Budanov: Russia mistook summer 2025 protests in Ukraine for a coup and expected capitulation

Ukraine's Presidential Office head Kyrylo Budanov says that during 2025 trilateral talks, Russian negotiators told him the war was effectively over because they believed protests defending Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies were a Western-organized coup. The protests, in July 2025, followed a law curtailing NABU and SAPO's independence — a law Ukraine's parliament and president quickly repealed under public pressure.

Budanov says the Russians insisted he failed to grasp that 'Western agents' controlled the demonstrations and demanded new terms, expecting capitulation. He says they later admitted the miscalculation, acknowledging they had 'really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity' that never materialized.

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