On Tuesday, the Kremlin confirmed its position that Russia is open to negotiations on ending the conflict in Ukraine, but new “territorial realities” cannot be ignored, Reuters reports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov told reporters that Russia will never give up its claims to four Ukrainian regions that Moscow says it annexed last year after referendums that Kyiv and the West have classified as fake and illegal.

“There are certain realities that have already become an internal factor. I mean new territories. The Constitution of the Russian Federation exists and cannot be neglected. Russia will never be able to compromise on this issue, these are important realities,” Peskov said on Tuesday.

Last September, at a solemn ceremony in Moscow, Russia announced the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.

Later, the regions were annexed by the Russian Federation by constitutional decree.

Peskov said that Russia is open to negotiations if Kyiv recognizes Moscow’s control over the regions.

“Given a favorable state of affairs and the appropriate attitude of the Ukrainians, this can be resolved at the negotiating table. But the main thing is to achieve the set goals,” said Peskov.

Russian forces do not fully control any of the four regions, and Moscow says it is fighting to “liberate” them from the control of Ukrainian neo-Nazis.

Kyiv and the West say that this is a baseless excuse for the illegal seizure of territory.

Ukraine says Russian troops must leave every inch of its territory, including four annexed regions and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, before a peace plan can be discussed.

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