(Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Kyiv’s position means Russia’s goals in Ukraine can only be achieved by military force, Russian state news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
“We have to achieve our goals. Right now this is only possible by military means due to the current position of the Kyiv regime,” Peskov said.
Russia claims it is fighting in Ukraine to “liberate” Russian speakers in the eastern Donbas from what it has called a neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv.
Ukraine and the West say this is a baseless pretext put forward to justify a war of aggression and Moscow’s attempts to seize swathes of Ukrainian land.
Moscow has blamed Kyiv for a breakdown in talks about a ceasefire, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will only consider peace settlements after Russian troops leave Ukrainian territory.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Nick Macfie)
