Photo: Vladimir Putin (Getty)

Thursday’s Coverage: Putin — I’ll Meet Zelensky If West Ends Support of Kyiv

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 0857 GMT:

The US citizen killed amid Russia’s murderous strikes on Kyiv on Tuesday has been identified.

Fred Grendy, 62, was an artist and a native of Oregon. He arrived in Ukraine less than a month ago as a volunteer, helping to clear rubble. He had planned to stay for six months.

Russian missile and drone attacks killed 30 civilians and wounded 172 across Ukraine’s capital.

UPDATE 0816 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky announced another exchange of prisoners of war with Russia on Thursday.

Zelensky did not say how many POWs were swapped, under the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange which was agreed at the second set of Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul on June 1.

UPDATE 0806 GMT:

Two civilians have been killed and at least 39 by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 34 of 86 drones launched by Russia overnight, and 36 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

One civilian was murdered and at least 14 injured in Odesa in southern Ukraine. Drones struck more than 10 targets, including seven residential buildings, and set large fires.

The other fatality was in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

Casualties were also reported in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia’s Economy Minister is warning that the country is “on the verge” of recession.

Maxim Reshetnikov addressed a conference to bolster economic confidence. But far from providing a boost, he gave a gloomy assessment based on “current business sentiment and indicators”.

All our numbers are a rear-view mirror. 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,” Reshetnikov said. Indicating division among Vladimir Putin’s advisors, he appealed to the Central Bank:

We all understand that fighting inflation is important. But we are simplifying the discussion a bit.

I’m just for showing the economy a little bit of love, just a bit.

Central Bank head Elvira Nabiullina, credited with keeping the Russia system afloat as Putin pursues his invasion of Ukraine, raised interest rates to 21% by October 2024 to combat inflation. It only eased the rate to 20% this month.

Russia’s economic growth slowed to 1.4% year-on-year from January to March 2025, the lowest quarterly figure in two years. Prices are surging because of spending on the invasion and widespread labor shortages. Annual inflation has been more than double the Central Bank’s 4% target for over a year.

Speaking on the same panel as Reshetnikov, Nabiullina said the Central Bank would not revise the target. She argued that the economy is successfully coming out of a period of “overheating”: “The economy of demand grew, and the economy of supply lagged behind.”.

Russia’s defense spending has grown 25% year on year, reaching 13.1 trillion rubles ($167 billion) last year.