“We are advancing on all directions,” Putin says when asked about events in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces still hold territory. The situation there is “changing dramatically,” he said.

And as if to underscore that point, he mentions the military memorabilia given to him by troops who have been at the front. Two service members come up to the stage to hand him a banner from the soldiers of the 155th Marines Brigade of the Pacific Fleet and hold it aloft behind him.

When asked by a resident of Kursk's Bolshesoldastsky district about the destroyed villages there, Putin said it was certain that Ukrainians will be pushed out and everything will be rebuilt, and that their push into the region was pointless in the first place.

But Putin added that he will not “make any predictions about specific date” about when either of those things will happen.

When asked how Russia's economy remains afloat, Putin gives a characteristically laconic response.

"When everything is stable, we are bored, but when something major happens, when bullets are flying around — we are scared," the Russian president says.

While he points to what he says is record low unemployment of 2.3% and growing wages, he concedes that "inflation however is a worrying sign."

Still, he adds, "the situation is stable."

Putin takes the stage at 12:12 p.m. Moscow time. Jumping straight into questions, he talks about the Russian economy, telling his audience that "everything stands and falls with economy."

Despite inflation in the country at 9.3%, Putin says the "Russian economy is doing good," adding that wages and real disposable income have grown, with growth next year estimated to be around 3.9%.

Russia’s central bank may have to further increase interest rates above the current level of 21% that it raised the rate to in October.

After being subject to a Covid test 24 hours earlier, hundreds of journalists and some ordinary Russians stood in line on a freezing Moscow street as they waited to go through security and into the exhibition hall that began filling up two hours before the event began.

It’s an event that’s designed by the Kremlin to look democratic and to present Putin as a man of the people. Some attendees have arrived wearing traditional garb, hoping to ask about domestic issues like food prices.

The whole event is so carefully choreographed that even Putin, who is notoriously late for meetings, is expected to be on time.

Ksenia Sobchak, 43, is in the audience. She's the daughter of St. Petersburg’s first democratically elected mayor and she stood against Putin in Russia's 2018 election. Sobchak says she wants to be in Russia. But the country has changed over the past six years and she may be asking herself by how much.

Ahead of the conference, Russian citizens have submitted more than 2 million questions through phone calls, texts and social networks, according to the state-run news agency Tass. 

The questions are expected to range from Russia’s war in Ukraine to domestic issues such as rising prices, inflation and health care. 

Earlier this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said questions would be collected from Russians in advance to allow the maximum number of people to lodge their appeals, in line with previous years.

Ahead of Putin's speech, at least one person was injured by Ukrainian missile and drone strikes on Russia's Rostov region, officials said today.

Acting Rostov Gov. Yuri Slyusar said a fire had been triggered at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery after Ukraine had struck the region with at least 13 missiles and dozens of drone. He added that one person was injured.

The refinery has been repeatedly targeted by Ukraine which has been trying to take out parts of Russia’s oil infrastructure, which funds a significant chunk of the country's war economy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding his end-of-year news conference today.

Ordinary citizens will also have a chance to call in with their questions, while journalists — some of whom lined up for hours in freezing temperatures to get into the Moscow event — will also get to put their queries to the Russian leader.

Putin has heavily limited his interaction with the foreign media since fighting began in Ukraine in February 2022.