Russian President Vladimir Putin is in no position to make demands on Ukraine to end the war, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said, as he touted Kyiv's military successes confronting Moscow's full-scale invasion.
Earlier, Mr Putin said Russia would end the war in Ukraine only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions, hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow and carry out a demilitarisation.
"He is not in any position to dictate to Ukraine what they must do to bring about peace," Mr Austin told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory in the third year of the war. Ukraine says peace can only be based on the full withdrawal of Russian forces and the restoration of its territorial integrity.
G7 leaders recommitted support for Ukraine "for as long as it takes", as the summit continues in Italy.
"He's had some hundreds of thousands of troops wounded and killed in this unjust and unprovoked invasion. He could end this today if he chose to do that. And we call upon him to do that and to leave Ukrainian sovereign territory," Mr Austin said.
In his address, Mr Putin said "the future existence of Ukraine" depended on it withdrawing its forces, on it adopting a neutral status, and on beginning talks with Russia, and said Kyiv's military situation would worsen if it rejected the offer.
The timing of Mr Putin's speech was clearly intended to pre-empt Ukraine's Swiss summit, billed as a "peace conference" despite Russia's exclusion, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seeks a show of international support for Kyiv's terms to end the war.
"There will be two days of active work with countries from all parts of the world, with different nations that are nonetheless united by a common goal of bringing a just and lasting peace in Ukraine closer," he said on X as he arrived in Switzerland for the summit.
US Vice President Kamala Harris will address world leaders at the summit.
She will stress that the outcome of the war with Russia affects the entire world, a US official said, and push for a maximum number of countries to back the notion that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine is a violation of the UN Charter's founding principles and that Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected.
His remarks also came ahead of NATO's summit in Washington, in which Ukraine's allies are also still at odds over whether and how to strengthen NATO's wording on Ukraine's future membership in the alliance.
NATO's official line is that Ukraine will join the alliance one day, but not while the country is at war.
"Ukraine's future is in NATO," NATO leaders declared at last year's Vilnius summit.
Some allies want this language to be strengthened, suggesting the summit declare that Ukraine's path to membership is "irreversible", according to diplomats.
Mr Austin sidestepped the issue, saying only that NATO expansion was not likely in the short-term.
"In terms of NATO expansion, I think that's a decision that 32 members of (the) NATO alliance will make at some point in time, I don't see any desire or indication that we will pursue expansion at any point in the near future," Mr Austin said.
He said he suspected there would always be countries that would want to join NATO, but at this point the alliance wants to focus on bringing on its newest member, Sweden and Finland.
"I think at this point in time, the members of the alliance would probably want to see things stabilise and settle out as we get the new members on board and continue to refine our plans," Mr Austin said.
