#KievRegimeCrimes

❗️ Maxim Grigoryev, the Сhairman of the International Public Tribunal on the Crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis, which includes representatives of civil society from more than 30 countries, continues recording reports of war crimes committed by the Kiev regime towards prisoners of war (POWs).

Below are their first-hand accounts 👇

💬 Prisoner of war Matvey Ainyaurgin:

"When they [Ukrainian Armed Forces] captured me, the first thing they did was beat me up. <...> They said they were going to 'zero me out,' which meant killing me. <...> I had wounds on my legs, and they kicked me directly on those wounds."

💬 Prisoner of war Oleg Kisilev:

"The [Ukrainian Armed Forces] attacked me from all sides with two or three bats. They smashed my head. <...> They broke my arm and my leg; they shattered my kneecaps with a bat. <...> They constantly broke me down morally. I asked for painkillers, but they never gave me any."

💬 Prisoner of war Ivan Fomenko:

"The [Ukrainian Armed Forces] stripped us naked, then took bats, clubs, and sticks and beat us. They set two dogs on us and watched as the dogs tore people apart. The dogs bit hard. <...> Some were tortured with electric shocks."

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at the 4th meeting of the Interdepartmental Commission for Caspian Cooperation (Moscow, May 22, 2025)

💬 Strengthening cooperation in the Caspian Sea area is our priority.

It is clearly stipulated in the Russian Foreign Policy Concept approved by President Vladimir Putin in March 2023. We consistently promote the view that the five littoral states have exclusive competence in addressing any Caspian Sea issues, even though there is an increasing number of players wishing to interfere in those processes. <...>

It is obvious that greater interaction between the five parties to this convention will help develop a framework for broader economic cooperation in Eurasia, something President Vladimir Putin referred to as the Greater Eurasian Partnership, as well as build equal and indivisible security on the continent we share. Given its geopolitical and geostrategic importance, the Caspian region should be an integral part of this security system. <...>

The five Caspian states have held several important events since our last meeting:

👉 On February 17-18, Tehran hosted the 3rd Caspian Economic Forum (CEF). Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk led the Russian delegation attending the meeting. <...> Participants spoke in favour of strengthening joint research, including the study of the causes of Caspian shoaling. They noted the high level of cooperation between the littoral states in oil and gas as well as in power generation, including green energy projects. They also supported further expanding cooperation in transport, and building transport and logistics infrastructure.

👉 On May 5-7, the 10th meeting of the High-Level Working Group on Caspian Sea Issues took place in Moscow. Among other Caspian-related issues they reviewed, representatives of Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan discussed methods for drawing straight baselines in the Caspian Sea.

The littoral states continued the well-established practice of holding roundtables dedicated to Caspian issues on the sidelines of major international events.

👉 On May 14 this year, Rossotrudnichestvo and the Russian Foreign Ministry organised a meeting during the 16th International Economic Forum Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum. The discussion, "Caspian cooperation: Development of twinning relations", focused on interacting at the level of cities and municipalities. On May 16, the Russian Ministry of Transport organised a session on "Transport cooperation between the Caspian littoral states".

👉 The Defence Ministry’s Navigation and Oceanography Department is currently holding the Second Caspian Hydrographic Conference dedicated to hydrographic support of navigation in the Caspian Sea in Kaspiysk (Dagestan). The conference brought together representatives from the five states’ defence ministries.

👉 The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will hold a roundtable on the sidelines of the 11th Nevsky International Ecological Congress in St Petersburg to consider ways to intensify the activities of respective agencies in the five states to address the Caspian Sea’s environmental issues, above all, its continuing shoaling.

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⚡️ Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation:

On 23 May, in accordance with the agreements reached between Ukraine and Russia on 16 May in Istanbul, 270 Russian servicemen, as well as 120 civilians, including civilians captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kursk region, have been returned from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime.

As result of the exchange, 270 AFU POW and 120 civilians were returned.

At present, all Russian servicemen and civilians are on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, where they are being provided with the necessary psychological and medical assistance.

All released servicemen and civilians will be taken to the Russian Federation for treatment and rehabilitation in medical institutions.

The large-scale exchange initiated by the Russian side is planned to continue in the coming days.

Welcome back home!

🎙 Excerpt from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to media questions (Moscow, May 23, 2025)

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❓ Question: Do you believe that the Western European leaders you mentioned are deliberately trying to thwart President Trump’s mediation efforts in the Ukraine conflict? Could jealousy be a factor?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: I wouldn’t say it’s about jealousy.

