President Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference began shortly after noon on Friday, once again folded into his televised “Direct Line” call-in show, a highly choreographed event that typically stretches on for hours.
The Kremlin leader immediately dived into questions about the war in Ukraine at the start of the press conference, repeating accusations that authorities in Kyiv are uninterested in agreeing to a settlement to end the fighting as the conflict approaches its four-year mark.
“Still, we see, feel and know that there are certain signals, including those coming from the Kyiv regime, indicating that they are prepared to engage in some form of dialogue,” Putin told the large gathering of journalists, suggesting that ongoing peace negotiations led by the Trump administration may lead to some kind of breakthrough in the near future.
However, Putin was unwavering in his committment to address what he and other Russian officials routinely call the “root causes” of the war in Ukraine. He also insisted that Russia’s armed forces were making significant gains across the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, including the claimed capture of the city of Kupiansk.
Ahead of the broadcast, state media reported nearly three million messages had been submitted from across Russia and beyond for Putin to address during the call-in segment, which is designed to showcase the president as personally engaged with the everyday concerns of ordinary Russians.
This year’s moderators are Pavel Zarubin, a state television journalist known for his weekly program on Putin and Kremlin politics, and Yekaterina Berezovskaya, a presenter on Channel One.
This is a developing news story.
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