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Prior to the meeting, the President toured the engineering classrooms and a university research laboratory.

The St Petersburg State Marine Technical University is a leading Russian university that trains professionals in a wide range of shipbuilding specialties. The university’s key research areas include IT, life cycle management of complex engineering systems, mathematical and simulation modelling, AR and VR, digital transformation of industrial processes, cyberphysical systems, special and industrial robotics, laser and additive production technologies, and Arctic and composite shipbuilding.

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Excerpts from transcript of meeting with students – participants in the special military operation

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, friends. I am pleased to welcome you all.

What we have here is an unusual contingent, primarily, people who volunteered to go to the combat area and mobilised personnel as well, but mostly young people who decided to go to the combat area on their own. Many chose not to take advantage of the opportunity to continue their studies and put them on hold instead in order to go and serve the Motherland in particularly difficult and demanding conditions.

I think that having returned from the combat area – and I am sure you have realised it yourself by now – you are not the same people you were before going. It is one thing to watch footage online or listen to someone’s accounts, but it is quite another thing to be in harm’s ways in cold trenches with shells falling, bullets whizzing, where there are mines, where drones buzz around like flies. It is a whole different story. It definitely affects a person and their worldview.

Nevertheless, as adults, you made informed decisions. I know that your families are both proud of you but also very worried and praying for you, there is no doubt about it.

I would like to thank you for making this decision and offer my deepest respect to your parents for bringing up young people like you. This is actually in our people’s nature – not to spare oneself and give a shoulder to the country in hard times for the Motherland, and this further confirms that it is passed on from generation to generation, and no matter what anyone says in different periods of time about what kind of youth we have, life always clears things up.

Students across the country are quite engaged in what is taking place in our country and around it. Everybody, practically everybody is. University students donated 19 tonnes of blood to support our troops, 19 tonnes, and keep donating it.

Volunteers are doing their job as well. I know we have volunteers in this audience. They put their hearts into it and, you know, in this sense, the entire country has sided with those who, without sparing themselves, are defending the Motherland on the battlefield. There are probably some issues that need further attention and solutions. Something always needs to be fine-tuned, because the combat area is almost 2,000 kilometres long with over 600,000 troops. It is a massive mechanism, and sometimes, I will put it bluntly, like any government mechanism, it has its administrative overheads. That is exactly why we have come together, though, and I requested this meeting for you to tell me about this work, how it is organised, and what you think should be done to reduce the number of these difficulties and eliminate them altogether.

That is all I wanted to say at the beginning. Now, let us have a free discussion.

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Maxim Chudanovich: Mr President, everyone present here, hello.

My name is Maxim Chudanovich. In the spring of 2023, I volunteered for military service and joined our troops. I was assigned to a communications battalion.

Speaking for myself, as well as on behalf of my comrades and our compatriots who live there, behind the lines, I want to say thank you for your decision, which I am sure was difficult, to launch a special military operation to protect and save the civilian population from the genocide to which they were subjected for many years by the Nazi regime in Kiev. Of course, this happened with the support of the Western regime, those who are themselves responsible for many wars and humanitarian catastrophes around the world. Masters of puppets, I would say, wolves in sheep’s clothing.

People were killed there, and I know this not just from the news reports. They pleaded for help, but the international community turned a deaf ear. My comrades and I firmly believe in our victory. We believe that children who have grown up amidst war will be able to start a peaceful life in the near future.

Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the soldiers in the fields and on the front lines have faith in you and in your support. They have asked me to convey to you that victory will be ours.

I would also like to thank the command of the 1^st Headquarters Brigade of the Western Military District and the Bonch-Bruevich St Petersburg State University of Telecommunications for the opportunity to continue my master’s programme with them.

Before joining the military service, I was engaged in social activities, including volunteer work: I participated in organising collections of humanitarian aid and delivering it to the war zone. This included equipment to counter drones, communications equipment, medicines, camouflage nets and more. And I have already experienced life behind the lines.

I would also like to say that it is an honour for me, my relatives – both living and deceased – that I am present with my comrades here today, at this event with you. Not long ago I could not even imagine this. We stand with you.

Vladimir Putin: Maxim, first of all, regarding the decision to launch the special military operation. I have spoken about this many times and I will say it again here. There were no other considerations but one: protecting Russia's interests. None at all. And there were and can be no other motives in addressing such issues.

Let me remind you that we tried our best to build relations with Ukraine for decades. We did everything we could: we provided them with soft loans, offered fuel at very low prices, granted access to our market – everything. But no, the actual power in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the actual power, was always in the hands of nationalists and those who represent them. No matter who was elected with the help of southeast Ukraine, with the help of voters who live in the southeast, still this nationalist platform, its representatives very quickly subjugated everyone to their will, because they are active, energetic, and aggressive, and everyone immediately fell in line.

Next. We nevertheless tried very patiently to build relations, relying on the pro-Russian part of Ukrainian society, of course, exclusively by peaceful means, and we had no other intentions. However, it appears that our geopolitical adversary realised that it would not be possible to reshape the whole of Ukraine, including the population in the south-east, the Russian-speaking population, and that is why in 2014 they staged a coup d'état and began to exterminate, to physically exterminate all those who were determined to develop normal relations with our country. They simply began to physically exterminate them. It became clear that we would not be allowed to build normal relations with our neighbour.

