"The war could end only through an internal dialogue in Ukraine, which could only be started by official Kiev," Peskov told Russia' Argumenty i Facty weekly to be published on Wednesday.
The Kremlin spokesman insisted that Russia was making all possible efforts to help resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine, including economic assistance in the form of energy supplies to the crisis-hit country and humanitarian convoys to regions caught up in the violence.
"We cannot simply leave these people to face their fate alone. But, at the same time, Russia cannot settle this internal Ukrainian conflict," Peskov said.
The announcement was made on the eve of the meeting of foreign ministers from Russia, France, Ukraine and Germany to discuss Ukrainian reconciliation, in the so-called Normandy format, in Berlin.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that another Normandy format meeting, scheduled to take place at the end of January in Kazakhstan's capital of Astana, is set to achieve a "real de-escalation" of the Ukrainian conflict, though its time frames are yet to be discussed.
According to Peskov, the high-level summit in Astana will only go ahead if the warring parties agree to reach concrete results.
The Normandy format refers to high-level and ministerial-level talks on Ukrainian reconciliation. It dates back to June 2014, when the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine met to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the allied landings in Normandy, France.
