What we're covering
• EU leaders announced a multi-billion dollar funding plan for Ukraine’s economy and military for the next two years – with the package funded by borrowing cash, rather than tapping into frozen Russian assets held in the bloc. The deal, struck early Friday, offered a lifeline to Ukraine, which was rapidly running out of money.
• Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin hosted his end-of-year news conference where the Russian president signaled there’d be no compromise on Ukraine. He said the EU’s plan to funnel frozen Russian assets to Ukraine was “robbery.”
• Russia’s top economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev is expected to travel to Miami for a briefing on the results of peace talks between the US, Ukraine and Europe held in Berlin this week, a Russian source with knowledge of the trip told CNN.
Sarcasm and criticism flicker on screen during Putin’s annual press conference
Russia’s annual press conference, known as “Direct Line with President Vladimir Putin,” unfolded on Friday as a familiar, carefully choreographed performance: lengthy answers, a reassuring tone and a sustained effort to portray Putin as firmly in control yet personally engaged with ordinary Russians.
Throughout the four-and-a-half-hour event, Putin emphasized his connection to public concerns, citing messages from citizens, officials and frontline troops, while sprinkling in personal remarks meant to underline warmth and empathy, at one point even saying he was “in love.”
At moments, that smooth narrative was punctured by brief flashes of sarcasm and criticism on large screens inside the hall. Viewer messages, visible only for seconds, ranged from biting remarks about the event itself, like “This isn’t a Direct Line, it’s a circus,” to pointed questions about living standards and political accountability: “Looking at life in the country, it’s strange that United Russia keeps winning a majority. Maybe elections are a fiction?”
Others complained about deteriorating internet access, which has worsened markedly over the past year amid heightened security measures linked to increased drone attacks on Russian territory. “When will ‘normal’ internet be restored? It’s impossible even to send questions to the president,” one message read.
Most messages, however, were neutral or complimentary in nature, or focused on innocuous topics such as who might succeed Putin.
The appearance of uncomfortable questions has become a recurring feature of the event. Similar critical messages surfaced in previous years but went unanswered, with some questioning whether their brief visibility is deliberate, as a form of managed dissent intended to create an impression of openness without posing a real challenge. The messages flash briefly on screen but are never voiced aloud or put directly to Putin.
Their fleeting presence offers a limited and carefully controlled glimpse of public frustration, contrasting with an exchange that remains tightly managed, despite its appearance of spontaneity.
A "disaster" avoided: Ukrainian experts praise EU loan to fill financial black hole
Kyiv will be relieved that the European Union reached a deal early Friday to help fund Ukraine’s defense against Russia through 2027, according to a Ukrainian lawmaker and an economist.
“A financial disaster has been avoided. The decision is extremely important for Ukraine,” Danylo Hetmantsev, a member of Ukraine’s parliament and chair of its committee on finance, taxation and customs, told CNN.
For months, the EU had agonized over whether to tap into the Russian assets – worth nearly $250 billion – that it froze after Moscow launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The EU agreed overnight to loan Ukraine 90 billion euros ($105 billion), without using the frozen assets.
Serhiy Fursa, a Kyiv-based economist, told CNN that 50 billion euros ($59 billion) would cover Ukraine’s budgetary needs, leaving a surplus to purchase weapons and other military equipment.
“Overall, Ukraine can consider itself satisfied. Europe has taken over the financing completely for the second year in a row,” he said, now that the United States has paused financial assistance.
Fursa said it would have been a sign of the EU’s weakness if its members had been unable to agree on a loan for Ukraine.
Putin spoke for more than 4 hours. What did we learn?
Vladimir Putin’s marathon news conference has just finished. As usual for this annual event, the Russian president spoke for more four hours.
Here are the key points:
• Hardline war aims: Putin began by saying that Russia remains “ready and willing” to end the war in Ukraine peacefully. He then spoke of the Ukrainian towns and cities that he claimed Russia was on the verge of capturing, and stressed that Moscow would fight on until all of its conditions were met. Russia’s claims of battlefield gains have been heavily contested by independent monitoring groups and Ukrainian officials.
Putin said he set out those conditions in a speech in June 2024, which demanded that Ukraine fully withdraw from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and abandon its ambition to join NATO.
• Ball in West’s court: Putin hit back at claims that Russia was prevaricating during US-mediated peace talks to buy itself time to grind down Ukraine. He said that he agreed to certain compromises during his summit with US President Donald Trump in Alaska in August, and so “the ball is entirely in the court of our Western opponents.”
It was not clear what compromises Putin was referring to. On the key question of territory, Russia has shown no sign of budging: It still wants the entirety of Donetsk and Luhansk, which it has been unable to capture by force in full.
