Ukraine reiterates rejection of any deal allowing Russia to keep seized territory

A senior Ukrainian official on Thursday reiterated Kyiv’s rejection of any peace deal with Moscow that would allow Russia to keep Ukrainian territory seized by Russian forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier on Thursday that Moscow was open to dialogue over Ukraine but that Kyiv would have to accept the loss of territories claimed by Russia, the Kremlin said.

“Putin again confirmed Russia’s openness to serious dialogue on the condition of Kyiv authorities fulfilling the well-known and repeatedly voiced requirements of taking into account the new territorial realities,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

Russian troops occupy large swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine.The Kremlin claims it has annexed the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions despite not controlling them in their entirety.

“Axiom: why will it be impossible to make a deal with the Russian Federation?” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

“The Russian Federation (Putin) under the word ‘talks’offers Ukraine & the world to recognize ‘its right to seize foreign territories’ & ‘to fix the absence of legal consequences for mass killings on foreign territory.’ It’s fully unacceptable.”

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