The Kremlin today reiterated its position that Russia is open to negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine, but new “territorial realities” cannot be ignored.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia would never renounce its claims to four Ukrainian regions that Moscow announced it had annexed last year after referendums that Kiev and the West denounced as false and illegal.

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

Russia declared it had annexed the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia last September in a large ceremony in Moscow.

Subsequently, these regions were named constituent subjects of the Russian Federation in a constitutional decree.

Peskov said Russia is open to negotiations if Kiev accepts Moscow’s control of these areas.

“With a favorable situation and the appropriate attitude from the Ukrainians, this can be resolved in the bank of negotiations. But the main thing is to achieve our goals,” he said.

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.

Kiev and the West say this is a baseless pretext for an illegal land grab.

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