Sawt Falasteen - Putin says ball in court of Russia's opponents in Ukraine talks

Putin spoke during his annual end-of-year press conference -- a staple of his 25-year rule -- in which he told Russians Moscow was intent on pressing on in Ukraine, striking a confident tone.

The 73-year-old has repeatedly said in recent weeks that Moscow will seize the rest of Ukrainian land he has proclaimed as Russian by force if talks were to fail.

Putin also said he did not feel personally responsible for the tens of thousands of people killed since Moscow launched its 2022 offensive, which has become Europe's worst conflict since World War II.

"We did not start this war," he said, repeating a frequent narrative pushed by Moscow throughout the conflict.

"We do not consider ourselves responsible for the loss of life," he said.

Putin ordered the all-out assault in Ukraine in February 2022, sending troops and tanks towards Kyiv in a bid to topple Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

He also denied dragging out settlement talks and turning down proposals -- claiming Moscow had agreed to "some compromises" -- without going into detail.

"The ball is now fully and completely on the side of our Western opponents... first of all the head of the Kyiv regime and their European sponsors," Putin said.

He also warned of "severe" consequences if EU powers followed through on proposals to use Russian assets frozen in Europe to fund Ukraine's recovery and defence, after Brussels failed to approve a plan to tap the funds during late-night talks.

- 'Our troops advancing' -

Putin said that Russia's recent advances in Ukraine should force Kyiv to agree to a deal.

Listing a string of cities and towns in eastern Ukraine now eyed by the Russian army, the Kremlin chief said he was certain that Moscow will take more settlements before the end of the year.

"Our troops are advancing along the entire line of contact," Putin said.

"I'm sure that before the end of this year we will still witness new success," he added.

The Russian army made its biggest advance in Ukraine in a year in November, AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War showed.

In a message to the West, Putin said that Russia would not attack other countries -- as long as it was treated "with respect" -- without clarifying what he meant.

As he spoke, Zelensky said on a visit to Warsaw that Russia would come for Poland if Ukraine fell.

- Downplays economy woes -

The hours-long televised event -- a mix of questions from the press and call-ins from Russia's 12 time zones -- is a fixture of the Russian political calendar, garnering frenzied media coverage in the weeks leading up to it.

The Kremlin said almost three million people had sent questions to Putin and security was heavy in Moscow during the event.

Putin mused on everything from geopolitics to regional development issues, pledging to intervene to fix the problems of citizens caught up in local bureaucracy.

Speaking on the economy, Putin downplayed the costs of the war for Moscow.

Russia has lived under massive Western sanctions for almost four years, while ramped up military spending had strained the public finances and price stability.

He admitted that the purchasing power of Russian families have taken a hit, promising to "do everything possible to ensure that the Russian economy, the macroeconomy, is healthy and strong, and that the country' economy has such a solid foundation".

Russia's central bank on Friday said it was cutting its benchmark interest rate to 16 percent amid slowing growth.

Putin also claimed Russians were still lining up in droves to register to fight in Ukraine, with around 400,000 new sign-ups this year.

In 2022, hundreds of thousands of Russians fled the country as Putin had announced a mobilisation drive to prop up the Ukraine offensive.

- 'We have no repression' -

Criticism of the Ukraine offensive is banned in Russia under wartime censorship, and Moscow has punished thousands of its citizens for speaking out against it -- either with fines or prison sentences in a crackdown unseen since Soviet times.

But Putin rejected the argument that voicing an alternative point of view to the Kremlin has become dangerous in Russia.

"We have no repression," he said.

All of Putin's political opponents are in exile, prison or dead.

T.Samara--SF-PST