‘Saving the Kyiv regime isn’t part of our plans’: Putin on Ukraine, fuel shortages, and Trump

On the evening of June 28, the Kremlin released a 25-minute “interview” with Vladimir Putin conducted by propagandist Pavel Zarubin. In the published video, Putin is visibly looking away from the correspondent, reading his answers off a teleprompter. The Kremlin’s press service made no mention of Zarubin by name, identifying him only as “a Russian journalist.” During the “interview,” Putin said that Russia’s fuel shortage was “not critical” and that the government intended to address it by ramping up air defense production. He also said Ukraine had put forward a new peace proposal — both sides would halt strikes deep into each other’s territory — but that the Kremlin had already rejected it. Here are the main points of his remarks.