Illegitimate Kiev Regime is Degenerating Into Terrorist Organization, Putin Says
15:48 04.06.2025 (Updated: 17:19 04.06.2025)
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The final figures for the prisoner exchange between the two countries are being agreed upon and could amount to 1,200 people from each side, head of negotiating team Medinsky said, adding that the priority will be given to the wounded and seriously ill prisoners of war, as well as those under 25 years of age.
Putin called tragedy in Bryansk region targeted attack on civilians, adds that this is called terrorism. All crimes against civilians on eve of second round of talks between Russia, Ukraine aimed at disrupting it, the Russian leader added.
"All the crimes that were committed against civilians, including women and children, on the eve of the next round of the peace talks we proposed in Istanbul, were certainly aimed at disrupting the negotiation process. The strike was inflicted on the civilian population intentionally," Putin said at a meeting with the government.
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/ Today's Ukraine does not need peace, Putin said.
"Today's Kiev regime does not need peace at all. Peace for it most likely means the loss of power," Putin said.
For the Kiev regime, power is more important than peace and people's lives, the Russian president stressed. The authorities in Kiev are completely rotten and corrupt, Putin added.
Putin on Kiev's requests for a summit: "Who negotiates with terrorists anyway?"
Moscow is ready to begin the exchange of prisoners with Kiev on June 7-9, - Russian presidential aide and head of the Russian delegation to the talks with Ukraine Vladimir Medinsky said on Wednesday.
"We are ready to start on June 7, 8, 9. We, for our part, are completely ready for this," Medinsky said regarding the upcoming exchange.
Russia called for a focus on developing peace terms rather than a truce at the Istanbul talks, Medinsky stressed.
"We called to focus on working out the terms of peace, not another temporary truce," he said.
During the talks in Istanbul, Kiev confirmed its position — to start with a 30-day ceasefire and use it to prepare for the summit, Medinsky said.
Russia is ready to hand over the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers to Kiev in the near future, he added.
"We have proposed unilaterally to hand over to Kiev more than 6,000 bodies of the dead servicepeople of the Ukrainian armed forces. To transfer them in... refrigerated wagons, where they are being stored. We are ready to start doing this in the coming days," the Russian president's aide stated.
The ball is in Ukraine's court, Medinsky said. He explained that the Ukrainian side promised to study the memorandum of the Russian side and provide comments later.
"We handed over our draft memorandum on the peaceful settlement, which consisted of two parts. The first part is the conditions for concluding a long-term peace, the second part is the conditions for a cease-fire... the Ukrainian side promised to study it and comment on it later," Medinsky said at a meeting with Putin and members of the government.
Russian was the working language at the Istanbul talks, Medinsky added. Negotiations one-on-one in Istanbul went on for more than three hours.
The meeting of the delegations of Russia and Ukraine was important and useful, the negotiation process is working, FM Sergey Lavrov said in his turn.
It is important not to give in to Kiev's latest provocations aimed at disrupting the negotiations, the foreign minister emphasized.
"In spite of new major criminal provocations over the past few days, I would deem it important not to fall for these provocative actions, which are clearly aimed at disrupting the talks and continuing to receive arms from European countries," Lavrov said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Lavrov said Zelensky made a mistake by turning down Russia's request for a short two to three day halt to gather the dead and injured.
"As for what was said about the proposal for a brief pause of two or three days to collect the bodies of the dead in a dignified manner in certain parts of the battle area, and perhaps also the wounded people there. I believe that this was just a gross mistake of Kiev, by which I mean Zelenskyy's categorical refusal of this proposal in a rude manner," Lavrov said.
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/ On Monday, the second round of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations ended after a more than an hour-long meeting at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul. The Russian delegation was headed by Medinsky, and also included Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Head of the Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Directorate Igor Kostyukov and Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin.