• Russia wants “respect:” In a curious moment, Putin said he was willing to work with the UK, US and Europe – “but on an equal footing, with respect for each other.”
“Respect” was a common theme in Friday’s news conference. Asked whether there could be another “special military operation” – the Kremlin’s euphemism for its 2022 all-out invasion of Ukraine – Putin said it would not launch another in the future, provided it is treated with “respect” by the West, and that NATO does not expand eastward.
• Elections in Ukraine: Putin also said that Russia was willing to consider a brief halt to its strikes on Ukraine, to allow Kyiv to hold an election.
He framed this as a gesture of goodwill, saying that Ukraine did not afford Russia the same courtesy when the Kremlin staged elections in the parts of Ukraine it had illegally annexed. Those elections – where voters were marched to polling stations by armed soldiers – were condemned internationally as a sham.
• Frozen asset “robbery:” Speaking just hours after the European Union decided against using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defense through 2027, Putin said the policy would have amounted to “robbery.”
He warned of “severe” consequences if Brussels revives the now-shelved plan in the future.
Putin says Russia could pause strikes on Ukraine if it holds elections
Russia is willing to consider a temporary pause on strikes on Ukrainian territory if Kyiv holds elections, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his annual year-end press conference Friday.
The Russian president, who has long baselessly claimed that the government of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is illegitimate, added that: “The government in Ukraine must become legitimate in the end, and this is impossible without holding elections.”
Zelensky was democratically elected in 2019 and Ukraine does not allow elections to be held while martial law is in place, as it has been since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
However, in order to resolve the issue of territorial concessions in a peace settlement with Russia, Zelensky said last week that the Ukrainian people would ultimately have to decide whether Ukraine cedes land to Russia, either through elections or a referendum.
Putin says there will be no new “special military operations” if Russia is treated with “respect”
Russia will not launch new “special military operations” so long as it is treated with “respect” by the West, President Vladimir Putin told his annual news conference Friday.
Russia euphemistically calls its 2022 all-out invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation.” What was meant to be a brief campaign has dragged into a nearly four-year-old war.
Asked if he plans to launch another “special military operation” in the future, Putin said that depends on how Russia is treated by the West.
“They said there wouldn’t be any eastward movement by even one inch—that’s a direct quote. So what? As they say here, they simply screwed us over, disregarded our security interests,” the Russian president said.
NATO has an open-door policy, meaning countries can apply to join if they so desire. They then must demonstrate that they have met certain political, economic and military criteria. Finland and Sweden – two famously neutral countries – are the alliance’s newest members, feeling the need to bolster their security in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Putin says Trump is “right” to sue BBC over misleading speech edit
Vladimir Putin said Friday that Donald Trump is right to sue the BBC over the way it edited a speech the US president made before the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump sued the BBC on Monday for $10 billion in damages over edited clips in a documentary that aired shortly before the 2024 US presidential election.
Asked a question by the BBC during his annual news conference, Putin said he did not want to “put salt in your wounds,” but said: “I think that President Trump is right” to bring a claim against the British broadcaster.
The BBC has apologized to Trump, admitted an error of judgment and acknowledged that the edit gave the mistaken impression that he had made a direct call for violent action. But it said there is no legal basis to sue.
Ukraine claims to hit a tanker belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet in the Mediterranean for the first time
Ukraine claimed Friday to have struck a tanker belonging to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, a Ukrainian Security Service source told CNN.
Footage obtained by CNN shows a drone striking the tanker, followed by multiple explosions. The ship appeared to continue sailing after the strikes.
The Ukrainian source said that the tanker “suffered critical damage” in the strike and “cannot be used for its intended purpose.”
“At the time of the special operation, the Russian ship was not carrying any cargo and was empty,” the source added. “Accordingly, this attack did not pose any threat to the ecological situation in the region.”
Russia has built up this so-called shadow fleet since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. These vessels carry Russia’s oil from its Baltic and Black Sea ports despite Western sanctions, earning the Kremlin hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
And Russian personnel with links to the country’s military and security services have engaged in spying in European waters while working covertly on these ships carrying Russian oil, Western and Ukrainian intelligence sources exclusively told CNN.
Read more about our exclusive investigation into that here.
Man proposes to girlfriend at Putin's press conference
More than three hours into Vladimir Putin’s marathon news conference, we’ve just had some light relief.
A man in the audience used his question to the Russian president to propose to his partner of eight years.
He then asked a question about what support the government can provide for young families.
About an hour later, it was announced that Olga said yes.
Putin says Russia willing to work with Europe, UK and US – but on “equal footing”
President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia is willing to work with Europe, the United Kingdom and United States, but on equal terms.
