The Presidential Office admits negotiations with the aggressor country Russia before militarily returning Crimea.
This is possible when the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) conduct a successful counteroffensive and reach the administrative border of the peninsula with the Kherson Region.
Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Andrii Sibiha stated this in an interview for the Financial Times.
"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 for discussing this issue."
This does not mean that we reject the path of liberating (Crimea) by our army," he said.
The PO deputy head emphasized that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his assistants are now discussing such an option purely for the territory of occupied Crimea.
The publication notes that the statement of Kyiv's interest in negotiations with Moscow was the first since April 2022.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the Ministry of Reintegration reported that pro-Ukrainian sentiment continues to grow in the temporarily occupied Crimea while the Russian occupiers are evacuating families in a panic and selling off the property on the peninsula.
On March 24, Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, stated that the occupiers are actively evacuating their families from the temporarily occupied Crimea and selling off real estate on the peninsula.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet of Ministers approved changes to the plan of measures for implementing the Strategy of De-occupation and Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Crimea, taking into account its expected liberation shortly.
Earlier, the Defense Minister of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, said that the counteroffensive of the AFU is planned in several directions. At the same time, the timing of its start will depend on weather conditions.
And the American publication The New York Times reported regarding its sources that Ukraine is ready for a decisive counteroffensive.
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