Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a news conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin following a meeting of the State Council on implementing the youth policy in current conditions, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. AP
As the world gears up to ring in the New Year this weekend, Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Kremlin-friendly countries including Turkey, Syria, Venezuela and China.
But Putin will not wish a happy New Year to the leaders of the United States, France and Germany, countries that have piled unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over Putin's assault on Ukraine.
"We currently have no contact with them," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"And the president will not congratulate them given the unfriendly actions that they are taking on a continuous basis," he added.
Putin shocked the world by sending troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.
While Kyiv's Western allies refused to send troops to Ukraine, they have been supplying the ex-Soviet country with weapons in a show of support that has seen Moscow suffer humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.
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