PRESIDENT Putin has been humiliated during his first TV call-in show since unleashing war on Ukraine as critical messages appeared on screens telling him to quit.
During the tightly-controlled "Direct Line with Vladimir Putin", a spectacular blunder allowed texts saying "don't run" again for president and "make way for the young" to flash up on screen.
In the marathon press conference expected to last hours, the Russian leader for the first time in years is answering questions from citizens and journalists live on air.
However, negative and anti-Putin messages were accidentally splashed across screens all around the despot.
One read: “Mr President, when will the real Russia be the same as the one on TV?” and another asked “Why is your ‘reality’ at odds with our lived reality?”.
“Don’t run for another term as president,” another fumed. “Make way for the young!”
“This question won’t be shown,” added a fourth. “I’d like to know, when will our president pay attention to his own country? We’ve got no education, no healthcare. The abyss lies ahead...”
Putin did not respond to any of the unwanted questions.
Yet, when asked about the war in Ukraine, a triumphant-sounding Putin said there will only be peace when Russia achieves "our goals".
The ageing ruler, 71, also laid bare chilling plans to brainwash children after securing victory.pledged to press on with his bloody campaign to “de-nazify” Ukraine.
He explained his masterplan to re-educate his enemy’s children after taking a stage-managed call from a Russian soldier on Ukraine’s Donbas frontline.
The soldier - handpicked from 2.1 million questions said to have been sent online to Putin - said: "The defence of the enemy is about to break down" and our "victory is close".
He then prompted his leader to reveal what veterans would do after the war - and whether they could educate schoolchildren.
Putin replied: "It is very, very relevant to the upmost degree and this is absolutely obvious during the turning point in history we are experiencing."
"Wars are not won by generals, they are won by schoolteachers”.
Paranoid Putin - sitting beside the trusty Thermos flask he uses owing to his terror of being poisoned - added it was vital that children should be raised "in patriotism".
The president went on to call his bloodbath in Ukraine “a great tragedy” being fought between "brothers" after calling Ukrainians and Russians "one people".
In a striking move, Putin also added that Russia was ready to build relations with the US, which he called an "important and necessary country".
The dial-in spectacle was cancelled last year due to Putin's blundering war in Ukraine - but it returned today as the tyrant's bid for reelection begins.
The show offers a chance for him to speak to ordinary Russian citizens and reinforce his grip on power ahead of the March 17 election.
Russia has lost 315,000 men in its grinding and bloody war of attrition in Ukraine, US intelligence claimed this week.
But the Russian leader offered a rare glimpse of detail in today's conference, stating that some 244,000 of his troops are currently fighting in Ukraine.
He also claimed that the Kremlin does not need a second wave of mobilisations as 1,500 are signing up to the army every day.
The call centre set up by the Kremlin said that most of the submitted questions concerned utility bills, price increases and payments to the armed forces.
However, a poll conducted by in Moscow earlier this week found otherwise.
The survey in fact discovered that away from the censors, the most popular question was about the war - 19 per cent wanted to ask when there will be peace.
Only 13 per cent were interested in questions over pensions, standards of living and benefits.
Another 10 per cent had no interest in asking Putin anything.
But this followed closely with 9 per cent wanting to ask about the health of their long-term leader.
The Moscow residents wanted to know when the despot would leave office and when he would die.
Their concern follows years of feverish speculation surrounding Putin's ailing health as questions have been raised over his changing facial features and signs of a possible serious illness, including Parkinson's and pancreatic cancer.
“What would I ask? Everyone has already asked everything. You know what I mean. But where are the answers?” one respondent told The Times.
Open criticism of either the war in Ukraine or Putin's regime is risky business inside Russia.
The Kremlin has made it an official offensive to "discredit" the Russian military or spread "fake news" about the conflict.
Only 7 per cent of those surveyed expressed support for the war or Putin, while one in four declined to state what they would ask Putin.
Putin's last end-of-year news conference was in 2021 amid US warnings that Russia was on the brink of sending troops into Ukraine.
The Russian leader has heavily limited his interaction with the foreign media since the fighting began in Ukraine but international journalists were invited to ask questions this year.
State media said that as of last night, about 2 million questions for Putin had been submitted ahead of the broadcast - which is more about spectacle than scrutiny.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to Washington on Tuesday to make an impassioned plea for more US aid and weaponry.
He urged Republicans to show the same courage as Ronald Reagan in the Cold War and unblock the £49billion he needs to fight Russia or the West will be handing Putin “the greatest Christmas gift”.
It comes as Russia said its air defence systems had downed nine Ukrainian drones headed towards the capital, only hours ahead of a highly anticipated news conference.
"On-duty air defence units destroyed and intercepted nine Ukrainian UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) over the territory of the Kaluga and Moscow regions," the defence ministry said as they blamed Kyiv for the attack.
Ukraine has been hitting Russia far behind enemy lines with regular drone attacks since the summer after it launched a fresh but troubled counteroffensive to regain territory lost to Moscow.
The drone assault came a day after Kyiv endured a ";night of hell" as Russia launched a massive missile attack that left 53 injured.
Ukraine's air defences downed ten strikes - believed to be powerful Russian Iskander missiles - but damage was caused by falling rocket debris.
The horror attack damaged a children’s hospital and apartment building and marked the biggest number of injured in the Ukrainian capital in months.
