Vladimir Putin, the leader of Russia, and Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, have both conducted press conferences to conclude a trying year of fighting in their countries and to outline their military goals for 2024.
In the words of the leaders themselves, this is what we may anticipate from the grueling struggle next year:
Closure
Many in Moscow had anticipated that Russia would easily take over Kyiv in 2022, but with Russian elections just around the corner, over two years later, a confident Putin took the stage last week and said that “victory will be ours”.
“There will be peace when we achieve our goals,” he averred.
“No one knows” when the conflict will stop, but Zelensky seemed less hopeful when he conceded that the war’s trajectory could be affected by the US presidential election in 2024, a major ally and weapons supplier.
Front line mobilization
This year, neither side has made any notable progress, and experts claim that Russia and Ukraine do not currently have the resources to launch a big offensive.
Russia has secured a foothold on the east bank of the Dnipro River, and Ukraine now seeks to establish itself as strongly as possible along the front.
Putin downplayed these successes, telling journalists that Russian soldiers were ordering the “extermination” of Ukrainian forces.
Round of deliberation
Negotiations as a means of ending the conflict have been rejected by both Moscow and Kiev. Talks with Russia are out of the question for Zelensky as long as Putin holds the reins of power, and he stated as much during his briefing.
“I see only arrogance and murder in their rhetoric,” Zelensky said.
Although Putin frequently states that Moscow is amenable to talks, he stated at his televised briefing that peace would not come to Ukraine unless it was “de-militarized” and “de-Nazified.”
Restructuring the military
In addition to developing home manufacturing of weapons and ammunition, Zelensky stated that he wants Ukraine to make one million drones, which are a crucial weapon in the conflict.
However, he added that, as of just now, he had turned down the army’s proposal to enlist up to 500,000 people.
Putin, who wants to win over Russians before the elections in March, said at his news conference that there would be no new Russian mobilization in 2019.
According to him, Moscow willingly enlisted 486,000 soldiers into the army in 2023, and starting the following year, there would be a greater push to expand the military.