"The priority is to save lives and allow humanitarian aid to arrive. (…) We are ready to open Russian hospitals over there." Was Putin looking to calm things down in Ukraine? No. The "over there" he was referring to is the Gaza Strip, where the situation is "catastrophe" according to the Russian president. He went so far as to make a comparison. "Look at the special military operation [in Ukraine] and look at what's happening in Gaza and see the difference. There's nothing like that in Ukraine."

This brief detour into the Middle East, which lasted less than an hour of his more than 4-hour television speech, on Thursday, December 14, sent a clear message: that Russia is a country that intends to play a leading role on the world stage. It plans to "move forward" as Putin put it in the first few seconds of his speech, and refuses to be bogged down in Ukraine.

Moreover, the situation on the front is good, according to the way Putin summed it up. "The enemy announced a major counter-offensive. Nothing has worked. (…) Along almost the entire front, our forces are improving their positions." As for the positions taken by the Ukrainian army on the left bank of the Dnieper River, in the Kherson region, Putin assured that it will be wiped out "soon."

The mere fact of holding this traditional end-of-year TV show, which was canceled in 2022 and combined press conferences with exchanges with the public, was in itself a signal. Putin is in a better position today than he was a year ago. He thinks that time is now on his side. His army may not have made any strategic gains on the ground, but it did stand up to the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the summer. Generally, Moscow has also weathered the shocks caused by the war.

Russia has a "sufficient margin of safety" thanks to the "strong consolidation of Russian society," the "stability of the country's financial and economic system" and the "increase in the country's military capabilities," insisted Putin. He flooded viewers with flattering economic statistics.

Buoyed by this display of confidence, the Russian leader reaffirmed that his objectives remained unchanged. "Let me remind you of what we talked about: the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine, its neutral status," he said. Then he added that the solution "will be negotiated or achieved by force." According to him, 617,000 soldiers are currently deployed on the Ukrainian front, including 244,000 citizens enlisted in the "partial" mobilization of September 2022.

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