Putin to send message to U.S., Europe over Ukraine ambitions at end-of-year news conference

Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to send a signal to the United States ?and European powers on Friday over his ?appetite for peace or more war in Ukraine when he speaks at a marathon end-of-year news conference. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, triggering the biggest ?confrontation ?between Moscow and the West since the Cold War. U.S. President Donald Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly complained that ending the Ukraine war has been one of the elusive foreign policy aims of his presidency. Putin,…