Kyiv is ready to discuss the future of Crimea with Moscow if its troops reach the border of the Russian-occupied peninsula, a high-ranking adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyi told the Financial Times, News.ro reports.

The statements of Zelenskyi’s deputy head of administration, Andrii Sybiga, are the most explicit statement of Ukraine’s interest in negotiations since Kyiv broke off peace talks with the Kremlin in April last year, the Financial Times notes.

Ukraine’s readiness for negotiations does not exclude the liberation of Crimea

“If we succeed in achieving our strategic goals on the battlefield and when we are on the administrative border with Crimea, we are ready to open a diplomatic page and discuss this issue,” said Andriy Sybiga, referring to the expected counteroffensive. for some time in Kyiv.

“This does not mean that we exclude the way to liberate (Crimea) by our army,” the Ukrainian official added.

Andriy Sybiga is an experienced diplomat who deals with foreign policy in the president’s office and was with Zelensky at key moments of the war. He said the president and his advisers are now talking specifically about Crimea, as the Ukrainian military nears the start of a counteroffensive to retake the Russian-controlled territory.

Ukraine suspended talks with Moscow after the discovery of alleged war crimes committed by Russians in Buch, a suburb of Kyiv, and Zelenskyi signed a decree barring talks with Putin after the Kremlin annexed four Ukrainian regions in September.

Currently, Zelensky rules out the possibility of peace talks until Russian troops leave all of Ukraine, including Crimea.

The President of Ukraine has repeatedly stated that his ultimate goal is to return the entire territory of the country, including Crimea, under Kyiv’s control. But last May, he indicated that Ukraine could consider a peace deal if Russian troops returned to positions in eastern Ukraine before last year’s invasion, and suggested that the Crimea issue could be resolved later diplomatically.

Crimea has been under Russian occupation since February 2014 and was annexed by Moscow the following month after a mock referendum – a move the international world condemned as an illegal land grab.

The Ukrainian army will be near the Crimean border in five to seven months

On the other hand, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Zelenskyi, told Radio Free Europe on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces will be “at the door of Crimea” in “five to seven months.”

But some of Ukraine’s Western allies fear that Putin may resort to tactical nuclear weapons to defend the peninsula, whose status the Kremlin says is non-negotiable. So Sibikha’s comments could ease the situation of Western officials, who are skeptical of Ukraine’s ability to retake the peninsula and fear that any attempt to do so militarily could prompt President Vladimir Putin to escalate the war, possibly with the use of nuclear weapons, the Financial Times notes. .

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