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"Don't you dare touch Kaliningrad," Putin on the end of the war in Ukraine: The ball is in our opponents' court

2025-12-19 21:24:14Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"Don't you dare touch Kaliningrad," Putin on the end of the war
Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin held his year-end press conference, answering questions from journalists and citizens calling in on a wide range of topics - from geopolitics to everyday life.

The carefully organized event was broadcast for hours on state television.

Putin hailed the compromise reached by EU heads of state and government on a loan for Ukraine as a success. He said their plan to seize Russian central bank assets and use them for Ukraine had failed.

At the same time, Putin repeated his warning that the EU's push to use Russian state funds could destroy confidence in financial markets.

“The use of frozen assets of the Russian central bank is theft. The EU will face serious consequences. “Why did they fail?” “The consequences can be brutal for a robber.” Other countries, including oil-producing countries, have invested heavily in the eurozone and are now already hesitant. Sooner or later they will return it. A large part of these assets is held in Belgium in the Euroclear depository. The plan to use these assets to issue a bond for Ukraine failed due to objections from Belgium, Italy and France,” Putin said.

The Kremlin chief claims that Russia did not start the war in Ukraine. "We do not consider ourselves responsible for the deaths of people," Putin responded to an NBC reporter's question about responsibility for the dead Ukrainians and Russians - even in relation to the war next year.

Putin traced the origins of the conflict to the events of 2014, claiming that Russia was simply reacting to the "aspirations for independence" of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Once again, Putin demanded territorial concessions from Ukraine. Among other things, Moscow is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from Donbass - the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. All occupations by its occupying forces, as well as Crimea, which was illegally annexed under international law in 2014, should be recognized as Russian territory. He declared that he saw no willingness to make peace.

Putin said this week that if Ukraine and its Western allies reject Russia's demands, Russia will seize further territory. He told a news conference that the military maintains the strategic initiative along the entire front line and will achieve further successes by the end of the year.

Russia has not rejected any peace efforts, Putin said in response to a question from an NBC reporter in the US. As part of the American plan, Moscow has accepted some "compromises", the Kremlin chief said. "The ball is now completely in the court of our Western opponents."

He saw no readiness from the Ukrainian side for a peace agreement, Putin said in Moscow. However, there were "certain signals" that Ukraine was ready for dialogue.

"We are ready to end this conflict peacefully, based on the principles that I outlined last June at the Russian Foreign Ministry," Putin declared. He was referring to a speech he gave 18 months ago in which he demanded that Ukraine abandon its ambitions to join NATO and completely withdraw from four regions claimed by Russia.

Any attempt to blockade Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast would cause an "unprecedented escalation" and could escalate into a full-scale armed conflict, President Vladimir Putin warned.

The Russian leader made the comments when asked how Moscow would react if European states sought to impose a blockade on the country's westernmost region, an enclave bordered by NATO members Lithuania and Poland.

Putin said he hoped such a scenario would not happen, adding: "If they create threats of this kind, we will eliminate those threats."

"Everyone must understand and be aware that actions of this kind will simply lead to an escalation unprecedented to date... taking it to a completely different level... up to a full-scale armed conflict," he added.

Russian officials have repeatedly warned against any steps that could separate the enclave from the land. Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko has previously said he hoped that “common sense” in Europe would prevent “playing with fire” over Kaliningrad.

Some Western leaders, particularly from Poland and the Baltic states, have previously called for attacks on Kaliningrad in the event of a conflict between Moscow and NATO. Moscow maintains that it poses no threat to the EU or the US-led military bloc and has described such statements as evidence of hostile intent.

Located between Lithuania and Poland, Kaliningrad relies on rail and road links through Lithuanian territory to connect to the rest of Russia. Transit tensions flared after the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine in 2022, when Vilnius began restricting rail transit of goods subject to EU sanctions to and from Kaliningrad. The dispute was later partially resolved and rail traffic was restored.


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