap as its main raw material. Scrap prices are already below the cost of collection, transportation, and processing.
In the first quarter of this year, Russia’s oil and gas revenues fell nearly 10% compared to 2024.
Only three percent of Russians are willing to invest in Russian securities.
In the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia, drunken prosecutors drowned in the Pyana River while in an official UAZ vehicle.
Since 2010, the total number of landfills in Belarus has decreased 22 times. There are no more mini-landfills left. The vast majority of landfills have exhausted their capacity, and in the Mogilev and Minsk regions, landfill capacity will be almost completely depleted in the coming years.
At a meeting with Saint Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov, Lukashenko said the word “justice” twelve times in three minutes, even though the governor never asked him about it.
