U.S. President Joe Biden does not intend to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin right now as the condition for such discussions do not exist, the White House has said.
White House national-security spokesman John Kirby said on December 2 Putin had shown "absolutely no inclination to be interested in dialogue of any kind."
During a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron on December 1, Biden said he would be willing to talk with Putin about resolving Russia's Ukraine invasion if the Kremlin leader "is looking for a way to end the war."
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Kirby, asked about the comment on December 2, told reporters that conditions were "not at a point now where talks seem to be a fruitful avenue to approach."
Kirby also reiterated the U.S. position that only Ukraine could determine if and when there could be a negotiated settlement. Kyiv says peace talks are only possible if Russia stops attacking and withdraws.
The Kremlin responded to Biden's comment by saying the West must recognize what Moscow calls Russia's "new territories" before any talks with Putin can take place.
"The president of the Russian Federation has always been, is and remains open to negotiations in order to ensure our interests," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Russia will not pull out of Ukraine.
Peskov claimed that the search for ways to end the war has been hindered by the U.S. refusal to recognize territory in Ukraine that Russia annexed in September, a move that has been condemned as illegal by most countries.
Putin spoke earlier on December 2 with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, telling him that further attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure were "inevitable" even as millions of Ukrainians are struggling without electricity and heating at the onset of winter following waves of Russian strikes across the country.
"It was noted that the Russian Armed Forces had long refrained from precision missile strikes against certain targets on the territory of Ukraine," the Kremlin said in a statement following the first phone conversation between Putin and Scholz since mid-September.
"But now such measures have become a forced and inevitable response to Kyiv's provocative attacks on Russia's civilian infrastructure," the Kremlin said, accusing the West of pursuing "destructive" policies and "pumping" Ukraine with weapons. It was unclear which attacks the Kremlin was referring to.
Putin told Scholz that "political and financial support" from the Ukraine's Western allies "leads to the fact that Kyiv completely rejects the idea of any negotiations," the Kremlin said.
Scholz pressed Putin to seek a diplomatic solution to end the war, including troop withdrawals, German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said following the call.
"The chancellor urged the Russian president to come as quickly as possible to a diplomatic solution including the withdrawal of Russian troops," according to Hebestreit.
During the one-hour call, Scholz "condemned in particular the Russian air strikes against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and stressed Germany's determination to support Ukraine in ensuring the defense capability against Russian aggression."
WATCH: Ukrainian civilians who have fled Russian-occupied cities in the east, along with local Bucha residents who have lost their homes, do their best to cope with temporary modular housing.
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Evacuees Living In Container Housing In Bucha Brave Freezing Temperatures And Power Cuts
In the recently liberated southern region of Kherson, Russian missiles killed three people over the past day, Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych wrote on Telegram, while shelling the night before damaged power lines in the city where electricity had only begun to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops withdrew to the eastern side of the Dnieper River.
Meanwhile, fierce fighting continued in the east where Kyiv's forces fought off waves of attacks in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the military reported early on December 2, as an aide to Zelenskiy said up to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the start of the war.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces said in its daily update that Russian troops attacked Ukrainian positions in 14 settlements including Belohoryivka in Luhansk and Bakhmut in Donetsk, while carrying out 30 air strikes and 35 multiple-rocket attacks on civilian settlements along the contact line.
In Kupyansk and Lyman in the east and in Zaporizhzhya in central Ukraine, the Russians were on the defensive, the General Staff said, while in the Bakhmut and Avdiyivka directions in the east, Moscow's forces were on the offensive.
The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, Mykhaylo Podolyak, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told Ukraine's Channel 24 television on December 1 that as many as 13,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since Russia's invasion in February.
"We have official estimates from the General Staff.... And they range from 10,000...to 13,000 dead," Podolyak said.
He said Zelenskiy would make the official data public "when the right moment comes." Podolyak's comments have not been confirmed by the military.
In June, Zelenskiy said Ukraine was losing "60 to 100 soldiers per day, killed in action, and around 500 people wounded in action."
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in September that 5,937 Russian troops had been killed in the nearly seven months of fighting to that point.
The figures could not be independently verified and it is believed both sides are minimizing their losses to avoid lowering the troops' morale.
U.S. General Mark Milley said last month said more than 100,000 Russian military personnel and 100,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded since the start of the war.
The figures advanced by Milley -- which could not be independently confirmed -- are the most precise to date from the U.S. government.