Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin responds to EU’s failure to agree frozen assets plan in rambling press conference

It did not reach an agreement on the use of frozen Russian assets.

“They failed to rob, due to grave consequences for the robbers,” he said.

Vladimir Putin has said that Ukraine is struggling on the battlefield and is being forced to retreat in “all directions”.

He said that the “strategic initiative” of the war changed when Russian forces pushed Ukrainian troops out of Kursk.

President Vladimir Putin has arrived at the end-of-year news conference being held in Moscow this morning.

The first question he has been asked is about negotiations with Ukraine.

He said: “We are willing to put an end to this conflict based on the principles we have outlined earlier this year… [but] the root causes of this conflict have to be addressed.”

Putin said that Ukraine is facing “significant losses”, adding that Russia is “ready” for peace.

President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki in Warsaw on Friday.

“We should support Ukraine, and we do,” Nawrocki said in an interview with wp.pl on Monday.

“At the same time, we should… ensure that Ukraine treats Poland as a partner. The conflict has been going on for nearly four years, and I have the impression that we, Poles, often don’t feel like partners in this relationship.”

Former UK ambassador Laurie Bristow has said it will be “impossible” for a peace deal to be reached between Russia and Ukraine while Russian president Vladimir Putin is alive.

“I think for pretty much everyone except for Mr Putin a ceasefire is desirable,” he told the Telegraph’s Battle Lines podcast.

“You cannot solve this conflict while Putin is alive and in power.”

Russian president Vladimir Putin will be holding a marathon news conference on Friday at 9am GMT.

The “Results of the Year” event is an end-of-year event where the leader will field dozens of questions on topics ranging from price rises and his future to nuclear weapons and the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Last year’s conference lasted over four and a half hours. Members of the public are able to ask Putin questions directly.

He is expected to send a message to European powers and the United States as Russia continues to appear dissatisfied with ongoing peace negotiations. It demands territorial concessions that Ukraine is reluctant to agree to.

That solidarity, however, has come under increasing strain, with this week’s EU summit risking the first really significant split – and potentially dire consequences for Ukraine.

Hungary and Slovakia, countries which have kept up sporadic ties with Moscow, were always dissenters on the question of using Russia’s frozen assets. What their dissent concealed, however, was that their objections were widely, if quietly, shared.

Russia has accused European leaders of “pushing illegal moves” after lengthy discussions took place overnight regarding the use of €200bn (£185bn) of frozen Russian assets.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky had urged the EU to use the assets but an agreement could not be reached with Belgium despite 15 hours of deliberations.

“The whole world just watched you fail to bully others into breaking the law,” Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev said in a post on X on Friday, singling out British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

He added that the decision not to use the assets is a “major blow to EU warmongers” and that “law and sanity win… for now”.

Volodymyr Zelensky said he will meet Poland’s president Karol Nawrocki in Warsaw today.

Confirming today’s visit to Warsaw, Zelensky said maintaining relations with Poland was “very important”.

In a nod to rising anti-Ukrainian sentiment among some right-wing voters, the Donald Trump-backed nationalist Nawrocki had insisted that Zelensky should visit Warsaw to thank Poland for its support before he would consider visiting Kyiv.

“We should support Ukraine, and we do,” Nawrocki said in an interview with a Polish news website published on Monday.

“At the same time, we should… ensure that Ukraine treats Poland as a partner. The conflict has been going on for nearly four years, and I have the impression that we, Poles, often don’t feel like partners in this relationship,” he said.

Nawrocki’s approach to relations with Kyiv is much cooler than that of his predecessor Andrzej Duda, and reflects the increasing fractures on the right of Polish politics.

Poland is walking a tight-rope between a larger agreement in Warsaw that aid for Kyiv is crucial to keep Moscow’s aggression away from borders and simmering tensions from Ukrainian refugees in the country.