Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow sees no need to make concessions in potential peace talks with Ukraine, insisting Russia is negotiating from a position of strength as it presses battlefield advances and dismisses European efforts to use frozen Russian assets to support Kyiv.
Speaking at the opening of his annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Putin reiterated that Russia is prepared to end the war only on the terms he outlined last year, while accusing the European Union of contemplating what he described as “daylight robbery” by seizing Russian funds.
“We have always said that we are ready and willing to end this conflict peacefully,” Putin said, adding that any settlement must be based on principles he laid out in June 2024 and address what he calls the “root causes” of the war.
Those demands include Ukraine abandoning its bid to join NATO, withdrawing from four regions Russia claims as its territory, limiting the size of its armed forces and granting official status to the Russian language. Kyiv has repeatedly rejected those conditions and says it will never recognize Crimea or other occupied regions as Russian territory.
Putin said he does not see genuine readiness on Ukraine’s part to strike a deal, though he claimed there were “certain signals” indicating openness to dialogue. He also said Russia is waiting to hear how U.S. peace proposals may have been revised following consultations with Ukraine and European leaders, adding that he believes U.S. President Donald Trump is sincere in seeking an end to the conflict.
Nearly four years into the war, fighting has reached what observers describe as a delicate moment, with Washington pushing for negotiations that Ukraine and its European allies fear could tilt in Moscow’s favour.
Putin used the news conference to paint an optimistic picture of Russia’s military position, claiming Ukrainian forces are retreating across the front after Russian troops pushed them out of the Kursk region.
“The strategic initiative has entirely passed into the hands of the Russian armed forces,” he said, asserting Russian advances are continuing “in all directions.”
Ukraine disputes that assessment, saying Russian gains have been limited and achieved at the cost of heavy casualties.
Putin’s remarks came hours after European Union leaders shelved a proposal to use frozen Russian assets as collateral for loans to Ukraine, opting instead to borrow funds directly to support Kyiv’s defence. EU leaders said they reserve the right to use Russian assets to repay the loans if Moscow refuses to pay war reparations.
Putin said the EU backed away from the plan out of fear of legal and financial fallout, warning that such actions would undermine trust in the euro zone.
“Theft is not the right word — it’s daylight robbery,” he said, arguing that confiscating Russian assets would damage Europe’s credibility as a safe place to hold foreign reserves.
The war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has become the largest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War. Putin continues to frame the conflict as a response to NATO’s eastward expansion, a claim the alliance rejects.
U.S. officials estimate that more than two million people have been killed or wounded on both sides since the war began, though neither Russia nor Ukraine publishes verified casualty figures.
As Putin addressed the nation, Russia and Ukraine carried out another exchange of war dead. Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said Moscow returned the remains of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers, while receiving the bodies of 26 Russian troops. Ukrainian officials confirmed the transfer and said forensic teams would begin the process of identifying the fallen.
