The Kremlin said Russia had not changed its terms for reaching a peace agreement with Ukraine since 2024, when President Vladimir Putin announced that Kiev must withdraw its troops from the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims as its own and publicly abandon its intention to join NATO, reports "Reuters".
In a television interview over the weekend, Putin said Russia would continue its offensive to establish full control over Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. He rejected what he described as a new Ukrainian proposal to limit the fighting in the more than four-year-old war.
Putin said Ukraine had proposed a mutual cessation of long-range strikes and that the fighting be limited to the four areas that Russia considers its own. Kiev calls Moscow's claims an illegal seizure of Ukrainian territory.
"Our position is well known. In fact, our position has not changed. It was set out two years ago by our head of state in a speech at the Foreign Ministry. It is well known to the Kiev regime, it is well known to American negotiators, and it is completely consistent," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov also said that Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko discussed the war in Ukraine during their meeting over the weekend before Lukashenko left for China for talks.