Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Russians that peace with Ukraine will only take place "when we achieve our objectives".
He is holding his first major news conference since he launched his first full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Mr Putin has combined his annual "direct line" phone-in with Russians with an audience of journalists.
The annual event did not take place last year.
Mr Putin begins the marathon event by speaking about the importance of Russian sovereignty.
"The existence of our country without sovereignty is impossible. It will simply not exist," he tells state-controlled Channel One host Yekaterina Berezovskaya.
Mr Putin says Russia's economy is strong for a time of war and the topic of conversation quickly moves to Ukraine.
Mr Putin says that "there will be peace [in Ukraine] when we achieve our objectives". Those "objectives do not change", he says, listing "denazification, demilitarisation and its neutral status". These are themes he has highlighted from the start of the war.
He says about 486,000 people have so far signed up voluntarily as contract soldiers, as well as 300,000 people called up last year.
A classified US intelligence report estimated this week that 315,000 soldiers had been either killed of wounded since the war began - which it said was almost 90% of Russia's military personnel at the start of the invasion.
The number of questions submitted by Russians to Mr Putin reportedly exceeded two million.
Mr Putin's phone-ins can last up to four hours and this event coincides with a flurry of questions from Russian and international journalists.
