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

MOSCOW – The Kremlin said on Jan 26 that the issue of territory remained fundamental to Russia when it came to getting a deal to end the fighting in Ukraine, state news agency TASS reported after

trilateral weekend talks in Abu Dhabi

.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that

Russia will take all of Ukraine’s Donbas

region – of which Moscow’s forces currently control 90 per cent – 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 TASS.

The “Anchorage formula” refers to what Russia says was agreed between US President Donald Trump and Mr Putin at a summit in Alaska in August 2025, 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

that Moscow has failed to win on the battlefield.

State news agency RIA cited Mr Peskov as saying that Moscow positively assessed what he called the “constructive talks” with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi.

The talks, brokered by the US, ended without a deal, but more talks are expected next weekend. REUTERS