“We believe in your victory and ours,” Putin said in a speech 26 years after he first became president, calling on Russians to support the military.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia believes it will win war in ukraineHis comments in his televised annual New Year’s Eve address came nearly four years after he launched an invasion of neighboring countries.

The Russian leader on Wednesday called on the country to “support our heroes” fighting in Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have been waging a brutal offensive since February 2022.

“We believe in your victory and ours,” he said. Despite coordinated peace talks and continued fierce fighting on the battlefields, the outcome of the conflict is far from certain.

Twenty-six years ago, Putin’s predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, unexpectedly announced his resignation in a New Year’s Eve speech, handing power at the turn of the century to Putin, a former intelligence officer-turned-politician who had been prime minister for several months.

Putin has since remade the country in his own image, making many positive references to the rule of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and trying to undo what he says were years of humiliation after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.

He destroyed the breakaway republic of Chechnya, invaded Georgia, and supported the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, which years later led to the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime through heavy bombing of civilians in opposition areas.

Europe has been concerned that the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine could spread to its borders if it is not ended soon.

Russia share video

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry released a video claiming to show a downed drone involved in the failed attack in ukraine Putin at his residence in Novgorod, northwest Russia, this week.

Kyiv Denies any attack took placeaccused Moscow of fabricating the claim in an attempt to justify further aggression. Russia said it would take a tougher stance in U.S.-brokered peace talks in Ukraine as a result of the attack, which it called an act of “terror.”

Moscow said the alleged attack was thwarted when 91 drones were shot down by air defenses, with no one injured and Putin’s official residence unscathed.

The video, shot in the darkness at night, shows a damaged drone lying in the snow in a forested area. The ministry also released a video in which a man described as a witness said he was a local villager from the Roshino settlement.

Russia claimed responsibility for the attack, drawing attention from the United Arab Emirates, India and Pakistan, who in turn were criticized by Kyiv for involvement in an attack it said never happened.

But Ukraine’s Western allies are more skeptical of Russia’s claims.

On Wednesday, the EU’s top diplomat Kaya Karas accused Russia of trying to “sabotage” the peace talks with its “baseless claims.”

“Russia’s claims that Ukraine has recently attacked key Russian government installations are a deliberate distraction. Moscow’s aim is to undermine real progress towards peace made by Ukraine and its Western partners,” she posted on X.

“No one should accept the baseless claims of the aggressors, who have been indiscriminately targeting Ukrainian infrastructure and civilians since the beginning of the war.”

Injured children in Odessa

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said six people were injured after Russian drones struck apartment buildings and power grids in the southern city of Odessa overnight.

A toddler and two other children were injured and four apartment buildings were damaged in the bombing, according to regional military administration chief Ole Kiper.

Power company DTEK said two of its energy facilities suffered serious damage. “Returning the equipment to working condition will take time,” DTEK said in a statement.

The attack came as Russia’s top general said his troops were advancing in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions of northeastern Ukraine, seeking to expand what Moscow says is a buffer zone in the region by 2026, Russian media reported.

Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said Putin has ordered the expansion of the so-called buffer zone near Russia’s borders next year, RIA Novosti reported.

Putin has repeatedly described the buffer zone as a way to push Ukrainian troops away from Russia’s borders, while Kyiv has rejected the concept, saying it is an idea used by Russia to justify further incursions into Ukrainian territory.