Will there be negotiations? Kyiv’s plan for the return of Crimea

Ukraine is ready to negotiate with Russia on the return of the peninsula. This option will help to prevent casualties and damage.

For the first time since April 2022, the Ukrainian authorities began to discuss possible negotiations with Russia on Crimea, but with some conditions. The main thing is the time when Ukrainian troops will “reach the borders” of the peninsula. This is what Deputy Head of the Office of the President Andrei Sybiga said in an interview with the Financial Times.

“If we manage to achieve our strategic goals on the battlefield and when we are on the administrative border of Crimea, we are ready to open a diplomatic page to discuss this issue. This does not mean that we will not include the path of liberation ( of Crimea). ) of our army,” he said. .

The official stressed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his aides are now discussing such an option only for the territory of the occupied peninsula. It should be noted that Kyiv’s official position is that negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin are pointless.

Possible option only

After the publication of the Financial Times article, Andrey Sybiga clarified his words. In particular, he said that Kyiv will not make any territorial compromises, and that talks with Russia on Crimea are the only possible option to return the peninsula.

Thus, he emphasized that Ukraine’s goal remains the return of Crimea. Negotiations with Russia are probably the only option.

“All lands must be returned, there is no territorial compromise. When we achieve strategic goals, when we, for example, go to the administrative border, we say that a diplomatic page on the return of Crimea can be opened. But no I completely exclude the military method,” Sybiga explained in a comment to BBC Ukraine.

What the president says

In the Office of the President himself, in matters of possible negotiations with Russia, they urged to focus only on the words of the President, who repeatedly stated that there would be no negotiations until the occupying troops of the Russian Federation left the borders of 1991.

So, presidential press secretary Sergei Nikiforov said this when commenting on Andriy Sybiha’s words that Ukraine may discuss the future of Crimea with Russia when Ukrainian troops reach the border of the temporarily occupied peninsula.

“In this regard, one should be guided primarily by the words of the President of Ukraine – the Supreme Commander-in-Chief,” Nikiforov said in a comment on Liga.net.

What does de-occupation depend on?

The way to liberate Crimea depends on “Russia’s behavior,” said Alexei Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.

“Now there is an understanding that this path (of the de-occupation of Crimea – ed.) can be both military and diplomatic. Everything depends on the behavior of a terrorist country that has acquired part of the Ukrainian territory ,” Danilov said in an interview with Ukrinform.

At the same time, according to him, Ukraine prefers the diplomatic option, because in this way it is possible to avoid casualties and tragedies. Everything depends on the Kremlin, if they want to go for such a scenario.

“If the diplomatic path does not work, if the terrorist country does not want to voluntarily leave Ukraine, we have the right to develop our own vision on an additional way to liberate our territory,” said the Secretary of the NSDC.

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