Russia should have launched its full-fledged invasion of Ukraine earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a year-end news conference Thursday.

Putin made the remarks while taking calls from audience members and reporters during his yearly address, during which he also stated that he would speak with deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about missing American journalist Austin Tice. The Russian president appeared on stage for more than four hours Thursday, where he was asked what he would have done differently nearly three years after invading Ukraine. “Knowing what’s happening now, back in 2022, I would’ve thought the decision ought to have been taken earlier,” Putin said Thursday, according to the BBC.

“We ought to have started getting ready for those developments, and the special military operation, before.” Putin has repeatedly blamed the length of the conflict on former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who encouraged Ukraine to fight and not give up. Putin stated that he is “ready” for any prospective conversations with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, but that the two men have not spoken regently

“You asked what we can offer, or what I can offer, to newly elected President Trump when we meet,” Putin stated in response to an NBC News query. “First of all, I’m not sure when we’ll meet. Because he hasn’t mentioned anything about it. I haven’t spoken to him for almost four years. Of course, I am prepared for this at any time, and I will be available for a meeting if he requests it.” NBC News also asked the Russian leader about Tice, an American freelance journalist who went missing in Syria in August 2012. In August, US President Joe Biden urged the Syrian government to release Tice, 12 years after he was kidnapped.

Syria has stated that its government had nothing to do with Tice’s disappearance. Putin said Thursday he will discuss the issue with al-Assad, who departed Syria earlier this month after the Jihadist rebel group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham took control of the nation. “I have not seen President Assad when he arrived in Moscow,” Putin stated in answer to an NBC News query regarding Tice. “But a person went missing 12 years ago, we understand what [the] situation was there back then.”