Peace plan for Ukraine war must include regions that joined Russia: Kremlin

The Kremlin has dismissed a recently released peace plan by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying proposals to end the protracted war must take into account “today’s realities” of four Ukrainian regions that recently joined Russia.

“There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today's realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia. Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful,” the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

Russia declared the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as part of its territory in September after referendums.

Last month, Zelensky presented a 10-point peace formula to world leaders at the Group of 20 Summit in Indonesia. The plan envisions Russia giving up the four regions as well as Crimea, which it seized in 2014 and subsequently annexed.

The Kremlin has repeatedly said it is open to peace talks with Ukraine but sees no willingness to negotiate on the part of Kiev.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia said on Sunday he was ready to negotiate “about acceptable solutions” regarding the war. Moscow says it is after a potential diplomatic settlement in Ukraine.

Last week, Peskov said the Ukrainian president and his American counterpart were turning a deaf ear to “Russia's concerns.”

Regarding Moscow's conditions in the peace talks, Russian diplomats say the demilitarization of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine is among the main conditions the Kremlin has stated to end the war. The two regions broke away from Ukraine in 2014 after refusing to recognize a new government.

Russia destroyed ‘400 Ukrainian missile systems’ in ten months

The Russian air forces also intercepted 15 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the country.

6,884 civilians have been killed since war began in February: UN  

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Tuesday civilian casualties in the war were approaching the 18,000 mark.

The agency said at least 6,884 civilians had been killed and well over 10,000 injured in Ukraine from February 24 up to December 26. The casualties include 165 deaths and 516 injuries recorded over the course of December.

"OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration," the OHCHR said in a news release. It said the confirmed dead included 2,719 men, 1,832 women and 1,904 adults whose sex could not be determined. At least 429 children also died, including 175 girls, 216 boys and 38 whose sex was unknown.

Russia says its objective of war is to demilitarize the breakaway Ukrainian regions with ethnic Russian populations. Since the start of the war, the United States and Europe have slapped waves of sanctions on Moscow and have been assisting Ukraine with financial and military assistance.

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