Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at his annual end-of-year event in Moscow on December 19, 2025.

Putin Projects Confidence On Ukraine War While Repeating Demands In 4 1/2-Hour Press Event

19 Dec 2025, 09:12 by Mike Eckel and , Steve Gutterman · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Join

Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced confidence about the battlefield situation in Ukraine at a marathon appearance before the press and public, giving no signal that Moscow is ready to make substantial concessions to end the full-scale war he ignited nearly four years ago.

Over the course of a 4 1/2-hour, nationally televised event on December 19, Putin reinforced Russia's largely unyielding position on its invasion of Ukraine while also delving into granular, hyper-local issues and pre-selected gripes from citizens nationwide.

During his more than 25 years as Russia's preeminent political figure, Putin has used tightly choreographed spectacles to project an air of leader, military commander, and father figure, who has restoring Russia to a position of respect on the global stage.

This year's event was a combined televised news conference, along with average Russians submitting questions -- and gripes to the Russian president.

This year's event -- called Results Of The Year 2025 -- came at a critical moment for Putin and the Kremlin. In Ukraine, Russia has failed to achieve his objective of subjugating Kyiv, even as it grinds down Ukrainian forces and pummels Ukraine's civilian population.

However, negotiators from Moscow, Washington, Brussels, Kyiv, and elsewhere are closing in on a potential peace deal, building on and adjusting a US plan that was seen as heavily favorable to Moscow when it emerged into the public eye in November.

US officials are expected to meet separately in Miami in the coming days with Ukrainian and Russian representatives, and possibly Europeans as well.

Russian forces have been creeping forward, grinding down Ukraine’s outmanned and frequently outgunned defenses in multiple places along the 1,100-kilometer (660-mile) front line. Putin has repeatedly said in recent months that Russia will achieve its goals by force if diplomacy does not produce a satisfactory peace deal.

During the December 19 event, Putin painted a particularly rosy picture of Russia’s advances, asserting that Moscow’s troops had nearly captured the Kharkiv region city of Kupyansk, encircling Ukrainian soldiers there.

"Our troops are advancing along the entire line of contact. In some places at a faster pace, in others more slowly. But in all directions the enemy is retreating," he said just minutes into the televised appearance.

The Kupyansk claim is highly debatable; Ukrainian forces staged a counterattack on Russian advances last month, and this week, Ukraine’s commander in chief claimed Kyiv controlled most of the city. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a defiant trip to the city last week, taking selfies to try and prove the city had not fallen.

Putin also highlighted Russian advances in Pokrovsk, a Donetsk region city that Moscow has prioritized for nearly a year and is in danger of falling to Russia. Ukraine claims they still control the city center and northern districts.

"I am certain that by the end of the year, we will see new successes" on the battlefield, he said.

Russia has resisted calls by Kyiv and the West for a cease-fire for months and has made the push for peace difficult by signaling it was not prepared for compromise. But Putin suggested that it is Ukraine that is hampering peace efforts -- in part by refusing to withdraw from the part of the Donetsk region its troops still hold.

"So far we really don't see...readiness" on Kyiv's part to stop the conflict, he said.

In a nod to ongoing diplomatic efforts, he said shortly afterward that Moscow sees "some signals," including from Ukraine's government, "that they are ready for some sort of dialogue."

Russia, he said, is "ready and willing to end this conflict peacefully" based on demands he laid out in June 2024, when he said Ukraine must drop its ambition of joining NATO and withdraw its forces from four regions Russia claims as its own: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson.

He also repeated his insistence that any peace deal must address what he calls the "root causes" of the war, a reference to those demands as well as other conditions that Kyiv says would deprive Ukraine of its sovereignty and ability to defend itself against further aggression.

Putin later said that Russia had been asked to make compromises when he met with Trump in Alaska in August and agreed, adding that "the ball is entirely in the court of our Western opponents, primarily the leaders of the Kyiv regime, and in this case, first and foremost, their European sponsors."

He gave no specifics, and the 28-point US peace proposal that came to light long after the summit was widely seen as favoring Moscow.

European 'Robbery'

Putin spoke just hours after the European Union failed to agree on a proposal to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine's economic and military needs in the coming years. Instead, EU leaders agreed the bloc will provide a 90 billion-euro ($105.5 billion) interest-free loan to Kyiv.

Putin, who has lashed out at Europe repeatedly, called the frozen-assets plan "robbery" and said Russia would defend its interests, "first and foremost in the courts," if the EU returns to the plan in future.

Since Putin's August meeting with Trump, US envoys have held several rounds of separate talks with Ukrainian and Russian officials, with European leaders trying to avert a lopsided deal that favors Moscow.

Trump said this week that he believes "we're closer now than we have been ever" to an agreement.

However, Russia and Ukraine remain far apart on key issues including territorial control, particularly in the Donbas -- the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine, where fighting is fierce.

In talks with the US, Ukraine has been asking for strong, binding security guarantees and seeking to avoid a deal that would compel it to withdraw its troops from the parts of the Donbas that they still hold, among other things.

Another sticking point is control over Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, which Russian forces seized near the start of the invasion.

The event in Moscow, held in various forms most years since Putin came to power a quarter-century ago, comes ahead of expected US talks in Miami -- again separately -- with Ukrainian and Russian representatives.

Putin has given few signs, if any, that Russia is ready for compromises, and some analysts say he sees peace talks as merely part of a process that could help Russia achieve goals ranging from territorial control to the subjugation of Ukraine.

In combative comments to military officials earlier this week, Putin said Russia will take territory that it considers its own by force if any final peace deal falls short of Moscow's demands.

After the US came out with its 28-point proposal, Ukraine and its European backers scrambled to make amendments to protect Ukraine's interests on territory, security guarantees for Kyiv, and other issues.

In 2014, Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and fomented war against Kyiv's forces in the Donbas, which was still simmering when Putin ordered the full-scale invasion.

It has led to the biggest war in Europe since 1945, with some 1.5 million soldiers on both sides killed or wounded. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed or injured in daily Russian drone and missile attacks.

As he has done repeatedly, Putin stressed that Russia has no plans to attack other countries in Europe, saying there "will be no [military] operations against Western nations "if you treat us with respect, if you observe our interests."

Putin took aim at NATO chief Mark Rutte, who said last week that alliance members are "Russia's next target," to suggest that such fears are both unfounded and out of tune with the US view under Trump.

In the White House National Security Strategy issued earlier this month, "Russia is not designated as an enemy or as a target, while the NATO Secretary General is preparing for war with us," Putin said. "What is this? Can’t you even read?"

'Good Tsar, Bad Boyars'

This year's event was little different from part editions: Putin juggled questions about war and geopolitics along with domestic gripes and concerns. The televised event is tightly choreographed by Kremlin organizers, vetting questions and participants, and videos submitted for consideration.

One woman, who said she was a widow from Novosibirsk with two young children, complained to Putin that she had yet to receive a pension from the death of her husband, whom she said was killed in Ukraine.

He apologized to her, and blamed "bureaucratic excesses."

As in past years, some of the questions were also decidedly apolitical, likely intended to humanize Putin in the eyes of Russians. At one point, he was asked by an audience member if he believed in love at first sight, and toward the end he was asked if he himself was in love.

“Yes,” he replied.

Amid a hail of such softball questions, some of the queries that were sent by SMS and appeared on screens in the venue challenged Putin and undermined the air of control, thought it was unclear whether they slipped through or the Kremlin allowed them deliberately.

One texted message used profane language to suggest that Putin's assessment of the battlefield situation was far too upbeat.

Another asked a broader question that went unanswered by the longtime leader: "When will we live well without deceit?"