Vladimir Putin has said the war is “changing dramatically” at his annual end-of-year news conference and phone-in. Meanwhile, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has responded to Russian leader’s proposed ‘high-tech missile duel’ with the US in Kyiv.
Thursday 19 December 2024 18:59, UK
By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent
This annual TV marathon is Vladimir Putin’s happy place. He is centre stage, holding court and putting the world to rights.
The unusual format – part press conference, part phone-in – casts him as Russia’s agony aunt-in-chief, fielding calls from ordinary citizens voicing their concerns and complaints.
Those concerns have all been carefully screened, of course, to ensure he isn’t asked anything too controversial. And the general theme is: Vlad’ll Fix It.
Across four and a half hours, the topics ranged from phone scams and pornography to mortgages and the price of butter.
You can read more here…
Vladimir Putin and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev discussed the cooperation of their two countries in the fight against terrorism in a phone call today, the Kremlin has said.
Mirziyoyev expressed his condolences to Putin for the death of Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection troops, and his assistant, who were killed by a bomb in Moscow on Tuesday.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and the security services of Uzbekistan are working together to identify accomplices in the killings, the TASS state news agency reports, citing the FSB.
The Uzbek side is providing “all possible assistance”.
Russia said on Wednesday it had detained an Uzbek man who had confessed to planting and detonating a bomb which killed Kirillov on the instructions of Ukraine’s SBU security service.
Russia foreign minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the Ukraine war with his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis in a phone call today, his ministry has said.
In June, Switzerland hosted a peace conference at the request of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to which Russia was not invited.
But Zelenskyy said he hoped to organise a follow-up meeting with Russia attending.
The Russian statement did not say if Lavrov and Cassis had talked about the proposed second conference but noted that Switzerland was “one of the countries showing interest in facilitating a settlement”.
A Russian missile attack killed three people and wounded three more in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region today, the national police have said.
It added more than 10 private houses were damaged.
What do we know about Kharkiv?
Ukraine chased Russian troops out of most of the Kharkiv region in 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion.
But the city, which is located near the Russian border, continues to face attack from Russian bombs, missiles and drones.
The suspect in the killing of top Russian general Igor Kirillov has been charged with an act of terrorism resulting in the death of a person, a notice on Moscow court’s website reads.
Yesterday, Russia said it had detained a man from Uzbekistan over the killing of Kirillov.
Russia’s Federal Security Services (FSB) said the suspect had told them he was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services and was paid $100,000 (£79,000).
The FSB didn’t name the man but said he was born in 1995.
If convicted, the suspect could be jailed for life.
For context: Kirillov, 54, was killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter outside an apartment block in Moscow, a day after Ukraine opened a criminal case against him.
A Ukrainian official said Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, carried out the attack, in which the senior general’s assistant also died.
Ukraine launched four British Storm Shadow missiles at Russia’s southern Rostov region yesterday, the Russian defence ministry says.
Six US long-range ATACMs missiles were also fired, it added.
Russian forces downed all of the ATACMS and three of the Storm Shadows, the ministry said.
Ukraine began firing the Western missiles into Russia last month after getting permission from the United States and Britain – something Moscow says makes those countries direct parties to the conflict.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says there were no agreements made between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators in Istanbul in 2022.
He was responding to comments made by Vladimir Putin, who said a preliminary deal had been reached but was never implemented and should serve as a basis for future discussions.
“Ukraine did not agree to the ultimatum from the Russian Federation,” Zelenskyy said during a news conference at a European Council meeting in Brussels.
“Ukraine did not sign anything, no agreements existed. There was a response to the ultimatum from the Russian Federation.”
The suspect in the killing of top Russian general Igor Kirillov has been taken to the crime scene in Moscow, state media says.
Lieutenant General Kirillov, who was the chief of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection troops, was killed outside his apartment building on Tuesday by a bomb attached to an electric scooter.
The Izvestia news outlet showed a handcuffed man walking along a road in Moscow, escorted by police.
Russia said on Wednesday it had detained an Uzbek man who had confessed to planting and detonating a bomb which killed Kirillov in Moscow on the instructions of Ukraine’s SBU security service.
“Do you think he is a sane person? Bastards.”
This was Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s response to Vladimir Putin’s proposal that the US and Russia conduct a “high-tech duel” in Kyiv to see whether Western tech could bring down Moscow’s new hypersonic missile.
At an annual news conference in Moscow, Putin suggested both sides select a designated target in the Ukrainian capital to be protected by American defence missiles before Russia attacked it with an Oreshnik missile.
“We are ready for such an experiment, but is the other side ready?” he said.
Vladimir Putin is still speaking at an annual news conference in Moscow.
When asked how the conflict has changed him, Putin says he now jokes less and has almost stopped laughing.
He is asked whether he would do anything differently if he could go back in time to the start of 2022.
Putin says Moscow should have started its so-called Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine sooner than February that year.
Russia should have been better prepared for it, he adds.
The Russian president refers to his invasion of Ukraine and subsequent war as an SMO.
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