Here's an update from our news desk on the intensified fighting in the east:
More Clashes Near Donetsk Kill Two More Ukrainian Troops
Shelling, mortar fire, and heavy gunfire continued in eastern Ukraine, with at least two more government soldiers killed amid the latest outburst of fighting in the region.
Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, said in a statement on December 23 that three troops had also been injured in the past 24 hours.
Lysenko said the fighting occurred amid an offensive by Russia-backed separatists southeast of the city of Donetsk.
The latest clashes erupted on December 18 near the town of Svitlodarsk, just outside the strategic railway junction of Debaltseve.Lysenko said eight troops in all have been killed since.
Insurgents, meanwhile, have accused the Ukrainian government of attacking their positions.
Fighting between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian government troops has killed more than 9,750 people since the conflict began in April 2014, according to United Nations figures.
On December 21, Ukrainian government representatives held talks with insurgent leaders, overseen by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The sides agreed on a new cease-fire that is set to begin on December 24.
With reporting by AP and AFP
More from Putin's press conference:
Putin placed blame on the European Union for the developments that have unfolded in Ukraine since pro-European protests pushed President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February 2014, after he scrapped plans for a landmark agreement to tighten EU-Ukraine ties.
He criticized the sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and EU in response to Russia's seizure of Crimea and support for the separatists.
"We did not initiate the worsening of our ties with the EU. It was the EU that imposed sanctions against us, and we had to react with our own restriction," he said, referring to a Russian ban on most foods from the EU.
"I have always said that only joint [West-Russia] efforts can tackle terrorism," he added. "But how such efforts can be united if we have sanctions?"
Putin also suggested that he sees the United States as interfering with Russia's relations with the EU, saying Moscow wants the EU to be "a reliable and strong partner...without a third country's involvement."
More on Ukraine from Putin:
Putin said that an existing four-country format for talks aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine -- involving France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine -- "does not operate super-efficiently" but that "there is no alternative."
"Should we lose this mechanism, this tool, the situation will deteriorate and will do so rather rapidly," he said.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
More from Putin's annual press conference:
Putin voiced confidence that Russia's relations with Ukraine would improve "sooner or later."
Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 after sending in troops and staging a referendum considered illegitimate by most countries, and backs separatists whose war against Kyiv's forces has killed more than 9,750 people since April 2014.
Putin said a bridge under construction between Russia and Crimea would help develop commercial and humanitarian links between the two countries once relations improve -- a remark likely to irritate Ukraine, which demands that Russia return the peninsula to its control.