Vladimir Putin said the war in Ukraine had made Russia “much stronger” and denied that the fall of his key ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria had hurt Moscow’s standing, as he held a marathon year-end press conference and television call-in seeking to project confidence at home and abroad.
Casting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as “illegitimate”, Putin said he was ready to meet Donald Trump and discuss peace proposals to end his full-scale invasion, but he repeated his hardline stance that Moscow would keep control of Crimea, together with the four Ukrainian regions he laid claim to in 2022.