Asked by the BBC about his vision for Russia’s future, Putin gave a long, winding response, ending with a claim that Europe’s future must be “with Russia.”
The Russian president cited Helmut Kohl, the first Chancellor of a unified Germany, who argued in the 1990s in favor of integrating Russia into the Western-led order, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Putin claimed that Kohl had said “that the future of Europe, if it wants to remain an independent center of civilization, must necessarily be together with Russia.”
Kohl, however, argued at the time that the newly created Russian Federation should be given economic assistance and welcomed into the Western fold to aid its transition to democracy.
Putin says cooling of Russian economy in 2025 resulted from “conscious” decision to tame inflation
Russia’s economic slowdown from 4.3% growth in 2024 to around 1% this year stemmed from a “conscious” decision by the country’s central bank to bring down inflation, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The economic growth this year – that is something that the government had planned, and the central bank has consciously planned,” Putin stressed. “We target inflation, and … we are managing to solve this task.”
Putin said Russia’s central bank, which is independent and tasked with ensuring price stability, had aimed to reduce inflation to at least 6% by the end of 2025. Inflation had neared double digits in 2024.
Earlier Friday, Russia’s central bank cut the key rate of interest by 50 basis points to 16% – down from a high of 21% in late 2024 – saying it will keep monetary conditions “as tight as required to return inflation to the target.”
Putin declined to comment on the decision, but said that to avoid another surge in inflation, it is necessary to be “careful and cautious.”
Putin claims Russia has made compromises in Ukraine peace talks
President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia had been asked to make compromises on Ukraine during his summit with US President Donald Trump in Alaska in August, and had agreed to some, stressing that the ball is now “entirely” in the court of the West and Ukraine.
Putin said he believed Trump is making “serious” and “sincere” efforts to end the war in Ukraine. He claimed that he had “practically agreed” to Trump’s proposals in Alaska, without providing details.
Russia has, however, refused to drop its demand that Ukraine completely withdraw from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including from the parts that Russia has been unable to occupy in more than a decade of fighting.
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the US had suggested that Ukraine withdraw from parts of those two regions – known as the Donbas – to create a “free economic zone.” Zelensky said the US viewed this as a compromise between the Ukrainian and Russian positions.
Soon after, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov reiterated that Russia still aims to occupy the entire Donbas region.
Russia returns 1,000 soldiers' bodies to Ukraine
With Putin midway through his annual press conference, let’s bring you some developments from Ukraine too.
Russia returned 1,003 bodies, which Moscow says belong to Ukrainian soldiers, according to the Ukrainian organization that oversees the treatment of prisoners of war.
“Law enforcement investigators, together with expert institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, will carry out all necessary examinations and identify the repatriated bodies,” the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a Telegram post.
The Kremlin confirmed the exchange and said it had received the remains of 26 Russian soldiers, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, a fresh wave of Russian airstrikes overnight injured two civilians and left residents in one of Odesa’s largest residential districts without electricity, water, and heat, Ukrainian officials said. Thousands of residents have been without power for nine days in Odesa, following intense Russian strikes last week which targeted energy infrastructure.
Ukraine’s own overnight airstrike into Russia injured one child in Belgorod, a city near the Ukrainian border, and caused power outages in several villages, Russian officials
Putin says shelved EU plan to funnel frozen Russian assets to Ukraine was "robbery"
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the European Union’s now-shelved plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defense was “robbery,” warning of “severe” consequences if the bloc revives the scheme.
Asked about Europe’s discussions to use the frozen assets, Putin said “theft is the wrong word” to describe the policy.
For months, the EU had agonized over whether to tap into the Russian assets it froze after Moscow launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The value of those assets totals nearly $250 billion.
But, after talks that stretched late into the night, EU member states were unable to reach a consensus and resorted to an alternative plan. Rather than using the frozen Russian assets, Europe announced early Friday that it would loan Ukraine 90 billion euros ($105 billion) to finance its economy and military through 2027.
The EU said it reserved the right to use Russian assets to fund the loan.
The Russian president said that using the frozen assets to fund Ukraine’s defense would “undermine trust” in the Eurozone.
Belgium raised concerns about dipping into Russian frozen assets
The Belgian government had raised a number of concerns about using Russia’s frozen assets – chiefly that Russia would view it as an illegal repurposing of its sovereign assets.
Euroclear, a securities depository in Belgium, holds most of the Russian assets immobilized in the European Union. Estimates of the amount in the country vary – in September, the European Parliament put it at €180 billion ($211 billion). An estimated €176 billion of that has now turned into cash as bonds have matured.
The European Commission had tried to bring Belgium on board by asking EU member states to provide guarantees for the loan. These will cover “any member state if it is forced to pay the claim from Russia,” Valdis Dombrovskis, a senior commission official in charge of economic policy, said.
