🎙 Interview with President of Russia Vladimir Putin by Pavel Zarubin (October 22, 2026) Key points: • The historical regions are not Ukrainian territory – they are part of historical Russia. The people living in these territories first voted for state independence and, as a second step, voted for reunification with the Russian Federation. Any talk of Ukrainian “territorial losses” is inappropriate. • The anti-Russian campaign in European countries, the constant talk of a Russian threat and of preparations for war with our country constitute political schizophrenia. ❗️ Defeating Russia on the battlefield is impossible. Inflicting a strategic defeat on it is unrealistic. • Those who have sought Russia’s “strategic defeat” throughout the centuries – and, unfortunately, such people still exist today – will recognise the realities of today’s world and understand that it is better to live in friendship with Russia. This serves the interests of their peoples. • Looking at the political processes unfolding in Europe, it becomes clear that the peoples of Europe do not want to go to war with Russia. • We do not want a war with Europe, nor are we preparing for one. Yet, for some reason, the current Ukrainian leadership has decided that the whole world must pay it, fight on its behalf and supply weapons, ammunition, equipment and so on. • The Ukrainian leadership treats its citizens as expendable. They are rounded up in the streets like stray dogs and forcibly sent to the front. The official figures show half a million deserters and more than 300,000 criminal cases. ❗️ We have always advocated a peaceful resolution, from the very beginning. In 2014, we offered to help Kiev reach an agreement with the southeast of what was then Ukraine. Instead, artillery and aircraft were used against civilians, effectively unleashing a war. Then the Minsk agreements were signed. We have always sought an agreement with the part of Ukraine that rejected the violent 2014 coup. • We remain ready to negotiate and seek solutions to this difficult, complex situation, given that these people are very close to us. Russians and Ukrainians are one people. An agreement can be reached on everything. In any event, we will accomplish our tasks, and all the goals of the special military operation will be achieved. *** • As for our talks with the representative of the US administration, we agreed that we are ready to resume our trilateral contacts (Russia/USA/Ukraine). • The purpose of these talks will be to discuss security arrangements for Ukraine and Russia once final peace agreements have been reached, rather than following a brief suspension of hostilities. We are ready to resume these contacts to achieve this goal. • The representative of the US administration pointed out that if we discuss future security arrangements for both Ukraine and Russia, we will naturally also need to address the European security architecture as a whole. ☝️ I agree with this as well. Let us see how the situation develops in the coming days. Read in full