Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the annual year-end press conference and telephone reception in Moscow, Russia, December 19, 2025.
Alexander Kazakov via Reuter
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine is not in a hurry to make peace and that if it does not want to resolve the conflict peacefully, Russia will achieve all its goals by force.
President Putin’s remarks on Saturday, reported by the state news agency TASS, came in the wake of a major Russian drone and missile attack, which prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to say that while Kiev wants peace, Russia has signaled its intention to continue the war.
Zelenskiy is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday to seek a resolution to the war that Putin started nearly four years ago with a full-scale invasion of Russia’s small neighbor.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Putin’s remarks.
The Kremlin announced on its Telegram messaging app that Russian military commanders informed President Putin during an inspection visit that Russian forces had captured the cities of Mirnohrad, Rodinske and Artemivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as well as Hlyaipol and Stepnohirsk in Zaporizhzhya region.
The Ukrainian military has rejected Russia’s claims about Khryaipol and Milnohrad as false statements. The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a statement on social media that the situation in both countries remains “difficult,” but “defensive operations” by the Ukrainian military are continuing.
The Southern Army of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced in a telegram that “heavy fighting” continues in Khlyaipol. “However, significant parts of Khryaipol continue to be occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
Verifying claims on the battlefield is difficult due to rapidly changing front lines, with limited access on both sides, tightly controlled information, and media reliance on satellite and geolocation-based footage that can be partial or delayed.
