Zelenskyy's June 2 briefing Talks, drones and support

Jun 1, 2025

Zelenskyy gives his complete June 2 online briefing and answers journalists. He reports the conclusion of the Bucharest Nine and Nordic summit, an invitation to the NATO summit after meeting its secretary general, and positive bilateral discussions. Norway's prime minister supported help with a possible winter gas shortfall and additional drone-production financing. He describes Romania's new president as supportive of Ukraine's eventual EU and NATO membership and a prospective summer visit; Finland and Lithuania would provide defense packages, Duda would make a final visit, and Denmark also offered support. On the same day's Istanbul talks, he reports a planned 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange, possibly another 200-for-200, with lists and verification still needed. He says the sides discussed exchanging 6,000 bodies each, urges careful identification, says Russia had identified only 15% of the bodies it offered, and recounts an earlier transfer that included Russian dead. Memorandums were exchanged, but he had not yet read Russia's document or received Umerov's complete report. Asked later, he says intelligence from partners suggests ultimatum-like demands and reserves judgment until he sees it. He says Ukraine supplied a verified list of nearly 400 children, whereas Russia proposed dealing with up to ten. His account of Russian delegates' derisive language and acknowledgment of taking hundreds rather than thousands is his characterization. In a later answer he cannot promise imminent large-scale returns, says other channels have returned about 1,300 children, and explains that the list had previously gone to Ramaphosa and the Pope. He also relays reports of a somewhat calmer Russian delegation and allegations about threats, with uncertainty over their source and mechanism. He rejects Russia's proposed two- or three-day local pause to collect bodies as insufficient while fighting and civilian attacks continue elsewhere. He argues that Russia is using humanitarian exchanges and limited-pause rhetoric to delay American sanctions. He urges strong U.S. action if Istanbul makes no ceasefire progress, reports Graham, Blumenthal and colleagues beginning to coordinate their sanctions package with the EU, and hopes for two strong packages, including the EU's eighteenth; votes and adoption are not assured. He calls this the fifth month since the U.S. signal for a complete ceasefire. He supports Erdoğan's proposed meeting with Erdoğan, Trump, Putin and himself, believing a leaders' meeting is necessary, without confirming a summit or dating their prior conversation. Answering the BBC and ABC, he calls the previous day's Operation Spiderweb successful, claims more than forty military targets were hit, says Ukraine acted independently and prepared it for about eighteen months, and argues that it weakened Russia and restored allies' confidence. He separately recalls an earlier battlefield operation using 400 drones simultaneously against military equipment in occupied Ukraine, giving a figure of more than forty while listing artillery, air defense, armored vehicles and tanks as destroyed, after roughly three months of preparation. Its date and exact site are unstated. He describes Russian offensives around Sumy and Pokrovsk and Ukrainian efforts to prevent force concentration. Asked about Russian anger, he cites a preceding night with 480-something drones and civilian casualties, describes continuing daily attacks, and says Ukraine will continue its operations unless Russia stops. These damage figures, effects and motives remain his claims. He says Ukraine has proposed U.S. talks on free trade and a defense agreement to buy weapons, with a Ukrainian team's U.S. visit and partner meetings in Kyiv being planned, rather than signed agreements or deliveries. In the closing gas answer, he attributes lost capacity to attacks beginning the previous autumn, says repairs may leave a winter shortfall, and describes half the financing as found and a remaining approximately €1 billion under discussion with Norway. He does not establish a completed Norwegian payment or delivered gas. All substantive questions, interpreted questions, responses and qualifications remain in the playback, ending at the natural completion of this final gas answer before the administrative farewells.

Ukraine carries out deep drone strikes against Russian strategic aviation on June 1, 2025, the operation independently identified as Spiderweb. In the retrieved June 9 account, Dearnley asks about the deep strikes and Rutte describes the attack on the Sunday a week earlier as an innovative reduction of Russian capabilities used against civilians in Ukrainian cities. He says its impact appears considerable but the exact extent is unknown. The broadcast supplies no aircraft-loss count, complete airfield list or independently verified damage assessment. In the June 2 original presidential briefing, Zelenskyy says the previous day's operation struck more than forty Russian military targets, was independently conducted by Ukraine after about eighteen months' preparation, reduced Russian strike capabilities and restored partners' confidence. The June 3 TSN roundup reports a revised General Staff tally of 41 strategic aircraft destroyed or damaged beyond flying, described as 34 percent of Russia's strategic fleet. These totals and diplomatic effects are Ukrainian claims, not independently verified damage. Zelenskyy describes an earlier four-hundred-drone battlefield operation separately. Rutte's later unknown-extent qualification remains intact. SBU's silent released recording supplies direct visual evidence from the Belaya component of this same operation: a roof launch, approach across roads and fields, aircraft already burning and a terminal approach toward a parked bomber. Its opening caption presents the flight as ending in an aircraft hit, but the image freezes at close approach before the closing card, with no visible impact or post-impact outcome. This single flight cannot establish the operation-wide loss count. The occurrence is June 1; the recording's June 7 release is separate publication chronology. At the June 3 Rada sitting, Stefanchuk thanks the SBU and everyone involved for the complex behind-enemy-lines operation. Skorokhod praises its planning and says effective domestic drones can be made much more cheaply; her production appeal is separately scoped. These are parliamentary appraisals of the June 1 operation, with no independent confirmation of aircraft losses.