Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated on Friday that his country’s forces are advancing “along the entire line of contact” in Ukraine, denied that his government was responsible for starting the conflict and claimed that the end of the war depends on Kiev and the West.
These controversial statements were made during his annual press conference in Moscow amid renewed diplomatic efforts by the United States and Europe to find a negotiated solution to the conflict that began in February 2022.
“Our troops are advancing along the entire line of contact and I am sure that we will see new successes this year,” the Russian president said. According to the AFP agency, Russia currently controls about 19% of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed in 2014.
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The Kremlin chief also insisted that the outcome of the conflict was “entirely in the hands” of Ukraine and its allies: “The ball is in our rivals’ court, starting with the head of the Kiev regime and its European sponsors.”
In this context, he referred to the European Union’s decision at its last summit not to use Russian assets frozen in the bloc to finance a loan to Ukraine. The president said using those funds would be “a robbery” and warned it would have “serious consequences.” More than 200 billion euros from the Russian central bank remain frozen at the Euroclear financial institution based in Brussels.
From Warsaw, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia would “inevitably” attack Poland in the event of a defeat in Ukraine. Putin rejected this warning and assured that Moscow had no intention of starting hostilities against other countries “if our interests are respected.”
The conflict with Ukraine remains one of the Russian people’s top concerns amid high inflation, Western sanctions and signs of an economic slowdown after two years of growth fueled by military spending.
The territorial issue is the main obstacle to peace negotiations. Although a proposal has circulated from Washington that included territorial concessions from Ukraine, the status of the regions Russia reportedly annexed in 2022 remains unclear, keeping dialogue stalled.
According to a poll by the independent Levada Center, 21% of Russians want Putin to answer when the “special military operation” will end. Another question that came up in this survey concerns the economy. 16% of respondents want to know when their living conditions will improve.
Although the Russian economy has cushioned the impact of Western sanctions on hydrocarbons, structural tensions related to labor shortages and high borrowing costs remain.
In this context, the Central Bank of Russia cut the reference interest rate by half a point, which remained at 16%, in a slowdown scenario: the company forecasts that GDP will grow between 0.5% and 1% this year, well below the 4.3% in 2024.
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