News - Middle East: Moscow says Russia is open to peace talks with Ukraine to end the war but will not give up the regions it has annexed.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was open to peace negotiations with Kiev but that new "territorial realities" could not be ignored.

He was referring to the four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia that were annexed by Russia following referendums in September last year, seven months after Russia began what it calls a "special military operation" against Ukraine.

Ukraine and its Western allies denounced the move as illegal, calling the votes a "sham." However, Moscow named the regions as constituent subjects of the Russian Federation in a constitutional decree despite the fact that Russian forces have not yet managed to take the regions under their full control. In fact, much of the territory in the Russian-annexed regions still remain in Ukrainian hands.

"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.

He stressed that Moscow was open to negotiations if Kiev accepted Russia's control over the regions.

"With a favorable 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," Peskov said.

This is while Ukraine says Russian troops must leave every inch of its territory, including the four annexed regions, plus the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, before a peace plan can be discussed.