China has updated its defense mobilization legislation, strengthening requirements for industry, technology companies and civilian infrastructure to be prepared to operate for defense needs, the Experts Club information and analytical center reports.
The revised National Defense Mobilization Law was adopted on August 28, 2026, and will take effect on October 1. The document contains 14 chapters and 82 articles, compared with 72 articles in the 2010 version, and provides more detailed mechanisms for shifting the state, economy and society from peacetime to wartime conditions.
One of the key changes is the stronger role assigned to data and technology within the mobilization system. Enterprises given mobilization assignments must reserve not only equipment, materials and components, but also technologies, data and software. Authorities are also required to assess the resilience of production and supply chains, the availability of resources and companies’ ability to rapidly expand production of necessary goods.
Following a mobilization decision, designated companies may be required to fulfill military procurement contracts, switch production to required items or increase output. Suppliers of critical resources would be expected to give priority to defense-related tasks.
China’s industrial capacity makes these mechanisms particularly significant. In 2025, the country’s GDP reached approximately CNY 140.19 trillion, while manufacturing value added amounted to about CNY 34.7 trillion. China produced 34.8 million vehicles, 484.3 billion integrated circuits and 773,000 industrial robots. Research and development expenditure reached CNY 3.93 trillion.
At the same time, adoption of the law does not in itself mean that China has declared mobilization or decided to go to war. Many of the mechanisms were already present in the previous legislation. The reform primarily modernizes the system technologically, clarifies preparedness procedures and potentially reduces the time between a political decision and the industrial implementation of defense tasks.
China’s official defense budget for 2026 stands at CNY 1.94 trillion. According to SIPRI estimates, Chinese military expenditure reached approximately $336 billion in 2025, marking the 31st consecutive year of growth.
For the global economy, China’s increased mobilization readiness matters because of its central role in the production of electronics, batteries, machinery, ships and industrial equipment. In a crisis scenario, changes in supply priorities could affect international supply chains and the availability of components.
To help Ukraine repair and strengthen its energy infrastructure ahead of another winter under attack from Russia, Canada has announced new support.
The announcements were made during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Canada and his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
According to the website of the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada, the Canadian government will provide the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with new loan guarantees totaling nearly 435 million Canadian dollars to support energy security, including the purchase of natural gas during the winter and backup generators for electricity production during shortages.
Canada is allocating 200 million Canadian dollars in concessional loans through Export Development Canada to support Ukraine’s reconstruction. As emphasized by the Prime Minister’s Office, this will help Ukraine repair critical infrastructure while providing Canadian companies with the opportunity to support critical projects.
The support package includes an additional 10 million Canadian dollars for the Ukraine Energy Support Fund, bringing the total to $100 million, to support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, including the procurement and delivery of critical energy equipment to enhance Ukrainians’ resilience to energy disruptions.
In addition, Canada announced a contribution of 2 million Canadian dollars to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Joint Work Program to support the development of Ukraine’s energy resources. This funding will strengthen Ukraine’s energy resilience, provide regulatory support, and promote clean energy projects.
IDS Ukraine increased its e-commerce sales volume by 49% in real terms in the first half of 2026, according to the group’s CEO, Marco Tkachuk.
However, online platforms and marketplaces currently account for only about 1% of the company’s total sales. A significant portion of online orders is processed through the online services of IDS Ukraine’s major retail partners.
Given the growth of this channel, the company estimates that online sales will account for 5–6% of total sales in the coming year.
At the same time, IDS Ukraine is developing its own B2B platform, e-Morshynska, for traditional retail. Currently, it serves approximately 21,000 retail outlets.
The platform already accounts for about 10% of IDS Ukraine’s sales in the traditional retail channel and allows stores to place orders independently without the involvement of a sales agent.
Digitalization has become one of the group’s largest areas of capital investment. Over the past four years, IDS Ukraine has allocated 363.4 million UAH to digital transformation and software. At the same time, the company is in the final stages of implementing an ERP system for inventory management and supply planning.
The share of Ethereum held in staking has exceeded 35% of the cryptocurrency’s total supply, and the queue of users waiting to add new funds to the validator network has stretched to nearly 33 days, according to Fixygen.
According to Ethereum Validator Queue data as of September 10, approximately 42.9 million ETH, or 35.19% of the Ethereum supply, is in staking. The network has about 909,700 active validators.
At the same time, approximately 1.895 million ETH was in the queue to join the network. The estimated wait time for a new validator to join was 32 days and 22 hours.
The situation with withdrawals is the opposite: only about 25,300 ETH was in the withdrawal queue, and the wait time was about 10.5 hours. After a validator withdrew, the additional delay until the funds were actually received was estimated at approximately 7.9 days.
This ratio of queues indicates a significantly higher current demand for entering staking than for exiting it.
The yield on Ethereum staking is approximately 2.59% per annum. It varies depending on the amount of ETH used to support the network’s operation and other protocol parameters.
The increase in the amount of ETH locked in Ethereum validators potentially reduces the supply of coins directly available on the market. However, it would be incorrect to consider all 42.9 million ETH as completely removed from circulation: some staking is conducted through liquid protocols that issue derivative tokens circulating on the market.
An additional factor is the growing interest in Ethereum among public companies. The largest corporate holder of ETH, BitMine Immersion Technologies, announced on September 8 that of the 5.93 million ETH it owns, 5.067 million are already staked.
Amid the rise in staking, Ethereum is trading at around $2,470. As of September 10, the price of ETH stands at approximately $2,468, down from $2,485 the previous day.
Ethereum transitioned to the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism in September 2022. Validators lock up ETH to validate transactions and secure the network, receiving rewards in return.
Data source: Ethereum Validator Queue
Raiffeisen Bank has launched financial leasing for business clients in Ukraine and has signed its first agreement under this new initiative with one of Ukraine’s leading agricultural producers, the bank’s press office reported.
Under the first agreement, the agricultural producer will upgrade its fleet of machinery. Going forward, the bank’s clients will be able to use financial leasing to purchase agricultural machinery and equipment, passenger and cargo vehicles, commercial vehicles, and other fixed assets.
“Businesses today need solutions that allow them to continue investing, modernize production, and plan for growth even amid a full-scale war. The launch of financial leasing expands these opportunities for our clients,” said Natalia Gurina, Chair of the Management Board of Raiffeisen Bank.
The bank plans to develop this service for Ukrainian and international companies operating and investing in Ukraine.
The launch of this new instrument draws on the experience of the international Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) group, where financial leasing is already in use in other European markets. Harald Kröger, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Raiffeisen Bank and Head of Structured Finance and Investment Banking at the RBI group, assesses the potential for its development in Ukraine as significant.
As previously reported, in late 2024, the then-Chairman of the Management Board of Raiffeisen Bank, Oleksandr Pysaruk, announced in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine news agency the financial institution’s intention to resume plans to develop its leasing business in Ukraine. According to him, even before the full-scale war, the bank had already reached an agreement with its shareholder to ramp up the leasing company’s operations and was preparing a corresponding business plan.
At the time, Pysaruk expressed hope that the bank would be able to resume implementing these plans as early as 2025.
Raiffeisen Bank is the largest Ukrainian bank with foreign capital. Since October 2005, the bank has been part of the Austrian banking group RBI. Currently, the Raiffeisen Group owns 68.21% of the bank’s shares, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development holds 30%.
According to the National Bank, as of August 1, 2026, with total assets of 282.37 billion UAH, it ranked fourth among Ukraine’s 59 banks.
Import changes in % to previous period in 2024-2025
