Putin signals no compromise on Ukraine at annual press marathon

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia’s terms for ending the war in Ukraine were unchanged from those he laid out in June 2024, offering no sign of compromise as the United States pushes hard for a settlement to the conflict.

Putin set out the Kremlin’s stance in the opening moments of his annual end-of-year press conference, a marathon event that typically runs for some four hours.

He said he did not see readiness on the Ukrainian side to agree a peace deal, but there were “certain signals” it was willing to engage in dialogue.

What Russian President Putin said

ON UKRAINE PEACE TALKS

“So far, we don’t really see such readiness (from Ukraine) … But still we see … certain signals, including from the Kyiv regime, that they are ready to engage in some kind of dialogue. The only thing I want to say is that we have always said this: we are ready and willing to end this conflict peacefully, based on the principles I outlined last June (2024) at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by addressing the root causes that led to this crisis.”

ON THE SITUATION AT THE FRONT

“In general, immediately after our troops drove the enemy from the Kursk region, the initiative, the strategic initiative, passed entirely into the hands of the Russian armed forces. What does this mean? It means that our troops are advancing along the entire line of contact, in some places faster, in others more slowly, but in all directions, the enemy is retreating.”

ON EUROPEAN EFFORTS TO SEIZE RUSSIAN ASSETS

“Theft is not the appropriate term. Theft is the clandestine appropriation of property, but in our country, they’re trying to do it openly. It’s daylight robbery. Why can’t this robbery be carried out? Because the consequences could be grave for the robbers.”

“This isn’t just a blow to their image; it’s an undermining of trust in the euro zone, and the fact that many countries, not just Russia, but primarily oil-producing countries, store their gold and foreign exchange reserves in the euro zone. Once this starts, it can be replicated under various pretexts…”

“Besides the image loss, there could be direct losses related to the fundamental foundations of the modern financial world order, which is why it’s difficult. And most importantly, no matter what they steal, and no matter how they do it, they’ll have to give it back eventually. But above all else, we will defend our interests, primarily in the courts. We will try to find a jurisdiction that will be independent of political decisions.”

ON THE ECONOMY AND BUDGET

“GDP growth is 1% … this is a deliberate move by the government, the central bank, and the entire country’s leadership, related to inflation targeting. It should be noted that, overall, this objective is being met, as the goal was set to reduce inflation to at least 6%, but by the end of the year, it will likely be below 6%—5.7-5.8%. However, the slowdown in economic growth is a deliberate step, the price paid for maintaining the quality of the economy and macroeconomic indicators.”

“We are managing to maintain a good rate of real wage growth. It’s not as high as last year, but still … growth will be 4.5%.”

“The federal budget deficit is 2.6% of GDP, but next year we expect it to be 1.6% of GDP and should be no more than 1.5% of GDP over the next three years. This is a good indicator, considering that our public debt remains very low, one of the lowest among developed economies.”

“The only thing I want to say is that we have always said this: we are ready and willing to end this conflict peacefully, based on the principles I outlined last June at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by addressing the root causes that led to this crisis,” Putin said.

ASSESSMENT OF BATTLEFIELD SITUATION

He was referring to a speech 18 months ago in which he demanded that Ukraine abandon its ambition of joining the NATO military alliance and withdraw entirely from four regions that Russia has claimed as its own territory.

Putin laid out a detailed assessment of the battlefield situation, saying Russia was advancing along the entire front line and Ukrainian forces were in retreat.

Ukraine says Russian gains are incremental and have come at the cost of huge casualties. It says it is fighting back in locations such as Kupiansk in the northeast, which Russia said it had captured last month.

Kyiv has long called for a ceasefire and said it does not believe that Putin is serious about seeking peace. Russia says it is Ukraine that is refusing to come to the table.

After nearly four years, the war stands at a delicate juncture as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes for a peace deal on terms that Ukraine and its European allies fear will be slanted towards Russia.

Russia says it is waiting to hear from Washington how its draft peace proposals have been modified following consultations between the United States, Ukraine and the Europeans.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has complained that ending the war in Ukraine has been one of the elusive foreign policy aims of his presidency.

UKRAINE DOMINATES EARLY STAGES OF PRESS CONFERENCE

The state of the war – and the question of when it will end – dominated the first phase of the “Results of the Year” event, which Putin has held in different formats most years since 2001.

He typically uses it to field dozens of questions on everything from price rises to nuclear weapons.

Some are posed by journalists and others by ordinary Russians, who can submit them online or by phone. The Kremlin said it had received more than 2.6 million questions in advance of Friday’s event.

Attendees had to undergo a COVID test – still routine for meetings involving Putin, 73, several years after the end of the pandemic.

In a move greeted with satisfaction in Moscow, European Union leaders decided on Friday to borrow cash to fund Ukraine’s defence against Russia for the next two years rather than use frozen Russian assets, sidestepping divisions over an unprecedented plan to finance Kyiv with Russian sovereign cash.

But they said they reserved the right to use Russian assets to repay the loan if Moscow fails to pay war reparations to Ukraine.

Putin casts the war as a watershed moment in relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence.

An end to the war could reconnect Russia – which holds some of the world’s biggest reserves of natural resources from oil and gas to diamonds and rare earths – with the U.S. just as it seeks to refocus on competition with China, with whom Putin has forged a “no limits” partnership.

A continuation of the war could lead to many more deaths, drain the economies of Ukraine, Russia and European powers, and raise the chances of the war escalating.

U.S. officials say that Russia and Ukraine have suffered more than 2 million casualties, including dead and wounded since the war began. Neither Russia nor Ukraine discloses credible estimates of their losses.