The readouts from the Tuesday Putin-Trump phone call made no mention of the Russian-annexed territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - but what has remained clear to all observers is that Moscow is not going to give them up.

Russia's privately owned Kommersant business newspaper reports that President Putin is pushing his US counterpart to grant recognition of Russia's annexation of the four territories in exchange for a pledge not to seize more land.

Kommersant says that Putin is fundamentally arguing that "there's no taking back what Russia has gained" - and that the eastern territories are now permanently part of the Russian Federation.