Kremlin sticks to demand that Ukraine cede all of Donbas in talks, TASS reports

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Monday that the issue of territory remained fundamental to Russia when it came to getting a deal to end the fighting in Ukraine, the state TASS news agency reported after trilateral weekend talks in Abu Dhabi.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russia will take all of Ukraine's Donbas region - of which Moscow's forces currently control 90% - by force unless Kyiv gives it up in a peace deal.

"It's no secret that this is our consistent position, the position of our president, that the territorial issue, which is part of the Anchorage formula, is of fundamental importance to the Russian side," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the TASS state news agency.

The "Anchorage formula" refers to what Russia says was agreed between U.S. President Donald Trump and Putin at a summit in Alaska last August, according to a source close to the Kremlin.

That purported agreement, according to the same source, envisages Ukraine handing Russia control of all of Donbas and freezing the front lines elsewhere in Ukraine's east and south as a condition of any future peace deal.

Kyiv has repeatedly said that it will not gift Russia territory which Moscow has failed to win on the battlefield.

State news agency RIA cited Peskov as saying that Moscow positively assessed what he called the "constructive talks" with Ukrainein Abu Dhabi.

The talks, brokered by the United States, ended without a deal, but with more talks are expected next weekend.