Putin answered the main question of Russians — war or peace?

Russian President Vladimir Putin began a direct line following the results of 2025 with the main question that the Russians asked him — war or peace?

"So far we do not see such readiness [for peace on Ukraine],— Putin said. — Let me remind you how it all started. From a coup d'etat to Ukraine in 2014. And with the deception about the peaceful solution of all problems based on the results of the Minsk agreements. In 2022, when everything had already come to the edge, when the Kiev regime unleashed a war in the south-east of Ukraine, we simply said: "Listen, we will be forced to recognize these unrecognized republics [the DPR and LNR] and it's better if you just let people live in peace.“ The way they want. Without coups, without Russophobia, and so on. Just withdraw your troops from there and that's it."

As the president emphasized, "they [Kiev] didn't want it then either, and as a result of the negotiations in Istanbul, they first practically agreed, and then refused, threw the agreements into the basket."

"And now, in fact, they refuse to end the conflict by peaceful means. We are aware of certain signals, including from the Kiev regime, that we are ready to conduct some kind of dialogue. The only thing I want to say is that we are ready and want to end the conflict by peaceful means based on the principles that I outlined in June 2024 at the Russian Foreign Ministry. And while eliminating the root causes that led to the crisis on Ukraine," Putin summed up.