President Vladimir Putin has branded Ukraine's attempt to crush a Moscow-backed separatist uprising in the east of the country a "punitive operation" and said Russia was fighting for its right to exist.
"It is indeed a punitive operation. But it is being conducted by the current Kiev authorities," Putin told his annual end-of-the-year news conference, side-stepping a question from a Ukrainian journalist.
The reporter from Ukraine's UNIAN news agency stole the limelight at the news conference, accusing Putin of conducting a punitive operation in the east of Ukraine.
The reporter also asked how many regular troops the Russian president had sent in to prop up the separatist insurgency there and what would he say to families of those sent to Ukraine.
Putin conspicuously chose not to reply to the Ukrainian journalist's question on Russian regular troops, simply saying:
"All people who perform their duty following the call of the heart or participate in the fighting voluntarily including in the southeast of Ukraine are not mercenaries because they are not getting any more for it."
The Russian strongman also ratcheted up his anti-Western rhetoric, accusing Moscow's partners of treating other countries like their underlings.
"Our (Western) partners have not stopped. They decided that they are winners, they are an empire now and the rest are vassals and they have to be driven into a corner," Putin said, referring to raging tensions with the West over Ukraine.
He accused the West of wanting to tame the legendary Russian bear, saying the real goal was not to punish Moscow for seizing Crimea from Ukraine in March, but to neutralise the country's independence.
"As soon as they have torn out its claws and teeth, then the bear won't be needed at all - they will make a stuffed dummy out of it.
"This is not about Crimea, the thing is that we are protecting our independence, its sovereignty and its right to exist."
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