Putin: Believes in victory in Ukraine

TT

Published 14.17

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin in a picture from Tuesday. Photo: Mikhail Metzel/AP/TT

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes in a victory in Ukraine, he says in his traditional New Year's speech.

Putin urges Russians to "support our heroes" who are fighting in Ukraine.

- We believe in you and our victory, he says in the speech and wishes all soldiers in Ukraine a happy New Year.

The speech was first broadcast in Kamchatka, which is located in the far east of Russia, in the country's first time zone to switch to 2026. In the following hours, the speech will also be broadcast in the country's other ten time zones further west.

On New Year's Eve, it will be 26 years since Vladimir Putin took power in Russia after Boris Yeltsin's resignation in 1999.