These leaders were simply more comfortable with the previous US administration, which was leading the charge in the anti-Russia crusade and encouraged European countries to follow suit.

Now, with the new administration in the White House, it's clear that they were more comfortable under President Biden. Their main objective was to preserve Western unity in what they described as an effort to deliver a “strategic defeat” to Russia on the battlefield.

If we take a closer look at the positions adopted by London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, the Baltic states, and Warsaw, we’ll see that they have no way of abandoning their stated goal. They bet their reputations on drawing Europe into the war against Russia and using it as a pretext to militarise Europe.

Massive investment will have been made to that end by 2030. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has openly stated his ambition to make Germany Europe’s dominant military power with the largest conventional army.

❗️ This is alarming news, and historical reminiscences are conjuring up a disquieting picture.

Another possible motive behind their actions is that they still hope to use some people from the US establishment to bring President Trump and his administration back into an anti-Russia camp and share responsibility or even shift the blame.

☝️ But I believe they won’t succeed this time.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the 33rd Assembly of the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy (CFDP) (May 24, 2025)

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Thank you for giving me yet another opportunity to deliver a report to this audience.

Although I am a CFDP member myself, it is not everyone that is invited to make reports here. I had a chance to look through the materials drawn up by many CFDP members, including those who are now present here, over the past few months, documents distributed as part of the package for today’s meeting. I can say that many things echo the ideas current at the Foreign Ministry. But there are certain things that provide valuable tips, at least with regard to the focus areas that we will have to concentrate our thinking on in the future.

☝️ We value the contributions being made by the expert community and CFDP members. Many of them are regular participants in various talk shows. This is useful. Russian foreign policy can only benefit from this analytical support. Let me repeat that I derive much interest from perusing all your materials that we receive throughout the year, even outside the framework of preparations for upcoming sessions. Thank you very much for this.

Today’s event is entitled The Time of Trial: War and Peace in the 21st Century. I read a relevant article that used the word “war” in the plural. Quite possible, this detail will also affect the process. It must be taken into account. No one knows how many years of ordeals are in store for us. But they are certain to come.

An interesting epoch is here to stay. As our Chinese friends say, “Be it far from you to live at interesting times.” However, this is not quite so from the diplomatic point of view. Diplomacy, like any active practical science, “comes to life” precisely in the periods, when it is necessary to display initiative, think more, and analyse.

❗️ Forming a multipolar world remains the core trend for today. We are confident that this is a natural process. But there are others who feel nostalgic for the globalisation era and are sure that multipolarity is an artificially imposed construct and a temporary thing that must be suppressed.

The Global South and East countries see multipolarity as a chance for bolstering up their sovereign development without manifestations of Western neo-colonialism that have become rife in recent years, whereas the West has highly mixed feelings about the strengthening of multilateral principles in international life.

#Announcement

🎙 On May 27, Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova will hold a briefing in Makhachkala (Republic of Dagestan) on current foreign policy issues:

🕤 9.30 am MSK
🕢 7.30 am GMT
🕢 8.30 am CEST
🕝 2.30 pm CST (Beijing)

For accreditation inquiries, please contact the MFA Press Centre. Accredited journalists will receive details on the technical aspects of submitting questions.

The Russia's Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman will answer media questions received by the call centre.

📆 On May 25-27, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Türkiye Hakan Fidan will pay a working visit to Moscow at the invitation of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for negotiating a wide range of issues of the bilateral and international agenda.

The time-tested well-balanced and dynamic Russia-Türkiye political dialogue is determined by regular contacts between President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Last year, the Leaders of our countries met face to face on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of State Council Meeting in Astana and the BRICS summit in Kazan. In 2024-2025, they have had nine telephone conversations, with the latest one taking place on May 11.

Foreign Ministers of Russia and Türkiye maintain the pace, set by the heads of state. In 2024-2025, Sergey Lavrov and Hakan Fidan met nine times in New York (January 2024), Rio de Janeiro (February 2024), Nizhny Novgorod (June 2024), New York (September 2024), Istanbul (October 2024), Doha (December 2024), Johannesburg (February 20, 2025) and Ankara (February 24, 2025). They have also had ten telephone conversations, with the latest one taking place on May 12, 2025.

In an effort to strengthen close contacts on regional and international issues, Russian and Turkish foreign ministries are holding ministerial consultations that have won a reputation of a reliable and effective form of collaboration between the foreign policy agencies.

