Russia keeps striking Ukraine’s energy system. Winter resilience plans are less than half complete
Ukraine is racing to shield heat, water, and rail from Russian strikes—but new locomotives will not arrive before 2027.
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Russia drove most ships from Ukraine’s ports. Now its drones are hunting the trains
By late August, Ukraine had exported only a third of its normal volume of farm goods. Russia damaged more than 250 locomotives in six months.
Shares in Russia’s second-largest bank hit record low as Wildberries-linked offering price holds steady
VTB sought access to Wildberries’ 80 million customers. After drone strikes hit the retailer’s warehouses, Moscow considered making the bank central to a support plan.
Fifth drone-related NORSI shutdown in under five months leaves all major Lukoil refineries offline
Russia’s second-largest gasoline producer is offline as Moscow orders fuel redistribution and regional authorities tighten sales limits.
Ukraine fires state bank chair after alleged $3.3 million bail-laundering scheme
The government and central bank also moved against Sense Bank’s CEO and financial monitoring chief while reviewing the bank’s entire supervisory board.
Russia turns failed drone defenses into grounds for state control of company assets
Russia can now take control of a company’s property and shares if it fails to protect key infrastructure from drones—even when the controller is foreign.
Why did Ozon fall as much as 29% while Russia’s market lost 2.9%?
After five weeks of strikes on privately held Wildberries, attacks on listed Ozon gave investors a direct price for warehouse risk.
Ukraine offers cash rewards for capturing Russian soldiers and close-combat kills
The group that captures a Russian soldier shares a reward of 100,000 hryvnias ($2,225), while each confirmed kill in small-arms or hand-to-hand combat, backed by video, brings 15,000 hryvnias ($335).
Black Sea attacks delayed up to 2.5 million tons of wheat bound for Asia
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s ports and Black Sea ships surged from 14 in all of 2025 to 124 this July. Up to 2.5 million tons of wheat bound for Asia is delayed.
Russia diverts defense-industry chemicals to gasoline—but stations still run dry
A July decree sent defense-industry chemicals to the fuel pump; motor oil prices have since spiked 40%, and Rosgvardia is patrolling gas stations in Moscow Oblast.
Moldova halves grain-transit fees for Ukraine as its own farmers threaten protests
President Maia Sandu is defending the halved transit fees against her own farmers, arguing that a neighbor able to export and arm itself is worth more to Moldova than the risk to local grain prices.
India’s cooking-oil imports jump for festival season—but not war-hit sunflower
Indian refiners are stocking up for the festival season, but the war has left the world’s top sunflower supplier shut out of the boom.
Ukraine let young men leave to keep teenage boys home. Restaurants now struggle to hire
Work.ua recorded 29% fewer male candidates aged 18 to 22 in hospitality and retail. Across the platform, advertised entry-level pay rose 23 to 24%.
How did Sberbank’s record dividend end up frozen for Western shareholders?
Russia’s largest bank keeps setting profit records and paying record dividends. For its shareholders in the West, that money is frozen in accounts they cannot touch.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhstal may idle half its capacity to fit new EU steel quotas
The EU dropped its steel duties in 2022 to help Ukraine through the war. On 1 July, it halved the tariff-free quotas and taxed the remainder at 50%.
Moldova overtakes every EU country as Ukraine’s top dairy buyer
Ukraine is selling less dairy abroad and importing more—while Moldova, rather than an EU country, has become its largest foreign customer.
Russia’s oil money is drying up—so its own people are paying for the war
Fresh figures show the Iran oil windfall came and went—and Russia, further behind than before, is now reaching for pensions and paychecks.
Crude goes south, gasoline north—Ukraine’s strikes split Russia’s oil trade
Ukraine’s refinery campaign has turned one of the world’s largest fuel exporters into an importer—and pushed its crude onto an Arctic shortcut it barely used a year ago.
Ukraine’s drone strike shut Russia’s biggest LPG plant as fuel rationing returned in 16 regions
The strike hit the plant’s entry unit 2,200 kilometers behind the front, taking 40% of Russia’s LPG production offline indefinitely.
Russia is squeezing independent gas stations out of its fuel market
Russia cannot make more fuel. So it’s handing the market to the state-linked majors, and the independent ones are being cut out.