Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a meeting with the Government held by President Putin, Moscow, June 4, 2025

Mr President,

Colleagues,

Vladimir Medinsky has outlined the key outcomes.

I believe this is both important and useful. The direct talks which you, Mr Putin, preliminarily agreed upon with President Trump in one of your recent phone conversations, is working well. Both rounds have yielded concrete results, including the 1,000 for 1,000 POW exchange. According to head of our delegation Vladimir Medinsky, an additional and equally large exchange has been agreed upon. This concerns not only the proportional exchange of prisoners of war, but also the transfer of severely wounded and sick individuals, as well as the return of the dead bodies.

I believe that, under any circumstances, a channel of communication is always a good thing to have, because, above all, it helps address humanitarian issues. Coordinating reciprocal humanitarian steps as gestures of goodwill and confidence-building measures is essential at this stage, especially so since there has been tangible progress in this area.

There was a proposal for a short, two- to three-day pause to allow for the dignified recovery of the dead bodies along a number of sections on the line of contact. Wounded personnel may still be there as well. I consider President Zelensky’s categorical and crudely worded refusal to accept this proposal and the continued disregard of our humanitarian ceasefire initiatives during Easter and the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory to be the Kiev regime’s grave mistake.

Despite all this - even despite massive criminal provocations of the past several days - I believe it is important not to succumb to these provocations that are clearly aimed at disrupting the talks and continuing to secure weapons deliveries from European countries. All means, including talks, must be used to achieve the just objectives of the special military operation. The Foreign Ministry is actively participating in Vladimir Medinsky’s delegation.

President Putin: I agree. I’ve been told there were more comments from the Ukrainian side about the members and the level of our delegation?

Sergey Lavrov: Yes, there were some anonymous comments circulated through the media. No one has approached us with any specific questions or proposals. Some journalists wondered, and we explained what the rank of Aide to the President of the Russian Federation means.