The Kremlin said the war in Ukraine had entered a different paradigm due to what he called "inhuman acts of terror" committed by Kiev's military against civilians, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the statement to reporters when asked about Russia's massive nighttime strikes on Ukrainian cities that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 100.
Moscow said it was stepping up its strikes on military targets in Ukraine in retaliation for what it described as a devastating Ukrainian drone strike on a student dormitory in the controlled by Russia's Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine last month, killing 21 people. Ukraine denies attacking the dormitory and says it attacked a drone command center in the area.
“If the Kiev regime is deliberately carrying out such inhuman acts of terror against civilians, against children, then this is a completely different paradigm,” Peskov said.
He pointed out that Russia is systematically attacking Ukrainian military targets in Kiev and other cities and that the peace process in Ukraine is stalled. However, Russia is in contact with the United States, the Russian presidential spokesman added. Washington has long tried to broker a deal between Kiev and Moscow.
“We remain open to peace talks,“ Peskov said, repeating the Kremlin's position, which Ukraine takes as a surrender demand, that the war could end immediately if Kiev agreed to withdraw its forces from four Ukrainian regions that Russia claimed as its own in 2022 in what Ukraine described as a bloody land grab.