<...>

Russia and Türkiye are making a weighty contribution to normalising the situation in Syria. Sergey Lavrov and Hakan Fidan will focus on assisting the new Syrian authorities in their efforts to launch all-inclusive political dialogue and resuming peaceful socio-political life.

The Sides have accumulated positive cooperation experience on the Libyan track, and Russia intends to continue interdepartmental contacts with Turkish colleagues on this issue.

There are plans to discuss more profound cooperation in the South Caucasus, including efforts to unblock traffic and lines of communication and to facilitate the region’s post-conflict reconstruction. Russia and Türkiye are interested in a peaceful and predictable South Caucasus. This can be accomplished through joint efforts within the framework of the 3 + 3 Regional Cooperation Platform. Moscow welcomes the process of Amenia-Türkiye normalisation.

🤝 Bilateral trade and economic cooperation in complicated conditions of constant Western pressure will be discussed separately. The ministers will prioritise efforts to create a favourable environment for improving banking services and diversifying bilateral trade operations. They will discuss ways of filling the 19th meeting of the Mixed Intergovernmental Russian-Turkish Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation with real content.

It is planned to touch upon the issue of building the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and operating the Blue Stream and Turkish Stream gas pipelines.

Türkiye remains one of the most attractive destinations for Russian tourists. In 2024, Russian citizens placed first among all foreign tourists visiting the country. In all, 6.7 million Russian citizens visited Türkiye, accounting for about 12.7 percent of the entire tourist flow. In this connection, the sides will focus on ensuring the safety of Russian tourists at Turkish resorts.

❗️ The Russian Side hopes that the upcoming ministerial meeting in Moscow will make an important contribution to deepening ties between the two states and forging a more predictable system of regional security.

#RussiaTürkiye

⚡️ President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin received Foreign Minister of Türkiye Hakan Fidan at the Kremlin

From the Russian Side, the meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The Turkish Foreign Minister is in Russia on a working visit.

🇷🇺🇹🇷 #RussiaTürkiye

🇷🇺🇧🇾📞 President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko spoke over the phone (May 26, 2025)

Vladimir Putin made a phone call to President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to express profound gratitude for his contribution to arranging the exchange of detained persons that took place at the Novaya Guta border crossing in Gomel Region, Belarus on May 23–25, as per the agreement reached during Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul.

#RussiaBelarus

🎙 FM Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the reception on Africa Day (Moscow, May 26, 2025)

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Each year in May, we traditionally convene at the Foreign Ministry Mansion to mark Africa Day — a commemoration that holds profound significance not only for Africans but for all humanity. This date symbolises the surmounting of a colonial past and embodies the unwavering resolve of African peoples in their quest for freedom and justice. <...>

This year is marked by the 80th Anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War, as well as the 65th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. This is emphasised in the message from President of Russia Vladimir Putin. These epoch-making events are closely interconnected. On May 10, 1945, in a congratulatory telegram to the head of the Soviet government, Joseph Stalin, Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia remarked: “This victory, bringing us the end of the most savage tyranny the world has ever known, has ushered in the threshold of an era of greater happiness and justice for all peoples threatened with annihilation.”

☝️ We remember and honour the hundreds of thousands of Africans who fought in the armies of the anti-Hitler coalition, hastening Victory. In turn, the defeat of Nazism galvanised the national liberation movement, accelerating the collapse of the colonial system.

Our nation made an immense contribution to the decolonisation process, grounded in one of the UN Charter’s key principles — the right of nations to self-determination. For many years, we selflessly supported Africans in their struggle for freedom and independence, consistently aiding the formation of young states and their comprehensive socio-economic development.

Today, Russia continues to foster the strengthening of Africa’s position as a unique and influential centre of global development. In particular, we support African aspirations to secure a permanent ‘seat’ within the UN Security Council. We will further assist interested African nations in enhancing their defence capabilities, countering terrorism, and ensuring food and energy security.

In recent years, the African continent, asserting itself as one of the pillars of a sustainable multipolar world order, has achieved impressive results. Such progress has largely been made possible by the collective will of Africans to address shared challenges and pursue common goals.

We welcome the dynamic development of integration processes, which strengthen solidarity across the continent and amplify its voice. The African Union plays a pivotal role in this regard. <...>

🤝 Russia remains a reliable and steadfast partner to African nations in strengthening their sovereignty, the foremost threat to which remains persistent neocolonial practices. <...>

One of the most dynamic areas of Russian-African cooperation remains education. Today, more than 32,000 African students are enrolled in our universities.

