MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir&nbsp;Putin&nbsp;will&nbsp;update&nbsp;Russia's&nbsp;political and military&nbsp;elite&nbsp;on the state of what he calls his "special military operation" in&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;on Tuesday with many Russians eager to know what his plans are for the year ahead.
Putin&nbsp;will set out his latest thinking in a&nbsp;speech&nbsp;to members of both houses of parliament and to military commanders and soldiers nearly one year after he sent troops into&nbsp;Ukraine, a decision that triggered the biggest confrontation with the West since the depths of the Cold&nbsp;War.
"At such a crucial and very complicated juncture in our development, our lives, everyone is waiting for a message in the hope of hearing an assessment of what is happening, an assessment of the special military operation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television.
Putin&nbsp;will also give his analysis of the international situation and outline his vision of&nbsp;Russia's&nbsp;development after the West imposed sweeping sanctions on it, the Kremlin said.
The&nbsp;speech&nbsp;is due to begin at 0900 GMT in central Moscow.
The&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;conflict is by far the biggest bet by a Kremlin chief since at least the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union - and a gamble Western leaders such as U.S. President Joe Biden say he must lose.
Russian forces have suffered three&nbsp;major&nbsp;battlefield reversals since the&nbsp;war&nbsp;began but still control around one fifth of&nbsp;Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of men have been killed, and&nbsp;Putin, 70, now says Russia is locked in an existential battle with an arrogant West which he says wants to carve up Russia and steal its vast natural resources.
Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny accused&nbsp;Putin&nbsp;on Monday of destroying&nbsp;Russia's&nbsp;future for the sake of his own personal ambitions.
"The real reasons for this&nbsp;war&nbsp;are the political and economic problems within Russia,&nbsp;Putin's desire to hold on to power at any cost, and his obsession with his own historical legacy," Navalny said.
"He wants to go down in history as 'the conqueror tsar'."
With the West supporting&nbsp;Ukraine, China's position has come under scrutiny in recent weeks.
China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, is due to visit Moscow shortly, and may possibly even meet&nbsp;Putin, as the United States says it is concerned Beijing may be considering supplying weapons to Russia.
Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would risk a potential escalation of the&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;war&nbsp;into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance on the other.
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(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Alison Williams)

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Putin to update Russia's elite on Ukraine war in major speech