Vladimir Putin at a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, St. Petersburg, Russia, June 20, 2025 (Getty)

Friday’s Coverage: Russia’s Economy Minister — “We Are On Verge of Recession”

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE, 1822 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has responded to Vladimir Putin’s declaration that “the whole of Ukraine is ours….Wherever the foot of a Russian soldier steps is Russian land”.

Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation:

Putin put on a performance, particularly for the United States too. He wants all of Ukraine, and had wanted it not just for four years, not since 2014, but long before that.

The President warned that Putin was “also speaking about Belarus, the Baltic states, Moldova, the Caucasus, countries like Kazakhstan, and every place on Earth that Russian killers can reach”.

“Russian forces burn cities and villages to the ground, leaving only ruins,” he emphasized, adding in a pointed message: “We hope President Trump hears this.”

Zelensky told journalists of Russian deception over the 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner of war exchanged agreed at talks in Istanbul:

During the repatriation of bodies, 20 of those returned to us as Ukrainian fallen soldiers turned out to be Russians, one was a foreign mercenary. This lie is documented, some of the bodies even had Russian passports.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Indicating that he will not stop his 40-month full-scale invasion, Vladimir Putin has declared that all of Ukraine is part of “greater Russia”.

Putin restated his vision at an economic forum in St. Petersburg that he considers Russians and Ukrainians to be one people: “In that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours”.

Continuing to reject a ceasefire, he declared that Russian forces could seize the city of Sumy in northeast Ukraine as part of a “buffer zone” along the border.

Bizarrely, Putin insisted that he was not questioning Ukraine’s independence or its people striving for sovereignty. However, he maintained that when Ukraine declared independence as the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Kyiv declared its neutrality.

He demanded that Ukraine accept the “reality on the ground”, Russia’s seizure of about 20% of the country.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky took apart Putin’s ultimatum, in his nightly address to the nation:

Today, the Russians once again openly and absolutely cynically declared that they are “not in the mood” for a ceasefire. Russia wants to wage war. Even brandishing some threats….

Well, the Russian economy is already crumbling….Ayatollah Putin can look at his friends in Iran to see where such regimes end up, and how far into decay they drive their countries.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha added:

[Putin’s] cynical statements serve only one purpose: to divert public attention away from the complete failure of his quarter-century rule. It has brought Russia into the shameful club of rogue regimes like North Korea and Iran, international isolation, and endless economic stagnation, which will only worsen.

The only way to force Russia into peace is to deprive it of its sense of impunity.

Putin conceded that his invasion might face economic problems as he said at the St. Petersburg Forum, “Some specialists and experts are pointing to the risks of stagnation and even a recession. This must not be allowed to happen under any circumstances.”

Russia’s Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov told the conference on Thursday, “Judging by business sentiment at the moment, we’re basically already on the brink of falling into a recession.”

“Everything else depends on our decisions,” he said, as he challenged the Central Bank to lower interest rates: “I’m just for showing the economy a little bit of love, just a bit.”