Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that peace in Ukraine was possible if Ukrainian forces withdrew from territory in the four oblasts Moscow annexed in 2022.
The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was willing to freeze the current battle lines for a peace deal, which would mark a significant concession from Moscow.
Peskov’s comments suggest Russia may still be demanding that Ukraine withdraw from the territory it controls in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. He said Russia’s claim to the territories was enshrined in its constitution.
When asked if the Ukrainian withdrawal from those oblasts would end the war, Peskov said, “If Ukraine withdraws its troops from these four regions, then yes.”
“According to the results of the referendums, these territories have entered the administrative borders of Russia. From our point of view, this is a de jure and de facto situation,” Peskov said.
When Russian and Ukrainian officials held peace talks in the early days of Russia’s invasion in 2022, Russia’s main demand was for Ukrainian neutrality. Those efforts were discouraged by the US, and later that year, Russia declared its annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts and added the recognition of that territory as Russia to its demands to end the war.
According to Axios, US envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to hold another meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to discuss the war. US, Ukrainian, and European officials were supposed to hold high-level talks in London on Wednesday, but the meeting was downgraded to a lower level after Ukraine rejected a potential peace proposal from the US, which would have involved US recognition of Crimea as Russian.