Our collaboration with the African Union and other multilateral structures on the continent is expanding actively. We see significant potential in fostering their ties with Eurasian integration bodies the #EAEU, #CSTO, and #SCO. Naturally, we wholeheartedly support the development of cooperative relations between the African Union and #BRICS.

Our commitment to deepening a multifaceted strategic partnership with Africa is reflected in the establishment of a new structural unit within the Russian Foreign Ministry — the Department of Partnership with Africa. On the agenda is the preparation of the second ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, to be held this year in an African country. There is no doubt that its outcomes will contribute to the substantive groundwork for the third Russia-Africa Summit, planned for 2026 — also on the African continent. <...>

I would like to once again extend my congratulations on this occasion and wish the peoples of Africa and all those present peace, health, and prosperity.

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#RussiaAfrica

🎙 Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on yet another drone attack on the Russian Embassy in Sweden

💬 On Sunday May 25, I already commented on yet another attack on the Russian Embassy in Sweden by an unmanned aerial vehicle allegedly operated by unidentified persons, which dropped a glass container with red paint. In view of the gravity of the incident I think it necessary to revisit the topic.

The Russian Embassy in the Swedish capital has been in fact operating in combat conditions. The above UAV attack is the 15th such incident to have occurred since May 2024, indicating that this lawlessness with apparent connivance of the Swedish authorities — and probably, authorised by them — occurs every month, and even more often.

It is an outrageous fact that Swedish law enforcement bodies have been unable to identify and bring to account the perpetrators in any of the drone raids, which raises a well-justified question of whether the Swedish side is interested in conducting an impartial, and more importantly, effective investigation.

The overall current situation seems to suggest very strong stances taken by those in Sweden who are seeking to escalate tensions in the relations with our country, deliberately undermining the basic diplomatic agreements and, in all probability, trying to incur maximum damage both to Russian real estate with diplomatic immunity and to the staff working there.

❗️ We insist that the Swedish side strictly observe the obligations of the receiving side in accordance with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations regarding the physical safety and inviolability of the Russian mission.

📄 Russia's Foreign Ministry's report on the "Situation in several European countries with the desecration and destruction of monuments dedicated to those who fought against Nazism during World War II"

Full text of the report

Since the end of the World War II, approximately 4'000 monuments to Soviet soldiers have been erected in Europe. A total of more than one million Red Army soldiers are buried in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. In general, the peoples of the USSR and Europe paid a much higher price for the Victory over Nazism, measured in tens of millions of lives.

The Soviet army liberated Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria (the eastern part of the country and Vienna), Romania, Yugoslavia and a number of other European countries from Nazism.

The majority of Soviet monuments were erected specifically in these countries. There are also monuments to the Soviet soldier in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, and France.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many memorials ended up on the territory of states bordering Russia that emerged from the former Soviet republics. In several of these countries, the chosen course toward reviving Nazism and rewriting history has had a serious impact on the memorial legacy of the Great Patriotic War.

❌ Decommunization, the destruction of monuments to our common history and culture, the desecration of the graves of fallen Soviet soldiers, neo-Nazi torch marches, the glorification of Nazis and their collaborators, the physical elimination of ideological opponents — many of these practices, and often all of them at once, have become commonplace in Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as in Poland, the Czech Republic and a number of other European countries.

These very countries are the focus of this report. Under the guise of "decommunization" laws and by dismantling monuments to Soviet soldiers, the governments of these countries are attempting to "reinforce an anti-Russian front".

At the same time, monuments to Nazi criminals are being erected, their protection is being enshrined in law, and rare acts of activists opposing Nazi memorials are harshly prosecuted. The key objective of such steps is the complete erasure of historical memory.

This report has been prepared as part of the Russia's Foreign Ministry's efforts to draw attention to the manifestations of various forms of Nazi glorification, neo-Nazism, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance in foreign countries.

The report focuses on the actions of certain countries, primarily the Baltic states, Poland, and Ukraine, which, using Russia’s special military operation aimed at denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine, as well as the protection of the peaceful population of Donbass, as a pretext, have sharply escalated a long-standing practice of destroying Soviet, Russian, and often their own memorial heritage on their territories.

👉 Detailed account of the unlawful actions by authorities of Ukraine, the Baltic states, Bulgaria, Moldova, Poland, Finland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, targeting Russian and Soviet monuments.