Today, Vladimir Putin has bragged about Russia’s near-complete victory over Ukraine in the Kursk region, just a day after agreeing to a partial 30-day ceasefire in a conversation with Donald Trump.
During a board meeting at the Prosecutor General’s Office, the dictator stated that Russian troops have executed swift, daring, and successful operations, with the final defeat of enemy forces in the Kursk region now underway.
Putin said that all Ukrainian troops in the region are ‘terrorists’, and told his prosecutors to launch investigations into their actions.
‘The atrocities they committed must be brought to light, recorded, and thoroughly investigated’, he said.
He emphasized the importance of identifying and holding accountable those responsible for issuing criminal orders and abusing innocent civilians.
Despite last night agreeing to a partial ceasefire with President Trump, Putin today told his military prosecutors to promote discipline within his ranks ‘as the most important driver of high combat readiness of troops.’
But he also followed through with his promise to exchanged 372 soldiers in a prisoner swap brokered by the United Arab Emirates.
A defiant Volodymyr Zelensky today vowed to ‘win this war’ after accusing Putin of breaking his own ceasefire proposals with deadly strikes just hours after the Kremlin agreed to halt its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
In a press conference with President Stubb of Finland in Helsinki today, the Ukrainian president said: ‘We’re fighting for our sovereignty and our independence — we’ll win this war.’
Zelensky drew clear red lines for peace, insisting that his nation would not accept territorial losses as part of a peace deal, and that the return of ‘thousands’ of prisoners held in Russia was ‘unconditional’.
Trump said he had a ‘very good telephone call’ with Zelensky in their first conversation since last month’s disastrous Oval Office meeting.
The two men spoke for about an hour to discuss Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the conditions for a partial ceasefire.
‘Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs. We are very much on track,’ Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump added that he was asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz to give more details.
Both men are headed to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to resume the peace talks, amid the prisoner swap.
Prisoner swaps and the exchange of remains of killed soldiers is one of the only areas of cooperation between the warring countries since the Kremlin launched the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
The Kremlin announced the swap on Tuesday, following talks between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The Russian defence ministry said it had handed over 175 Ukrainian prisoners of war and 22 ‘seriously wounded’ Ukrainian captives while Kyiv had delivered 175 Russian prisoners in return.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the exchange as one of the largest of the war and said that some among the Ukrainians released had been ‘persecuted by Russia for fictitious crimes’.
Wednesday’s phone call was the first time Zelensky and Trump spoke since their falling out in the Oval Office at the end of February. The two men got into a shouting match about the war with Russia, with Trump accusing Zelensky of not being grateful enough to the United States.
The talks come at a sensitive time, with Ukraine accusing Russia of having attacked energy infrastructure just hours after agreeing to a partial ceasefire.
While the Kremlin declined to sign up to a month-long ceasefire plan hashed out between Trump administration officials and Ukrainian representatives in Saudi Arabia, it did agree to stop attacks on crucial infrastructure.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin yesterday, Zelensky claimed Russia had hit Ukrainian energy infrastructure last night despite Putin’s pledge to avoid such targets for a month.
Both sides today accused each other of launching air attacks that damaged infrastructure claimed to be exempt under the terms of the agreement.
Zelensky said that Ukraine could supply a list of its facilities in order for an agreement to be properly implemented, while urging that the U.S. oversee the ceasefire.
While Ukraine has sought to show it is acting in good faith in supporting U.S. efforts to mediate a ceasefire, Russia today accused the other side of using drones to attack an oil depot near Kavkazskaya village, sparking a fire.
‘It is absolutely clear that this is another provocation specially prepared by the Kyiv regime, aimed at disrupting the peace initiatives of the US president,’ the defence ministry said.
The ministry acknowledged firing missiles at Ukrainian energy facilities in Mykolaiv region, but said they were already in flight when Putin gave the order to cease fire.
It said Russian air defences were employed to shoot down their own missiles.
‘Putin’s words are very different from reality,’ Zelensky hit back.
