⚡️ Comment by Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov following Vladimir Putin’s telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump (June 14, 2026)

💬 Yury Ushakov: President of Russia Vladimir Putin telephoned the US President today to extend birthday greetings on his 80th birthday.

The conversation was friendly and candid, lasting just under an hour – 55 minutes to be precise.

As you might expect, it was not merely an exchange of pleasantries. President Trump heard more than kind words and good wishes: the leaders also discussed key issues relating to the current international situation, the development of Russia-US relations, and possible future contacts between representatives of both sides.

As for the greetings, they were informal and reflected the nature of the personal relationship between the two leaders. The Russian President made no secret of his respect for Donald Trump’s fighting spirit, his ability to withstand blows, successfully overcome obstacles, and persistently pursue his goals.

Incidentally, the Russian President also sent a birthday message in which he highlighted the exceptional character traits of the man he was honouring – traits that contribute to his success both as a person and as a politician. Donald Trump was touched by the remarks and thanked Vladimir Putin, noting that he was the first foreign leader to call him at the White House. <...>

Vladimir Putin naturally extended his best wishes to First Lady Melania Trump, praising her role in reuniting Russian and Ukrainian children with their families. Donald Trump, in turn, conveyed his wife’s greetings and gratitude for the assistance she had received from Russia.

To conclude the ceremonial congratulatory part of my remarks, I will note that Vladimir Putin thanked Donald Trump for his warm congratulatory message on Russia Day, which expressed respect for the Russian people.

Naturally, the conversation also touched on the situation surrounding the memorandum of understanding being drafted between the United States and Iran. Donald Trump said an agreement was close and expressed hope that the results of the difficult but ultimately successful negotiations could be announced today.

He acknowledged that the road to agreement had been arduous, with many obstacles encountered – and not only from the Iranian leadership. Ultimately, however, the efforts of American negotiators, with the assistance of Pakistani and Qatari mediators, produced an acceptable outcome. Trump expressed gratitude for Russia’s involvement and, in particular, for its proposals aimed at finding constructive solutions.

From our side satisfaction was expressed that the conflict, which had the potential to set the entire region and beyond, judging by all indications, being contained. Readiness was also stated to continue working toward stabilizing the situation and addressing the underlying issues that will still require serious attention.

As for the Ukrainian conflict, Donald Trump once again emphasized the need to bring military operations to an end. He stated that he is prepared to exert influence on both European partners and Kiev. <...>

The recent strikes against civilian facilities on Russian territory, of course, hinder efforts toward a settlement, and this was noted. Trump also said that ending the war would open up prospects for building a genuinely new quality of U.S.–Russian relations.

Vladimir Putin stressed that no attempts by the Kiev regime to strike civilian infrastructure in Russia would alter Ukraine’s critical situation on the battlefield. <...> As for Zelenskyy personally, it would be worth conveying to him that he should not forget the tragedy of the Holocaust, rather than honoring Nazi war criminals with ceremonial reburials.

It is noteworthy that Trump spoke about the alliance between our two countries during the Second World War. He said this is something that simply must not be forgotten.<...>

It was agreed that the U.S. President’s special representatives, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will arrive in Russia in the near future.

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⚡️ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus have published their third Joint Report on the human rights situation in selected countries.

👉 Read the Report in full

The document follows up on the annual reports by MFAs of Russia and Belarus on the human rights situation around the world and is designed to support our joint efforts to draw the attention of the international community to the challenges and threats facing modern society in the field of human rights protection.

👉 First Joint Report
👉 Second Joint Report

The report will be presented on June 30, July 7 and July 9 during conferences at the #CIS Executive Committee in Minsk, at the #OSCE headquarters in Vienna, and on the sidelines of the 62nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The information collected in the report clearly exposes a very serious problem of our time – the spread of ideologies that seek to justify inequality.

In practice, this manifests itself in the growing prevalence of racism, racial discrimination and related intolerance. The danger lies in the fact that these ideologies and practices are used to serve the ambitions of Western countries and eliminate “threats” to their dominance, which they have preserved by fair means or foul for the past 500 years, enabling them to extract disproportionate benefits at the expense of other societies and to the detriment of all humanity.

At first, this dominance was maintained directly – through the exploitation of colonies, the siphoning off of resources, the organisation of slavery, and so on. Today, neocolonial methods are widely used.

