Western Sanctions Cost Russia Tens of Billions in 2025, Kyiv Says

Western sanctions deprived Russia’s state budget of tens of billions of dollars in 2025, a loss that represents the main tangible outcome of the restrictions, Ukraine’s sanctions policy chief said.

Vladyslav Vlasiuk, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s commissioner for sanctions policy, said the decline in revenues was driven exclusively by Western measures, according to comments aired on Ukraine’s national telethon and cited by RBC-Ukraine.

“We see a reduction in absolutely real revenues to Russia’s budget by tens of billions of dollars this year solely due to sanctions,” Vlasiuk said. “This is probably the main major result of the sanctions restrictions. Of course, we would like it to happen faster and to be larger, but the result that exists is also worthy.”

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Vlasiuk noted that Russia’s income from oil and gas exports continues to fall. In the first quarter of the year, Russia earned more than $40 billion from oil exports, he said, while revenues in the fourth quarter are likely to drop to no more than $26–27 billion.

He also described a Ukrainian strike on a Russian plant producing synthetic rubber as “a good form of sanctions,” suggesting that military pressure complements economic restrictions.

According to Vlasiuk, Russia’s defense-industrial enterprises remain under sanctions as well, and the overall effect comes from a combination of different measures.

“We also see broader macroeconomic indicators in the Russian Federation,” he added. “The budget deficit is around $100 billion. They will have to find a way to cover this deficit.”

Previously, it was reported that Russian crude oil prices have fallen to their lowest levels since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Western sanctions and a global decline in benchmarks drive deeper discounts.

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