July 28, 2025
The Russian stock market switched to a rapid price decline mode after US President Donald Trump announced that he was shortening the ultimatum to Vladimir Putin, after which he must cease fire in Ukraine.
The Moscow Exchange Index, which includes shares of four dozen of the largest Russian companies, plummeted from 2777.3 points to 2727.2 points after Trump’s statements. In just over an hour (from 14:55 Moscow time to 16:08 Moscow time), it lost 1.8%, or $1.4 billion in terms of capitalization.
As of 16:31 Moscow time, Sberbank shares fell by 1.22%, Gazprom by 2.77%, Lukoil by 1.11%, and Sovcomflot by 2.24%.
Mechel lost almost 3% in value, Novatek lost 3.2%, and Aeroflot plummeted 4%, having encountered an unprecedented hacker attack on Monday that paralyzed the company’s operations, led to the cancellation of more than 100 flights, and provoked a new air collapse at the capital’s Sheremetyevo airport.
The ruble exchange rate accelerated its decline: the yuan rose by almost 2%, to 11.27 rubles; the dollar exchange rate on Forex increased by 2.1%, and is trading at 81.05 rubles.
Trump, who on July 14 demanded a 50-day ceasefire from Putin in Ukraine, said on Monday that he was “very disappointed” with the Russian president, who, instead of peace talks, has launched a new offensive with his army and, according to Reuters sources, is preparing for a battle for Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Kharkov.
“We thought we had this sorted out many times. And then President Putin comes out and starts launching missiles into a city, like Kiev, and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or somewhere. Bodies are lying all over the street. You can’t do that,” Trump said at a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Trump later clarified that the new deadline for Putin is 10-12 days. After that, the United States could impose 100 percent tariffs on countries buying Russian oil in order to cut Russia out of the global “black gold” market, which provides the Kremlin with every fourth ruble of budget revenue and almost half of all foreign exchange earnings of the economy.
According to the bill, which has already begun to be considered by the US Senate, China, India and Türkiye, which buy almost all of Russia’s oil exports, could be subject to Trump’s tariffs.