Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he was ready to hold talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy if the Ukrainian president came to Moscow, but said it remained to be seen whether such a meeting was worthwhile.

Zelenskyy has been pressing to meet Putin to discuss the terms of a possible deal and US President Donald Trump - who has been trying to broker a peace settlement - has said he wants the two leaders to meet.

Speaking in China at the end of a visit there, Putin said he had always been open to meeting Zelenskyy but reiterated the Kremlin's oft-repeated stance that such a meeting had to be well prepared in advance and lead to tangible results.

The Russian leader said that in his view Ukraine needed to cancel martial law, hold elections, and hold a referendum about territorial questions if progress was to be made.

Russia wants recognition of occupied Ukraine

Meanwhile, Russia is still seeking international recognition that parts of Ukraine annexed and occupied by its forces belong to Moscow as part of any peace deal, its foreign minister said separately.

Ukraine has said it will never accept Russian control over any of its territory and has vowed to recover land seized by Moscow.

"In order for a durable peace, the new territorial realities that arose... must be recognised and formalised in accordance with international law," Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in remarks published by Moscow on Wednesday.

Who gets control of land captured by Russia in its offensive is a key sticking point in stalled peace talks between the two sides.

Ukraine wants a ceasefire first before discussing territory, but Russia has refused to halt its offensive until a full deal is reached.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in response that Russia was responding to peace efforts led by US President Donald Trump with "old ultimatums".

"Russia has not changed its aggressive goals and shows no signs of readiness for meaningful negotiations," he said, adding: "It's time to hit the Russian war machine with severe new sanctions and sober Moscow up."

Russia already has almost total control over the Lugansk region and controls around 80 percent of Donetsk, AFP analysis of Institute for the Study of War (ISW) data shows.

It has also captured large swathes of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, though Ukraine still controls the regional capitals.