Russia has reiterated its demand that the international community formally acknowledge territories it annexed from Ukraine as part of any peace settlement, heightening the deadlock in negotiations between the two countries.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in comments published Wednesday, maintained that Moscow would not agree to a ceasefire or peace unless its control over occupied territories was accepted. “For a durable peace, the new territorial realities that arose… must be recognised and formalised in accordance with international law,” Lavrov declared.
Moscow claims ownership of five Ukrainian territories: Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. These areas have been at the heart of the ongoing war and remain a central sticking point in stalled peace talks.
Ukraine, however, has stood firm in rejecting any recognition of Russian authority over its land. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga criticized Russia’s stance, saying Moscow was only recycling “old ultimatums” despite peace initiatives spearheaded by United States President Donald Trump. “Russia has not changed its aggressive goals and shows no signs of readiness for meaningful negotiations. It’s time to hit the Russian war machine with severe new sanctions and sober Moscow up,” Sybiga asserted.
According to analysis from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russia maintains near-total control of Lugansk and around 80 percent of Donetsk, alongside vast portions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Despite this, Ukraine still controls key regional capitals in the contested territories.
Turkey, which previously hosted three rounds of Russia-Ukraine peace talks, revealed that President Vladimir Putin recently offered to freeze battle lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia if Ukraine surrendered Donetsk entirely — a proposal Kyiv rejected.
Ukraine’s industrial east has endured over a decade of destruction since 2014, when Russian-backed separatists first launched armed campaigns following Ukraine’s pro-European revolution. The latest escalation has deepened the humanitarian and geopolitical crisis.
okaynews.com reports that the ongoing impasse shows no signs of resolution as both sides hold firm to irreconcilable conditions for peace.
