According to a statement released by the Kremlin on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin told Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he was willing to talk to Ukraine if Kiev accepts territories occupied by Moscow as Russian.

Kremlin in a statement said, “Putin again confirmed Russia’s openness to serious dialogue on the condition of Kyiv authorities fulfilling the well-known and repeatedly voiced requirements of taking into account the new territorial realities.

Erdogan had called for peace talks in the phone call with Putin, his office said earlier. Russian troops occupy large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.

The Kremlin claims it has annexed the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions despite not controlling them in their entirety.

“The Russian side emphasised the destructive role of Western states, pumping the Kyiv regime with weapons and military equipment, providing it with operational information and targets,” the statement added.

This is not the first time Putin has expressed that he is ready for peace talks under the conditions set out by Moscow.