In comments released on Wednesday, Russia’s foreign minister stated that Moscow is still pursuing international acknowledgment that, as part of any peace agreement, portions of Ukraine that its soldiers have seized and occupied are its territory.
Ukraine has pledged to reclaim territories that Moscow has taken from it and stated that it will never allow Russia to rule over any of its territory.
In addition to the Crimean peninsula, which it took in 2014, Russia asserts that it has annexed five Ukrainian regions: Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
In statements released by Moscow on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that “the new territorial realities that arose… must be recognized and formalized in accordance with international law for a durable peace.”
One of the main points of contention in the two parties’ stalled peace negotiations is who would control the territory that Russia has taken during its offensive.
Russia has refused to stop its offensive until a complete agreement is reached, despite Ukraine’s desire for a truce before discussing territory.
In response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga claimed that Russia was using “old ultimatums” in reaction to peace initiatives spearheaded by US President Donald Trump.
He declared, “It’s time to hit the Russian war machine with severe new sanctions and sober up Moscow… Russia has not changed its aggressive goals and shows no signs of readiness for meaningful negotiations.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to freeze the combat lines in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia districts if Ukraine fully cedes the Donetsk region, Turkey, which has held three rounds of direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations, claimed last week.
According to AFP’s analysis of Institute for the Study of War (ISW) data, Russia already controls almost 80% of Donetsk and nearly all of the Lugansk region.
Although Ukraine currently maintains control of the provincial capitals, it has also taken over sizable portions of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
After Ukraine’s pro-European revolution in 2014, armed separatists supported by Russia launched an attempt to secede from Kyiv, sparking more than ten years of fighting that has devastated the country’s industrial east.
