Kremlin: Russia will consult residents on borders of annexed Ukrainian regions

The Kremlin said on Monday that it will consult with residents living in two of the Ukrainian regions it moved to annex last week - Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - on how their borders should be defined.

"We will continue to consult with people who live in these areas", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He said he could not specify what format the consultation would take.

Russia's inability to say whether it is claiming all of the occupied regions or only those portions controlled by its forces has highlighted the rushed and confused nature of the annexations, which Ukraine and the West have denounced as an illegal land grab.

Ukraine has made significant gains even since Friday's Kremlin annexation ceremony - including, on Monday, in Kherson region, where a Russian-installed official said Ukrainian forces had made breakthroughs and the situation was tense.

NORD STREAM LEAKS, NUCLEAR REMARK

Peskov also said the United States had increased prices and sales of liquefied natural gas (LNG) after gas leaks in the undersea Nord Stream pipelines.

A total of four leaks were discovered last month on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea near Denmark and Sweden.

Peskov said the pipelines needed to be repaired but that seabed assessments had to be done first.

About the nuclear remarks of the Chechen leader Kadyrov, Peskov said that the "use of nuclear weapons is based on our nuclear doctrine."

"We prefer to take a balanced approach, emotions should not be taken into account."