Kyiv may be willing to negotiate on Crimea depending on outcome of spring offensive
The hotel Gornoye Solntse, reportedly one of around 500 properties in the Crimean peninsula, including some belonging to senior Ukrainian politicians and business figures that were nationalized by local Russian-installed authorities, in Alupka, Crimea, on Feb. 8, 2023.
Alexey Pavlishak | Reuters
Ukraine would be willing to discuss the status of the Crimean peninsula if its army reaches Crimea's borders, a top official said.
"If we will succeed in achieving our strategic goals on the battlefield and when we will be on the administrative border with Crimea, we are ready to open [a] diplomatic page to discuss this issue," Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office,
told the Financial Times in an interview.
"It doesn't mean that we exclude the way of liberation [of Crimea] by our army," he said.
The FT report added that Sybiha's comments "may relieve western officials who are sceptical about Ukraine's ability to reclaim the peninsula and worry that any attempt to do so militarily could lead Vladimir Putin to escalate his war, possibly with nuclear weapons."
Kyiv has so far rejected any negotiations until Russian forces withdraw from the entirety of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula, which belongs to Ukraine under international law and which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.
The FT report described Sybiha as a "veteran diplomat" who has long been at Zelenskyy's side. Sybiha said "the president and his aides were now talking specifically about Crimea, as Ukraine's army gets closer to launching its counteroffensive to regain territory," the FT wrote.
— Natasha Turak