Putin brags about Ukraine’s gains and says that Russia is ready for a missile “duel” with the West and the homeland

president Vladimir Putin He bragged that his military operation was in Ukraine It has been strengthened Russia He denied that the overthrow of his main ally, Bashar al-Assad, in Syria had damaged Moscow’s standing, as he held his annual press conference and phone-in program on Thursday.

He used the tightly choreographed event, which lasted more than four hours, to consolidate his power and demonstrate his sweeping control over everything from consumer prices to military equipment.

He claimed that sending troops to Ukraine in 2022 has strengthened Russia’s military and economic power.

“Russia has become much stronger over the past two or three years because it has become a truly sovereign state,” he said. He added: “We stand firm with regard to the economy, and we are working to strengthen our defense capabilities and our military capability is now the strongest in the world.”

Putin, who has been in power for nearly a quarter-century and was re-elected to another six-year term in February, said the military is “moving towards achieving our goals” in what he calls the special military operation in Ukraine.

In response to a question about a new hypersonic ballistic missile that Russia used for the first time last month to strike Ukraine, Putin mocked claims by some Western experts that it could be intercepted by NATO air defenses.

He sarcastically challenged Ukraine’s allies to a “high-tech duel,” noting that Moscow was able to provide advance notice of an attack on Kiev with an Oreshnik missile and see if the West was able to protect the city.

“Let them choose a target, perhaps Kiev, and put their air defense assets there and we will hit it with Oreshnik planes,” he said with a dry smile. “Let’s see what happens.”

Russia is making steady, if slow, progress in Ukraine, but it has also suffered embarrassing setbacks. On Tuesday, Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov He was killed by a bomb Planted outside his apartment building in Moscow – a brazen assassination claimed by Ukraine that brought conflict back to the streets of the Russian capital.

Putin described Kirillov’s killing as a “huge mistake” committed by the Russian security services, noting that they must learn from him and work to improve their efficiency.

Russian forces are also fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, where they have launched an incursion. When asked when they would expel the Ukrainians, Putin said: “We will definitely expel them” but did not say how long it would take.

The programme, which is broadcast live on state-controlled television across 11 time zones in Russia, is usually dominated by local issues, with journalists and ordinary people calling in to ask about high consumer prices and mortgages, meager pensions and a shortage of doctors. But the Russian leader is especially followed for his answers regarding foreign affairs.

In a glee typical of marathon news conferences, he asked audience members to hold up a banner given to him by Marines fighting in Kursk while he spoke about Ukraine.

Putin said he was open to possible talks with US President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to negotiate an agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine.

“If we meet with Mr. Trump, we will have things to discuss,” he said, without elaborating.

Putin said Russia was open to reaching a compromise in possible peace talks on Ukraine.

He added: “Politics is the art of compromise.” We have always said that we are ready for talks and compromises.” Meanwhile, Putin added that the talks should be based on “the situation on the ground,” referring to some of the conditions he had previously put forward.

Putin had previously called on Ukraine to abandon its bid to join NATO and recognize Russia’s gains. Kyiv and the West have rejected these demands.

In his first comments on the fall of Assad, Putin said that he had not yet met the former Syrian ruler, who granted him asylum in Moscow, but he intends to do so. He said he would ask him about Austin Tice, the American journalist who went missing in Syria 12 years ago.

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“We can also ask the question to the people who control the situation on the ground in Syria,” Putin said in response to a question from NBC’s Keir Simmons, who cited a letter he said Tice’s mother wrote to the Russian leader asking for help.

Moscow has sought to establish contacts with the rebels who ousted Assad to secure its diplomatic and military personnel in the country and to attempt to extend the lease of its air and naval bases in the country.

But it is unclear how much influence Russia will have in Syria. The fall of Assad dealt a painful blow to it since it fought Russia for nine years to support him in the ongoing civil war in the country.

However, Putin denied that the events had weakened Moscow, arguing that it had achieved the goal of destroying “terrorist” groups in Syria through an air campaign it launched in support of Assad in 2015. He claimed that the rebel groups that were fighting against Assad had changed and changed. The West is now ready to establish relations with them.

“This means that our goals have been achieved,” Putin said.

He described Israel as the “main beneficiary” of Assad’s fall, pointing to the deployment of Israeli forces in southern Syria. He expressed his hope that Israel would eventually withdraw those forces, but indicated that it was still strengthening them.

He added that Moscow will talk to the new authorities in Syria about the possibility of expanding the presence of Russian bases in the country.

“If we stay there, we will need to do something that is in the interest of the host country,” he said, adding that Moscow had offered to use its air base in Hmeimin and a naval base in Tartus to deliver humanitarian aid. He added: “What these interests could be, and what we can do for them, is an issue that must be carefully examined by both parties.”

He pointed out that the Syrian army did not offer significant resistance to the opposition attack and said that Russia transferred 4,000 Iranian soldiers from the Hmeimim air base to Tehran.

Putin began the session by saying that the Russian economy is on track to grow by about 4 percent this year. He admitted that consumer prices were high, with the inflation rate reaching 9.3 percent, but insisted that the economic situation remained “stable.”

Putin dodged a question about abortion and pornography in Russia, as well as the burial of the body of Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin, which has been on display in a mausoleum on Red Square for nearly a century.

The annual show is as much a spectacle as a press conference. Journalists in the hall near the Kremlin wave colorful banners and banners to attract Putin’s attention.

Russian state media reported that ordinary citizens submitted more than two million questions before the show.