Kremlin: No Peaceful Resolution in Ukraine Without Acknowledging 'New Realities'

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian service members fire a howitzer M119 at a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the city of Bakhmut, Ukraine March 10, 2023. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian service members fire a howitzer M119 at a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the city of Bakhmut, Ukraine March 10, 2023. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak/File Photo
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Kremlin: No Peaceful Resolution in Ukraine Without Acknowledging 'New Realities'

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian service members fire a howitzer M119 at a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the city of Bakhmut, Ukraine March 10, 2023. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian service members fire a howitzer M119 at a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the city of Bakhmut, Ukraine March 10, 2023. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak/File Photo

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that a peaceful resolution in Ukraine was not possible without taking into account the "new realities" of the situation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia's position regarding an end to hostilities was "well known."

Moscow has repeatedly said that Ukraine would need to accept Russia's claimed annexation - rejected as illegal by Kyiv and the West - of four regions of Ukraine that it partly occupies.

Ukraine's future hinges on the outcome of battles in the east, including in and around Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, with both sides describing brutal fighting as Russia intensifies a winter campaign to capture the small city.



South Korea Says Its Military Fired Warning Shots After North Korean Soldiers Crossed the Border 

South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)
South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)
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South Korea Says Its Military Fired Warning Shots After North Korean Soldiers Crossed the Border 

South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)
South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)

South Korea's military fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers crossed the rivals' tense border on Tuesday, South Korean officials said.

South Korea's military said in a statement that about 10 North Korean soldiers returned to the North after South Korea made warning broadcasts and fired warning shots. It said the North Korean soldiers violated the military demarcation line at the eastern section of the border at 5 p.m.

South Korea's military said it is closely monitoring North Korean activities.

Bloodshed and violent confrontations have occasionally occurred at the Koreas' heavily fortified border, called the Demilitarized Zone. But when North Korean troops briefly violated the border in June last year, it didn't escalate into a major source of tensions as South Korean officials assessed the soldiers didn't deliberately commit the border intrusion.

The motive for Tuesday's border crossing by North Korean soldiers wasn't immediately clear.

Animosities between the Koreas are running high now as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to flaunt his military nuclear capabilities and align with Russia over President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. Kim is also ignoring calls by Seoul and Washington to resume denuclearization negotiations.

Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, US President Donald Trump has said he would reach out to Kim again to revive diplomacy. North Korea has not responded to Trump's remarks and says US hostilities against it have deepened since Trump's inauguration.

South Korea, meanwhile, is experiencing a leadership vacuum after the ouster of President Yoon Suk Yeol last week over his ill-fated imposition of martial law.