⚠️ And the West sees the “threat” in the alternative offered by Russia, Belarus and other countries pursuing independent domestic and foreign policies.

The West has designated them as its competitors and even adversaries. In this way, it justifies its aggressive policy, stopping at nothing and using any measures – often illegal ones – against those it finds undesirable.

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Confrontation is being deliberately fuelled, and pressure on sovereign states is mounting. Direct interference in their internal affairs, including through the use of force, is also being employed. Across the globe, the West is creating zones of conflict and seeking to impose its own rules, following the old colonial maxim of “divide and conquer”.

This is happening at a time when the European – and, more broadly, Western – model of social development, along with the Euro-Atlantic security model, has discredited itself. Through its actions, the West is making it increasingly clear that it is unable to defend its own development models in fair competition, and is therefore sinking ever deeper into the unseemly politicisation of all areas of interaction, while only creating more and more problems for those it has declared to be its “competitors”.

Since 2022, the West has been actively using the illegitimate neo-Nazi regime in Kiev as a geopolitical and military foothold against Russia. More recently, it has begun floating the idea of using the Kiev junta against the Republic of Belarus as well.

Only truly equal cooperation among all states gives humanity a chance to completely eradicate colonialism and its modern forms. And only such interaction will prevent individual countries from bending the system of international law to their will and using its universal human rights mechanisms for selfish purposes.

Unlike similar Western studies, the report prepared jointly by the Foreign Ministries of Russia and Belarus is not intended to lecture or moralise.

☝️ This Joint Report summarises factual information on human rights violations in the countries mentioned. 👉 The right to pass moral judgment on them remains with the readers.

⚡️ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus have published their third Joint Report on the human rights situation in selected countries.

👉 Read the Report in full

From the address to readers by Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Dmitry Lyubinsky and Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus Igor Sekreta:

The universal nature of human rights means that people of any nationality, race, sex, age and state of health have the right to a dignified life regardless of what they believe in, whom they love, or any other characteristics. The universality of human rights also means that they must be respected across the globe, in every country, without manipulations based on double standards.

One cannot pretend that problems do not exist, or hush them up, while at the same time interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states in an attempt to impose the notorious “rules-based order” – rules that run counter to the norms and principles of international law enshrined in universally recognised international documents. This is precisely the approach we call on our colleagues from the countries covered in this report to follow.

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The third joint report by Foreign Ministries of Russia and Belarus on the human rights situation in selected countries, presented to experts and the public, is a clear example of close intergovernmental cooperation in the field of human rights and demonstrates the proximity of our countries’ positions on this important issue.

The document is aimed at drawing attention to the challenges and threats facing today’s international community in the field of human rights.

Above all, when describing the list of problems in the promotion and protection of human rights compiled in the report, one cannot fail to note the unchanged essence of these problems – namely, the so-called double standards that still persist and are even worsening in assessments of various human rights situations and phenomena. This approach is regularly used by the “collective West” to fuel confrontation, pressure sovereign states and interfere in their internal affairs, as shown in the relevant country sections of the report.

Through their increasingly brazen approaches to interpreting human rights, Western countries completely negate their own rhetoric about the universality of these rights.

Another feature of the current situation is the scaling back of social obligations and the militarisation of entire sectors of the economy – all under the pretext of the notorious external threat.

Such “narratives”, as they are now commonly called, are widespread in the Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine and Moldova, whose economies are rapidly degrading. Germany, France, Britain and a number of other countries of the “Old and New World” are following the same path.

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❗️Another matter of grave concern is the resurgence of racism and racial discrimination. We have repeatedly stated at international human rights forums and in thematic reports that racist ideas and “values” are being openly promoted in a number of countries, while national radicals are being glorified.

Such approaches are destroying the principles and manifestations of humanism in international politics, erasing established notions of normality and permissibility, and effectively laying the groundwork for a new public morality based on inequality, discrimination and the possibility of eliminating those deemed undesirable.

The numerous examples from the present and the past compiled in the report convincingly confirm the importance – indeed, the imperative – of consolidating the efforts of the entire constructively minded international community to successfully counter existing and emerging challenges and mitigate their negative consequences.

#HumanRights

💬 Russia's High Commissioner for Human Rights Yana Lantratova:

Supplying weapons to the Kiev regime leads to new civilian casualties. We have already seen strikes on the college and dormitory in Starobelsk; the attack on a passenger bus in Yenakiyevo; the destruction of the “Defence of Sevastopol” panorama museum.

