Peace in Ukraine will only come about when Russia has accomplished its goals, Vladimir Putin said at his end-of-year press conference on Thursday.
The 71-year-old Russian leader reaffirmed Moscow’s goal of “de-Nazification, de-militarization, and a neutral status” for Ukraine”, only two months before the second anniversary of his country’s full-scale invasion of its western neighbor.
“There will be peace when we achieve our goals,” Putin said days after he re-announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election – which could provide him with his sixth term (and third consecutive). “They are not changing. I will remind you what we talked about: the de-nazification and de-militarization of Ukraine, and its neutral status,” he stated, adding that Russian forces were “improving their position on almost the entire line of contact”.
Russia claims that radical nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations still have a strong influence on Ukraine’s government – a claim that both Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected as a flimsy excuse for the invasion.
Additionally, Putin has insisted that Ukraine not become a member of NATO, despite the fact that Russia’s incursion has already pushed Finland and Sweden to submit membership applications. While the former’s entry is pending final clearance from Turkiye and Hungary, Finland was formally welcomed by the military bloc in April.
Putin ruled out the need for a second round of reserve mobilization, stating that there are already around 617,000 Russian soldiers in Ukraine, of whom approximately 244,000 were called up to fight alongside Russian military personnel with professional status.
Putin’s televised speech on Thursday occurred at one of the worst times in the campaign for Ukraine. The counteroffensive launched by Kyiv last summer failed to gain much traction, as Western nations are beginning to lose faith in it as a result of tensions inside the European Union and rising weariness among Republican politicians in the US.
This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had visited Washington, DC to personally argue to President Joe Biden and Congressmen that the help is essential to Ukraine’s military effort. However, he was unable to overcome GOP resistance in Congress in order to approve a fresh assistance package at $60 billion.
Putin seemed to draw attention to this, emphasizing that Russia’s economy and morale had not been negatively impacted by nearly two years of international isolation and Western sanctions. “There is enough for us not only to feel confident, but to move forward,” he said.
Minutes before Putin spoke, a Russian court determined that U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich must remain in custody until at least January 30. According to US officials, the 32-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter, who was arrested in March in Yekaterinburg, is being “wrongfully detained” in Russia. So is Paul Whelan, a corporate security expert from Michigan who was apprehended in 2018. Both are being held on allegedly bogus espionage allegations.
“We’re not refusing to return them,” Putin said Thursday, adding that Washington “must hear us” and make an offer that satisfies Russia.
