Economy minister Maxim Reshetnikov told the St Petersburg forum that business indicators were sliding despite war-fueled spending; growth slowed to 1.4% in Q1 2025 and inflation has run at twice the central bank’s 4% target.
Rates remain an eye-watering 20%.
Fresh attacks, nuclear warning
Regional governors reported pre-dawn Shahed drone raids on Kharkiv and the Black Sea port of Odesa.
Casualty details were not immediately available.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog said the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant cannot safely restart while the war continues because it relies on fragile external power and has dwindling cooling-water reserves.
Prisoner swap and battlefield tolls
Kyiv and Moscow completed another exchange of “seriously ill and wounded” soldiers; neither side disclosed numbers.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said more such swaps were needed and renewed calls for tougher sanctions on Russia over its use of Iranian drones and North Korean munitions.
Ukraine’s military says Russian combat losses now exceed one million killed or wounded since February 2022, figures Moscow rejects.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency puts Iranian deaths from Israeli strikes at 639, a conflict Kyiv fears is sapping attention and lifting oil prices that fund the Kremlin’s war.
Diplomacy and EU path
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of “hypocrisy” for decrying attacks on Tehran while “ruthlessly” bombarding Ukraine.
Denmark, due to take the EU Council presidency on 1 July, vowed to keep Ukraine’s membership bid moving despite Hungary’s objections.
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Source: The Guardian, Associated Press, Reuters