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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was confident of victory in Ukraine, where it has waged an almost four-year military invasion.
He stated this in his New Year’s Eve address broadcast on Wednesday.
The televised speech was first aired in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, the country’s first region to welcome 2026.
In his remarks, Putin urged Russians to stand behind troops fighting in Ukraine, saying the nation believed in its forces and their eventual success.
He extended New Year greetings to soldiers and commanders in Ukraine, adding that millions of Russians were thinking of them as they marked the holiday.
“Millions of people across Russia, trust me, are thinking of you,” he said.
The war in Ukraine has exacted a heavy human toll, with military casualties on both sides widely estimated to run into tens, or even hundreds, of thousands.
December 31 also marked 26 years since Putin rose to power. He assumed the presidency on New Year’s Eve in 1999 after then-president Boris Yeltsin resigned.
The annual address, a tradition dating back to the Soviet era under Leonid Brezhnev, remains a fixture of Russia’s holiday celebrations.
It airs on state television shortly before midnight across the country’s 11 time zones and is watched by millions of households.
