The Kremlin said on Tuesday that a peaceful resolution in Ukraine was not possible without taking into account the “new realities” of the situation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s position regarding an end to hostilities was “well known.”

Moscow has repeatedly said that Ukraine would need to accept Russia’s claimed annexation – rejected as illegal by Kyiv and the West – of four regions of Ukraine that it partly occupies.

Ukraine’s future hinges on the outcome of battles in the east, including in and around Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, with both sides describing brutal fighting as Russia intensifies a winter campaign to capture the small city.