The Kremlin said Wednesday that "forcing" Russia into peace would be a "fatal mistake," rejecting remarks made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations.

Zelensky said Tuesday that Russia could only be forced into peace, and vowed not to negotiate on Moscow's terms to end the conflict.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told

Valentina Matviyenko was re-elected Wednesday for her fourth term as speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council.

Matviyenko, 75, is third in line for the presidency, following the prime minister, in the event of Vladimir Putin’s death.

“We all work on the president’s team,” Matviyenko said during the opening of the 178-m

Lawmakers in Russia’s Far East Primorye region on Wednesday passed a law outlawing the act of “coercing” women into having an abortion, a move that comes as federal lawmakers debate a bill to ban the so-called “childfree movement.”

The new law defines “coercion” into abortion as actions such as persuasion, bribery, deceit, blackmail or workplace pre