Kremlin responds to Zelenskyy's call to begin withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine 

Russian mass media reported that the press secretary of the Russian leader Vladimir Putin rejected the proposal of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to begin the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine on Christmas, which he made at the G7 summit.

"This is out of the question. The Ukrainian side needs to accept the realities that have developed over all this time. These are the realities that took place because of that line, that policy, which was carried out during the last fifteen, or even twenty years, by the leadership of Ukraine,"  Peskov said.

He added that the Kremlin considers the territories where the occupiers held pseudo-referendums to be part of Russia.

"Without taking these new realities into account, any progress is impossible," Peskov noted.

• On December 12, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the G7 summit what steps are necessary to speed up the victory of Ukraine - weapons, financial and energy stability, and diplomacy.