Пресс-секретарь Кремля Дмитрий Песков принимает участие в пресс-конференции президента России Владимира Путина после заседания Государственного совета по молодежной политике в Москве, Россия, 22 декабря 2022 года. Спутник/Валерий Шарифулин/Пул через REUTERS
Kremlin: Russia open to Ukraine talks, but won't give up annexed regions
Reuters: The Kremlin on Tuesday repeated its position that Russia was open to negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict, but that new "territorial realities" could not be ignored.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russia would never renounce its claims to four Ukrainian regions that Moscow declared it had annexed last year following referendums that Kyiv and the West slammed as bogus and illegal.
"There are certain realities that have already become an internal factor. I mean the new territories. The constitution of the Russian Federation exists, and cannot be ignored. Russia will never be able to compromise on this, these are important realities," Peskov said on Tuesday.
Russia proclaimed it had annexed the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions last September in a grand ceremony in Moscow.
The regions were subsequently named as constituent subjects of the Russian Federation in a constitutional decree.
Peskov said Russia was open to negotiations if Kyiv accepted Moscow's control over the regions.
"With a favourable state of affairs and the appropriate attitude from the Ukrainians, this can be resolved at the negotiating table. But the main thing is to achieve our goals," he said.
Russian forces do not fully control any of the four regions, and Moscow says it is fighting to "liberate" them from the control of Ukrainian neo-Nazis.
In World
-
European powers, including Britain, France and Germany, said on Wednesday they had to be part of any future negotiations on the fate of Ukraine, underscoring that only a fair accord with security guarantees would ensure lasting peace.
-
The amount of Russian and Iranian oil held on ships has hit multi-month highs as harsher U.S. sanctions reduced the number of buyers, leaving fewer tankers available to deliver cargoes and driving up crude costs, trade sources and analysts said.
-
Russia's President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, the first direct communication between the two since Sharaa's forces overthrew Moscow's ally Bashar al-Assad in December.
-
A senior official in Ukraine’s anti-terrorist centre has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia, say security chiefs.
Leave a review