Russian President, Vladimir Putin has said he believes the whole of Ukraine is “ours” and warned that advancing Russian forces could take the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy as part of a bid to carve out a buffer zone along the border.
Ukraine’s foreign minister condemned the Russian president’s words on Friday as evidence of Russia’s “disdain” for US peace efforts, claiming Moscow was intent on taking more territory and killing more Ukrainians.
When asked about recent Russian achievements, Putin told the country’s flagship business summit in St Petersburg that he believed Russians and Ukrainians to be one people, and “in that sense, the entire Ukraine is ours.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has frequently dismissed the premise that Russians and Ukrainians are the same people.
The Ukrainian president said commanders had discussed Russian action in the Sumy region and “we are holding them back and eliminating these killers”.
Vladimir Putin claimed he was not questioning Ukraine’s independence or its people’s striving for sovereignty but that when Ukraine declared independence as the Soviet Union fell in 1991 it also declared its neutrality.
He said Moscow wanted Ukraine to accept the reality on the ground – where Russia now controls about a fifth of Ukraine – if there was to be a chance of peace.
Andrii Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said on X: “Putin’s cynical statements demonstrate complete disdain for US peace efforts.
Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that Russia had shown “openly and utterly cynically that they ‘don’t feel like’ agreeing to a ceasefire. Russia wants to continue the war.”
Russia and Ukraine exchanged more captured soldiers on Friday, the latest in a series of prisoner swaps agreed at peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was working on the rapid development of interceptor drones to counter the swarms of Russian drones that have been descending on Ukrainian cities in increasing numbers in recent weeks.
Vladimir Putin said Russia must not be allowed to fall into recession as some in his government warned of a hit to economic growth.
“This must not be allowed to happen under any circumstances.” Russia posted its slowest quarterly expansion in two years for the first quarter of 2025 and analysts have warned that heavy public investment in the defence industry is no longer enough to keep the country’s economy growing.
