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‘It’s daylight robbery,’ the Russian leader hit out
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Europe has failed to “rob” Russia of its frozen assets, President Vladimir Putin has said in the aftermath of a deal to offer Ukraine a massive €90bn interest-free loan.
“It’s daylight robbery,” the Russian leader said at an end-of-year conference on Friday. “Why can’t this robbery be carried out? Because the consequences could be grave for the robbers.” He compared the countries involved to “burglars”.
Talks in Brussels went deep into the night before finally achieving a breakthrough, but an agreement was not reached on the use of the £185bn worth of assets.
Instead of drawing the funds from frozen Russian assets, the cash for the loan will be raised through joint borrowing by 24 of the EU’s 27 countries, excluding Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia.
After 15 hours of talks in Brussels, EU Council president Antonio Costa said the agreed-upon loan would meet Ukraine’s military and economic needs for the next two years.
A proposal to immediately pay for the loan using the Russian assets held in Brussels was shelved due to objections led by Belgium and Hungary.
Vladimir Putin on Friday held his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow.
The Kremlin presents the annual event, which typically runs for at least four hours, as proof that Putin is attentive to the concerns of ordinary people and willing to answer questions on any subject.
It said more than 2.5 million questions for this year’s event had been sent in from across Russia.
A woman today asked Putin about aliens in outer space, and a young boy wanted to know if he drove round Moscow incognito to get information about what was happening. Putin replied that he did, sometimes.
Messages sent in also flashed up on a big screen in the hall, among them critical comments on water quality, social media bans and internet outages.
Ukraine’s security service is reporting that drones have struck a Russian oil rig in the Caspian Sea.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Russia has had some indication Ukraine is ready for “some kind of dialogue” at his annual press conference in Moscow.
“So far, we don’t really see such readiness (from Ukraine) … But still we see … certain signals, including from the Kyiv regime, that they are ready to engage in some kind of dialogue,” he said.
“The only thing I want to say is that we have always said this: we are ready and willing to end this conflict peacefully, based on the principles I outlined last June (2024) at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by addressing the root causes that led to this crisis.”
President Vladimir Putin believes that President Donald Trump is right to sue the BBC over an edited clip of one of his speeches used during a Panorama episode.
Trump is suing the BBC for $10bn over a clip that appeared to indicate he encouraged protesters to storm the US Capitol.
The corporation issued an apology but the American leader is adamant he will pursue litigation.
Russia is ready to end the conflict with Ukraine “immediately”, if they are given security guarantees, according to President Vladimir Putin.
He reiterated that Russia does not want to attack Europe and proposed a “theoretical” idea that the countries could “unify” to be more powerful than the United States.
Putin emphasised that it would be willing to work with the UK and Europe if treated as “equals”.
Polish president Karol Nawrocki and president Volodymyr Zelensky are holding a joint press conference.
Nawrocki has reiterated the “united” position of both countries in matters of security.
“This visit proves that in strategic matters, our strategic cooperation in security matters, Poland, Ukraine, the countries of the region, countries filled with democratic values, are united, and this has never been in doubt,” the Polish leader said on Friday.
President Vladimir Putin has accused Nato of making “false” promises about its expansion ambitions.
He reiterated that Russia perceives the conflict with Ukraine as defensive and that the country needs to “remove the initial reasons for the conflict” to ensure a “permanent and stable” peace.
“We did have cooperation with Nato,” he said.
“The promises that were given to us about non-expansion were false. There were certain waves of Nato expansion… this caused our concern in the past and causes us concern now.”
Ukrainian aerial drones have attacked a Russian shadow fleet tanker in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, according to Ukraine’s SBU security service.
An official told Reuters that drones hit the vessel, dubbed the Qendil, in waters more than 2,000 kilometres (1,243 miles) away from Ukraine. The tanker was empty at the time of the attack.
The set design of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s press conferences shows an outline of Russia that includes several contention regions.
It appears to include Crimea and Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, four of the eastern Ukrainian regions annexed in 2022.
Ukraine and Russia have carried out a new exchange of bodies of dead soldiers, officials for both countries said on Friday.
The remains of 1,003 Ukrainian servicemen and the bodies of 26 Russian soldiers were handed over, according to Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky.
Investigators and experts will conduct the necessary examinations to identify the individuals, said officials.
Pictures of large trucks and people dressed in protective overalls were pictured checking bodies encased in white bags.
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