Russian president says Russians and Ukrainians are one people – which Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected – and warns Moscow could also seize Sumy city. What we know on day 1,214

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 denounced the Russian president’s statements on Friday as evidence of Russian “disdain” for US peace efforts and said Moscow was bent on seizing more territory and killing more Ukrainians. Putin, when asked about fresh Russian advances, told the country’s flagship economic forum in St Petersburg that he considered Russians and Ukrainians to be one people and “in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours”. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected the notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one 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. While the United States and the rest of the world have called for an immediate end to the killing, Russia’s top war criminal discusses plans to seize more Ukrainian territory and kill more Ukrainians.” 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. “A group of Russian servicemen was returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime,” Russia’s defence ministry said. “In exchange, a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war was handed over.” An Agence France-Presse reporter saw freed Ukrainian prisoners of war being greeted by tearful relatives after stepping off a bus. Zelenskyy said most of the Ukrainians freed in the swap had been in Russian captivity “for over two years”. Moscow posted a video of Russian soldiers in military fatigues chanting “Russia, Russia” with Russian flags draped over them. Neither side said how many soldiers were freed in Friday’s swap.

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. “Several of our domestic enterprises – and, accordingly, different types of drones – are delivering results,” he said. “Production volumes of interceptors are already increasing.” Russian forces have been deploying more than 400 drones on a single night.

Vladimir Putin said Russia must not be allowed to fall into recession as some in his government warned of a hit to economic growth. “Some specialists and experts are pointing to the risks of stagnation and even a recession,” he said at the St Petersburg forum on Friday. “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.