✉️ I have sent appeals to:

▪️ UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
▪️ President of the UN Human Rights Council Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro.
▪️ Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Sophie Kiladze.
▪️ Chair of the UN Human Rights Committee Soh Changrok.
▪️ Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Vanessa Frazier.
▪️ OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu.
▪️ OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ignazio Cassis.

The messages read, in part:

I am compelled to address you in view of the continued supply of weapons to Ukraine by Western governments.

The supply of weapons to the Ukrainian side is leading to an increase in civilian casualties and the destruction of homes, schools and hospitals, as evidenced by recent events — the tragedy in Starobelsk, the attack on a passenger bus in Yenakiyevo, and the strike on the “Defence of Sevastopol” panorama museum.

By supplying weapons to the Kiev regime and controlling the use of these weapons, especially long-range systems, Western governments are becoming accomplices in crimes that violate the norms of international humanitarian law.

I ask you not to ignore the facts of complicity in ongoing war crimes, to publicly condemn them, and to call on the international community to make a fair and objective assessment of what has happened.

❗️ I urge international bodies to protect human rights: not to remain silent, not to treat some victims as more deserving of compassion than others, and not to turn a blind eye to the suffering of children, the elderly, women and ordinary families.

The international community must call things by their proper names. Supplying weapons that are used against civilians is not assistance. It is complicity in crimes.

⚡️ On Russia's win in international arbitration regarding the rights of a coastal state in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and the Kerch Strait

⚖️ Today, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (#PCA) in The Hague issued its final ruling in the 10-year arbitral proceedings between Russia and Ukraine concerning the rights of a coastal state in the Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov, and the waters of the Black Sea surrounding Crimea.

The dispute was heard by an international arbitral tribunal in accordance with the procedure set out in Annex VII to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Composed of five independent arbitrators from Algeria, the UK, Mexico, Russia, and the Republic of Korea, the arbitral tribunal passed down a unanimous ruling.

🇷🇺 The case, which carries major geopolitical, legal, and historical significance, ended in a decisive victory for the Russian Federation.

❌ Numerous claims by Ukraine which accused Russia of violating dozens of provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea have been rejected.

Kiev’s efforts to challenge Russia's sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula and the adjacent maritime areas have failed. The tribunal dismissed Ukraine’s claims for the return of control over hydrocarbon, fishery, and other resources in the waters of Crimea and the Azov region, as well as any “compensation” or “reparations” from Russia for their use and alleged “damage”.

Ukraine’s attempt, supported by Western countries, to designate the Kerch Strait as “international” with the right of passage for vessels of all countries, including warships, has failed as well. For the first time in history, the legally binding award formally recognised the status of the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov as internal waters forming part of sovereign state territory.

The tribunal rejected Kiev’s request to declare Russia’s assertion of sovereignty over the entire Sea of Azov unlawful (as “aggravation of the dispute”) following the Donbass, Zaporozhye, and Kherson regions’ accession to Russia. Nothing in the award prevents Russia from exercising its sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction in the maritime areas contiguous to the Crimean Peninsula, the Sea of Azov, and the Azov-Kerch waters.

The tribunal dismissed as absurd and cynical Ukraine’s demand for dismantling the Crimean Bridge. The very fact of submission of such a non-starter demand demonstrated inhumane nature of the Kiev regime, which allegedly continues to seek to “punish” Crimeans for their choice in favour of Russia. Ukraine’s claims that the Crimean Bridge obstructs navigation in these waters were found to be unfounded.

Ukraine’s allegations of violations by Russia of obligations concerning the protection of underwater cultural heritage were found to be entirely unsubstantiated and unsupported by evidence.

The tribunal also dismissed all Ukrainian claims regarding alleged environmental damage caused by Russia. It was established that Russia has an effective environmental monitoring system in place.

👉 The only issue on which the tribunal made a “nod” towards Ukraine concerned partial non-compliance with environmental impact assessment procedures in the construction of the Crimean Bridge, the energy bridge, and the gas pipeline across the Kerch Strait.

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The Russian Side found the outcome of the proceedings satisfactory.

☝️This arbitral ruling represents a significant defeat for Ukraine and the West in the “legal warfare” waged against Russia.

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