Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the Russian military is advancing across the battlefield in Ukraine, expressing confidence that it will achieve its objectives if Ukraine does not agree to a deal meeting his demands.
“Our troops are advancing all across the line of contact, faster in some areas or slower in some others, but the enemy is retreating in all sectors,” Putin said at his end-of-year live news conference, saying his troops have “fully seized the strategic initiative.”
His press conference this year comes amid the Trump administration’s continued push for a ceasefire deal. The efforts have not yielded results, as Putin continues to demand that Ukraine agree to significant concessions, including giving up territory that Russia has not militarily conquered yet. He has not shown a willingness to soften on his demands.
Putin often overemphasizes Russia’s military successes to shape public opinion on the global stage and make it seem like its victory is inevitable.
Russian forces have conquered less than 1% of Ukrainian territory during the 2025 calendar year to date, the Institute for the Study of War told the Washington Examiner.
President Donald Trump‘s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law and former Middle East adviser, Jared Kushner, are leading the U.S. negotiating team.
Following two days of intense discussions between the United States, Ukraine, and other European officials last weekend, a U.S. official said, “We believe that we probably solved for I don’t know it could be 90%, literally 90%, of the issues between Ukraine and Russia. But there’s some more things that have to be worked out.”
Putin has also tried to divide the U.S. from its European allies, who more strongly support Ukraine over making a deal at any cost.
Those talks are ongoing as all sides attempt to resolve the remaining hurdles, which include possible land concessions.
Putin wants all of the areas within the four regions Russia annexed in 2022, and Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory. Russia held referendums in September 2022 in the four regions that were internationally regarded as fraudulent.
Russia does not control some of the areas it annexed, but it has demanded that Ukraine give up that land in the negotiations.
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Putin has also demanded that Ukraine put a cap on the size of its military, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has flatly refused over concerns that it will leave his country vulnerable to future attacks from Russia. Putin also wants Ukraine to abandon any effort to join the NATO alliance.
Earlier this week, while speaking to an audience of senior military officers during an annual meeting, he said, “If the opposing side and its foreign patrons refuse to have a substantive discussion, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historic lands by military means.”
