Russia yesterday dismissed a peace proposal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that would involve a pullout of Russian troops, saying Kyiv needed to accept new territorial "realities".

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said those realities included Russia's addition of four Ukrainian regions as its "new subjects" - annexations it proclaimed in September but which most countries of the United Nations have condemned as illegal.

He was responding to a request by Zelensky to leaders from Group of Seven powers on Monday for more military equipment, support for financial and energy stability, and backing for a peace solution that would start with Russia withdrawing troops from Ukraine, beginning this Christmas.

"These are three steps towards a continuation of hostilities," Peskov said. "The Ukrainian side needs to take into account the realities that have developed during this time," he added when asked about the proposed Russian troop withdrawal.

"And these realities indicate that new subjects have appeared in the Russian Federation. They appeared as a result of referendums that took place in these territories. Without taking these new realities into account, no kind of progress is possible."

There could be "no question" of Russia starting to pull out its troops by the end of the year, he said.

Ukraine and its Western allies have dismissed as illegal shams the "referendums" that Peskov referred to in four regions of south and eastern Ukraine that Russia partly occupies, saying they were conducted at gunpoint.

In the battleground, Russia and Ukraine pounded each other's forces in heavy fighting in the eastern region of Donetsk yesterday as Kyiv's allies meeting in Paris pledged just over 1 billion euros ($1.05 billion) to help Ukrainians survive the freezing winter, reports Reuters.

Zelensky had said Ukraine needed at least 800 million euros ($840 million). "It's a lot, but the price is less than the cost of blackout," Zelensky told the meeting via video link.

Britain yesterday sanctioned 12 Russian military commanders implicated in missile strikes on Ukrainian cities as well as Iranian businessmen involved in the production and supply of military drones used in the attacks.