But the Belgian government deemed those guarantees “too limited,” worrying that they won’t cover its other potential costs, such as those of fighting a lawsuit brought against Euroclear, said Peter Van Elsuwege, a professor of EU law at Ghent University in Belgium.
Belgium had also insisted on protection against any countermeasures Russia may take against Euroclear’s assets in Russia and beyond.
Putin casts doubt on Zelensky’s visit to frontline Ukrainian town
Vladimir Putin was just asked about Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Kupiansk, a frontline town in the Kharkiv region that Russia claimed in November to have fully captured.
On December 12, the Ukrainian president posted a video of him wearing a bulletproof vest, standing in front of a pock-marked “Kupiansk” sign. CNN geolocated the video to a site around 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the Russian line of control at the time, according to battlefield mapping from DeepState.
Earlier that day, Ukraine’s Khartiya military corps said it had liberated some northern neighborhoods in the town.
Asked about Zelensky’s video, the Russian president said: “He’s an artist, a talented artist.”
Putin appeared to taunt Zelensky, saying, if the city is under Ukrainian control: “Why stand on the threshold? Come inside.”
In an update Thursday, the Institute for the Study of War, a think-tank based in Washington, DC, said Putin has “continued to exaggerate Russian successes” on the battlefield. It said there was “mounting evidence” that Ukrainian forces have liberated a “significant portion” of Kupiansk.
No sign of compromise from Putin on Ukraine in annual press conference
Vladimir Putin was first asked about the war in Ukraine: Will there be peace, or will the conflict continue?
The Russian president began his response by stressing that Russia is ready and willing “to finish the conflict by peaceful means.”
He clarified that a peace settlement must be “based on the principles” he laid out in a speech during a meeting with the senior staff of Russia’s Foreign Ministry in June 2024. In that speech, Putin demanded that Ukraine completely withdraw its troops from the entire territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and abandon its plans to join NATO.
After saying that Russia wants to end the conflict peacefully, Putin then said that Russia’s troops are “advancing across the whole of the front line.”
He listed multiple towns and villages that he claimed Russian troops were close to capturing, including Krasny Liman in the eastern Donetsk region.
Russia’s recent battlefield claims have, however, been contested. Moscow said in November that it had captured Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the frontline town last week, saying that Ukrainian forces had retaken parts of the town.
What to expect from Putin’s annual marathon press conference
For more than two decades, Vladimir Putin has held an annual press conference, presenting a carefully managed view of his policies to both international and domestic audiences.
Over the course of several hours today, he will take dozens of questions from Russian citizens, some of which are pre-selected and some live, spanning practically every topic from the economy and social policy to Russia’s war in Ukraine and its relations with the West.
He can often meander off script into lengthy digressions about history, geopolitics, the economy or Western policies.
We’re particularly watching what he says about Moscow’s war in Ukraine, and his response to the ongoing peace talks.
NOW: Putin begins his marathon annual news conference
We’re underway. Vladimir Putin has just kicked off his annual televised news conference, which typically lasts for three or four hours.
We’ll be bringing you the key lines from the Russian president.
What we're watching today
There are several events taking place today that could offer some insight into the ongoing peace talks which are seeking to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
- In Russia, Vladimir Putin is holding his annual end-of-year televised news conference
- Ukrainian President Vololdymyr Zelensky will meet with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, as he seeks to shore up support from a key ally
- European leaders digest the last-minute, $105 billion loan they agreed early this morning to keep Ukraine’s economy and military from a budgetary blackhole
Why EU leaders want to borrow from frozen Russian funds and what's on the table
Leaders of the European Union’s 27 member states failed to agree to a historic loan using frozen Russian state funds on Friday.
EU leaders announced a multi-billion dollar funding plan for Ukraine’s economy and military for the next two years – with the package funded for now by borrowing cash and not tapping into frozen Russian assets held in the bloc.
The idea of using frozen assets isn’t a new one. It was floated from the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The EU immobilized the local assets of the Russian central bank in 2022 as part of sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Until now, the bloc has been using the interest from the assets – which are mostly bonds – to finance some of its support for Kyiv.
On December 3, the European Commission unveiled a proposal to go further and effectively use the assets themselves to extend a loan to the war-torn country.
The EU’s executive arm referred to the assets’ main part, or principal, as well as the interest and other income from them as “cash balances”, as the bonds mature and become due for repayment, they are turned into cash.
The commission noted that, because of the EU sanctions, any payments of principal and income from the assets to Russia’s central bank are prohibited, and it argued that the resulting cash balances are not the bank’s property.
The Russian central bank assets held in the bloc are worth about €210 billion ($246 billion).
