Russian President Vladimir Putin put a positive spin on a spate of recent setbacks Thursday, insisting in a marathon news conference that Russia had accomplished its mission in Syria and was winning the war in Ukraine.
And he nodded to the sea change expected in Washington, saying he had not spoken to US President-elect Donald Trump in over four years, but was “ready” for potential talks with him, amid expectation that the new administration in Washington will push for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine.
Thursday’s event – an annual display of Putin’s mastery of the minutiae of domestic policy as well as of geopolitics – consists of a public Q&A session combined with a public phone-in.
Russia’s war on Ukraine was a major topic, with Putin keen to emphasize Russia’s recent gains in grinding war of attrition.
“You asked what we can offer, or what I can offer to the newly elected President Trump when we meet,” Putin said in response to a question from NBC’s Keir Simmons. “First of all, I don’t know when we will meet. Because he hasn’t said anything about it. I haven’t spoken to him at all in over four years. Of course, I am ready for this at any time, and I will be ready for a meeting if he wants it.”
Asked whether Russia would be in a weaker negotiating position because of recent setbacks in the Middle East and on the battlefield in Ukraine, Putin replied, “You said that this conversation will take place in a situation when I am in some weakened state… And you, and those people who pay your salaries in the US, would very much like Russia to be in a weakened position.
“I adhere to a different point of view. I believe that Russia has become much stronger over the past two or three years. Why? Because we are becoming a truly sovereign country, we are already hardly dependent on anyone.”
Trump has denied having multiple calls with Putin since leaving office, contradicting a report by veteran journalist Bob Woodward in a recent book that the pair had held “maybe as many as seven” conversations since 2021.
In response to a question on how Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – which in Russia is referred to euphemistically as the “special military operation” – was going, Putin said the “situation is changing dramatically,” as the war approaches its third year.
“Movement is going on along the entire front line, every day.”
He continued: “And as I already said, we are not talking about advancing 100-200-300 meters. Our fighters are taking and returning territory in square kilometers. I want to emphasize - every day.”
His answer comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged in an interview published Wednesday that Ukraine lacks the strength to take back all its territory occupied by Russia.
Russian forces failed to capture the capital Kyiv in the early weeks of the war, but the war in the east of Ukraine has turned into a costly and brutal war of attrition.
Ukrainian forces remain in the southern Kursk region following a surprise incursion launched in August, but have slowly ceded ground to Russian forces there. Asked about Kursk by a caller from the region, Putin declined to commit to stating when Russia would recapture the whole region – but promised it would happen.
“I cannot and do not want to name a specific date when they will push [the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of the Kursk region],” he said.
“Our guys are fighting, there is a battle going on right now, and serious battles. It is unclear why, there was no military sense in the Ukrainian Armed Forces entering the Kursk region, or holding on there now as they are doing, throwing their best units there to be slaughtered. But nevertheless, it is happening.”
Kyiv has said North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian troops there have suffered heavy losses. Earlier this week, a senior US official said North Korea has seen “several hundred” casualties — both killed and wounded — in the Kursk region since sending thousands of forces to Russia in October.
Putin did not mention North Korean troops in his reply to the caller.
‘Assassination attempt’
Also during the conference, Putin mentioned an embarrassing setback for Russia’s powerful security services: the killing of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the man who headed Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protections forces, in Moscow on Tuesday morning. Putin condemned the targeted killing as a “terrorist act” by Ukraine.
“As far as the murder of Gen. Kirillov is concerned… You just said - an assassination attempt,” Putin said in response to NBC’s Simmons.
The Russian general was wanted by Ukraine for using chemical weapons. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office has said Britain will not mourn Kirillov, who was killed along with an aide.
“We have never heard from the Western journalistic corps condemnation of such terrorist attacks,” Putin said, claiming without evidence that Ukrainian forces have targeted civilians in Russia’s Kursk region. “But I am grateful to you at least for the fact that you remembered this.”
Again responding to Simmons, Putin said he would enquire about the whereabouts of Austin Tice, the American journalist missing in Syria, confirming for the first time that the ousted Syrian dictator found refuge in Russia after the collapse of his regime.
“I haven’t met with President [Bashar al-]Assad since his arrival in Moscow, but I plan to do so, I will definitely talk to him,” Putin said. Putin appeared to cast doubt on whether Assad could account for Tice.
“But you and I are adults, we understand, right?” Putin said. “12 years ago, a man disappeared in Syria, 12 years ago! We understand what the situation was there 12 years ago, there was active military action, and on both sides. Does President Assad himself know what happened to this American citizen, a journalist who was doing his journalistic duty in a combat zone? Nevertheless, I promise that I will ask this question to those people who control the situation on the ground in Syria today.”
Putin also boasted about the capability of the Oreshnik, a new nuclear-capable ballistic missile that Russia recently fired at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. He repeated an earlier threat to strike Ukraine again with the missile, suggesting that it be fired at Kyiv as a test of Western-supplied air defense equipment.
The annual year-end Q&A with Putin has become something akin to a public ritual in Russia. Social media posts suggest that schools, kindergartens, and public institutions across Russia and occupied territories in Ukraine organized collective viewings of the broadcast. Videos and photos showed educators and students, including young children, gathered in front of screens. Regional governors from regions bordering Ukraine publicly displayed their interest in the event, sharing similar photos on their official Telegram channels.
This year’s conference comes amid mounting economic challenges, ongoing tensions over the war on Ukraine, and uncertainty as Trump prepares to take office in the United States. But Putin remained on message, assuring his domestic audience that Russia, despite setbacks, was prevailing on all fronts.
CNN’s Mariya Knight and Haley Britzky contributed to this report.
