Reportedly this is the first time Russian President Putin has addressed the public directly since the war in ukraine began. Putin canceled a similar press conference last year. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that peace will not return to ukraine until all of Russia's goals are met. He said this while speaking at his year-end press conference. At the event, which was attended by the public and journalists, Putin said that there will be no peace in ukraine until he achieves his goals and that he remains committed to his goals.
This is the first time Russian President Putin has addressed the public directly since the war in ukraine began. Putin canceled a similar press conference last year. It is worth noting that this event of direct conversation with Vladimir Putin was carefully organized by the Russian government. "Peace will return only after we achieve our goals. Our goals have not changed. I remind you of what I said then. We must free ukraine from the grip of the military," the Russian president said.
"For that we are forced to take other measures including military action. We will accept some conditions. We agreed to them in the talks in Istanbul, but later those agreements were cancelled," he said. There are currently about 617,000 Russian soldiers in Ukraine. About 244,000 of these were reportedly called up to fight alongside professional Russian military forces. Meanwhile, Russian state media reported that more than 10.5 million questions had been submitted for Putin's interview.