Moscow, 24 May 2023 (dpa/MIA) - The Kremlin is not interested in halting the conflict with Ukraine, according to spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Russia will continue its "special military operation" until the end, until it has asserted its interests and achieved its goals - either in the course of the fighting or through "other available means," Peskov was quoted as saying on Wednesday by state news agency TASS, using the preferred term by Moscow to describe the war against the neighbouring country it launched 15 months ago.

According to Peskov, there are currently no indications of the possibility of a peaceful solution. Negotiations with Kiev are impossible because the Ukrainian leadership itself has "forbidden negotiations of any kind with Russia," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made the withdrawal of Russian troops from occupied Ukrainian territories a precondition for peace talks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, spoke of "increasing instability in the world" in light of the war he ordered almost one and a half years ago, in a video message addressing a security conference in Moscow.

Putin held the West responsible for the development, saying Western powers were trying to maintain global dominance at the expense of other countries. The Kremlin leader once again accused the Western states, which are helping Ukraine to defend itself against the Russian invasion by supplying weapons, of "neo-colonialism."