In addition, after the coup, as you know, the events in Donbass began, the extermination of people in Donbass. This lasted eight years, almost nine, and they simply refused to implement the Minsk agreements, publicly declaring: We will not do it, we do not like anything in these agreements. The fighting continued there, and I think that among those present here there are those who have been following this situation since the first months or have even been in this zone. They will certainly confirm this. Everything that was happening there, especially in the territories occupied by the enemy, was genocide, there is no other way to describe it. People were being exterminated.

There, on the lands that historically belonged to us, Russians were declared a non-titular nation, and the law was passed. I do not want to use offensive language… That is, on the contrary, that is exactly what I want to use. But since the cameras are rolling and there are ladies present, I cannot do it. But I still want to.

In fact, Russians were announced a non-titular nation on our historical lands. They also announced they would not fulfil the Minsk agreements. At the same time, they continued to work on creating an anti-Russia bridgehead on the territory which is now called Ukraine. They started creating an enclave. They deceived us ten times in a row about the non-expansion of NATO. All of this taken together simply did not leave us any choice but to launch the special military operation. But this was not the beginning of the war: they started the war themselves in Donbass in 2014. This is an attempt to end this war. Yes, it involves using armed forces in response to their use of armed forces.

I am confident that we will achieve our goals and objectives.

Now, let’s talk about volunteers and cargo transportation. Military cargo is freely transported on all roads in Russia without any restrictions, including on toll motorways free of charge. There are also exceptions for volunteer cargo, which are very important, but I think that you know this better than anyone else. Of course, the state has an obligation to provide everything, as the state should, and it does. From what I understand, the situation is improving, but there are still a lot of little things that may be important for people or for a particular person who is in difficult combat conditions. Just yesterday, or the day before, I was informed that tangerines were bought and delivered there. It might seem like a small thing, but still, for those on the frontline, it immediately reminds them of their childhood or the New Year’s holiday. Life is made up of these little things.

This is why it is very important. And the volunteer movement is very important, because it unites the country, unites all its people, regardless of age, financial status, or social standing. The whole country unites, and this is very important. Of course, we need to support volunteers and provide them with all possible assistance.

Alexei Zhukevich: Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief,

Platoon commander, guards junior lieutenant Alexei Zhukevich.

I have the following question: why are the Main Intelligence Directorate and the Security Service of Ukraine not equated to terrorist organisations?

Vladimir Putin: First, in our country, a decision to declare anyone a terrorist structure is made not by administrative bodies at any level, but by the courts. According to Russian law, only a court can designate an organisation as terrorist. This is how it happens here.

True, organisations like the Right Sector, Aidar, or, I don’t know, Azov or some others operating in today’s Ukraine are recognised as terrorist. They are terrorist organisations in their ideology and in fact, in what they do.

As for government bodies, this is not a court decision. You know, politics is a historical thing. The entire Kiev regime today is in one way or another built on the crimes it commits daily, including against its own citizens. But these assessments are historical and political.

For example, they shot down our Il-76 plane with 65 of their military personnel. We were not carrying them there for no reason. The Main Intelligence Directorate and the Ukrainian Armed Forces knew that we were taking 65 military personnel there. And in total, I think, it was planned to transport 190 people. And despite knowing this, they attacked the plane.

I do not know whether they did it on purpose or by mistake, but it is obvious that they did it. First, because two missile launches were recorded from territories controlled by the Kiev regime at 11:10 am. The aircraft was hit within 2–3 minutes. It was almost impossible to react.

Second, under no circumstances could this have been friendly fire, as they say in these cases, because the plane was hit by air defence systems, not by some army MANPADS, but by air defence missiles; this can be seen from the remains of the missiles. But our air defence systems cannot strike our own aircraft by definition: they have IFF systems installed, and no matter how much the operator presses the button, our air defence systems will not work. It is programmed that way. And the remains of the missiles collected on the site show that these were air defence missiles. Therefore, this means that either they were poorly taught, or they do not learn much from their own or are not capable of properly managing these systems. Most likely, these are American Patriot systems, or European air defence systems, most likely French. The exact answer will be given in a couple of days. But in any case, what happened was a crime either due to negligence – I have to use such a legal term, it exists – or on purpose. It was a crime in any case.

They commit crimes like this every day, including against civilians. Speaking about authorities in general, these are political and historical assessments, rather than legal ones. But we are keeping this in mind. We investigate everything, including the latest incident: this last crime related to the destruction of the plane.

You see, it was carrying their own citizens, their servicemen, and they still attacked the plane. We only mourn our pilots, and I convey my sincere condolences to their families. They reported the strike in the last second.

We have the black boxes, everything will now be collected and revealed. I will ask the Investigative Committee to make public all the circumstances of this crime to the maximum extent possible, so that people in Ukraine know what really happened. The investigative authorities are working on every case and are increasing the volume of work.

To be continued.