MOSCOW, Dec 29 (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine should withdraw its troops from the part of Donbas that it still controls if it wanted peace, and that if Kyiv did not strike a deal then it would lose yet more territory.
Putin and Trump spoke on Sunday ahead of Trump’s meeting in Miami with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said another call was planned very soon.
Peskov refused to comment on the idea of a free economic zone in Donbas or on the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is controlled by Russia, saying that the Kremlin felt it was inappropriate.
When asked about Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov’s remarks about the decision that Kyiv needed to take on Donbas, Peskov said that Ukraine should withdraw its troops from the parts they still controlled.
“We are talking about the withdrawal of the regime’s armed forces from the Donbas,” Peskov said. When asked it that applied to the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions too, he refused to discuss details.
Russia currently controls a fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea which it annexed in 2014, about 90% of Donbas, 75% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and slivers of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to Russian estimates.
Russia claims Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as part of Russia, though most countries consider the regions to be part of Ukraine.
Peskov said no call between Putin and Zelenskiy was being discussed.
Peskov paraphrased Trump’s remarks that Ukraine could lose more territory to Russia over coming months unless Kyiv struck a deal.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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