Putin vows to stop waging war if West respects Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin said there would be no more war in Ukraine if Russia was respected and dismissed as “nonsense” claims that Moscow planned to attack European countries.

In a televised event that lasted nearly four and a half hours, he was asked by the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg whether he would launch new “special military operations” – Putin’s term for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“If you respect us, if you respect our interests, as we have always tried to respect your interests, there will be no action,” he asserted.

Earlier this month, Putin said Russia did not intend to go to war with Europe but was ready “now” if Europe wanted to.

In response to a question from the BBC Russia editor on Friday, Putin added a condition that Russia would not invade further “if you don’t deceive us like NATO’s eastward expansion”.

He has long accused Nato of reneging on alleged promises made by Western countries to then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. Gorbachev later denied the remarks.

The “Straight Line” marathon combined questions from the general public and journalists from across Russia in a Moscow hall, where Putin sat beneath a giant map of Russia covering occupied areas of Ukraine, including Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.

Russian state television claims to have submitted more than three million questions.

Just hours after the marathon, Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles struck the Odessa region in southern Ukraine, killing seven people and injuring 15 others. Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Although the “straight line” was largely staged, a number of critical comments from the public appeared on the big screen, with one describing the event as a “circus”, another complaining about an internet outage, and another highlighting the poor quality of tap water. Authorities blamed the mobile internet outage on a Ukrainian drone strike.

Putin also addressed Russia’s faltering economy, with rising prices, declining economic growth and a rise in value-added tax to 22% from 20% on January 1. A letter to the president read: “Stop all the crazy price increases!”

The Kremlin often uses year-end events to highlight the economy’s resilience, as Putin spoke as Russia’s central bank announced it would cut interest rates to 16%.

Foreign policy issues were intertwined with thoughts about homeland, praise for local businesses, the price of fish and the importance of caring for veterans.

But the issue of Ukraine’s nearly four years of all-out war is never far away and often forms the backdrop to many problems.

Putin again claimed he was “ready and willing” to end the war in Ukraine “peacefully” but showed few signs of compromise.

He reiterated the principles he outlined in a speech in June 2024, when he asked Ukrainian troops to leave four regions partially occupied by Russia and for Kyiv to abandon its efforts to join NATO.

Russia’s first demand is full control of the Donbass in eastern Ukraine, which includes about 23% of the Donetsk region that Russia has failed to capture.

Putin said Russian troops were advancing on Ukraine’s front lines and mocked Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to the front lines in Kupiansk last week, when the Ukrainian leader rebutted Russian claims to have captured the town.

Putin has also called for new elections in Ukraine to be included in peace proposals submitted by U.S. President Donald Trump as part of his efforts to end the conflict. At a press conference, Putin offered to stop bombing Ukraine while the vote took place.

Ukraine’s SBU security service said on Friday it had hit an oil tanker belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Mediterranean for the first time. Putin said this would not lead to the results Kiev wanted and would not disrupt Russian exports.

Most of the questions from the Russian media or public did not seek to challenge Putin, but two were asked by Western journalists NBC’s Keir Simmons and the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg.

When Simons asked Putin if he would be responsible for the deaths of Ukrainians and Russians if he rejected Trump’s peace plan, Putin praised the U.S. president’s “sincere” efforts to end the war but said it was the West, not Russia, that had blocked the deal.

“The ball is in the court of our Western adversaries,” he said, “mainly the leaders of the Kiev regime and, in this case, first and foremost their European sponsors.”

Trump said a peace deal was closer than ever and despite Putin’s apparent refusal to compromise, the US president said he wanted “Ukraine to act quickly because Russia is there”.

The Ukrainian delegation held talks with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami on Friday. German, French and British officials also attended the meeting, which came just days after meeting U.S. officials in Berlin.

Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev is also reportedly expected to arrive in Miami over the weekend.

Putin told the BBC’s Russia editor: “We are ready to work with you – with Britain, with all of Europe and with the United States, but equally and with mutual respect.

“We are ready to cease these hostilities as soon as Russia’s medium- and long-term security is guaranteed, and we are ready to cooperate with you.”

He accused the West of creating enemies outside Russia. He dismissed his decision to launch a full-scale invasion in February 2022, saying: “You are using the hands of Ukrainian neo-Nazis to wage war against us,” before repeating his usual diatribes against Ukraine’s elected leaders.

European intelligence agencies have warned that Russia is just years away from attacking NATO. Mark Rutte, chairman of the Western Defense Alliance, said this month that Russia had escalated covert operations and that the West must prepare for war.

While many of the questions were well-intentioned, including some from children, a journalist from Yakutia in northeastern Siberia highlighted that energy prices have risen tenfold in the past four years. Putin told her that his team would look into alternative energy sources and “keep Yakutia in mind.”

As the telethon drew to a close, Putin was asked a series of rapid-fire questions about his views on friendship, religion, homeland and love at first sight. He said he believed in love at first sight, then added that he himself was in love but gave no further details.