Ukrainian officials are clarifying their position on negotiations with Russia regarding Crimea after Deputy Head of the Zelenskyi Administration Andriy Sybiga said that Ukraine “ready” to talk with Russiaabout the peninsula, if the expected counteroffensive is successful, he reports Policy.

“In order to minimize the losses of the Ukrainian military, to minimize threats to civilians living in the occupied territories, as well as the destruction of civilian infrastructure, Ukraine intends to give Russia the opportunity to choose how to leave Crimea. If they do not agree to leave voluntarily, Ukraine will continue to liberate their land by military means,” Tamila Tasheva, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s top representative for Crimea, told Politico.

Her comments came after Andriy Sybiga, Zelenskyi’s deputy chief of staff, said in an interview with the Financial Times that Ukraine may be ready to discuss Crimea’s future with Moscow if Kyiv succeeds in achieving its strategic goals on the battlefield.

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

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

It would be the first time Ukraine has expressed interest in talks with Russia since it officially ruled out peace talks with Vladimir Putin last fall.

On September 30 last year, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine adopted a resolution on the impossibility of any negotiations with Putin after Russia announced the annexation of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Zelensky also presented a 10-point plan to end the war started by Vladimir Putin on February 24, in which he demands the withdrawal of Russian troops and an end to hostilities.

Before the 2022 invasion, Ukraine considered political and diplomatic negotiations the main way to liberate Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

But everything changed after the full-scale invasion, Tasheva said.

“After what we saw in Buch, Mariupol, Izyum, Russia closed any possibility of negotiations. And the Kremlin has also stated many times that it would not talk about the future of the Crimean peninsula,” Tasheva said.

She added that the Ukrainian authorities have stated several times that their position on the status of Crimea cannot be discussed – it is the territory of Ukraine.

Also, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Zelenskyi, told Radio Europa Libera on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces will be “at the door of Crimea” in “five to seven months.”

“About the basics. The basis of real negotiations with the Russian Federation is the complete withdrawal of Russian armed forces beyond the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine in 1991. Including Crimea. We are not talking about territorial concessions or negotiations about our sovereign rights,” Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on his Twitter account Thursday.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) Oleksiy Danilov said that no more than five people have information about where and when the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will begin.

His statements were made after he announced at the weekend that the NSDC apparatus, with the involvement of specialists and experts, had developed a 12-step plan for the liberation of Crimea.

• PHOTO Are the Russians retreating from Northern Crimea or regrouping for an offensive against Ukraine? The pictures were taken from a satellite