Top Official Says Ukraine May Be Willing to Negotiate on Crimea: Report

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the U.S. Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Dec. 21, 2022. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Ukraine may be willing to negotiate with Russia over the future of Crimea if Ukrainian forces could reach the border of the Russian-controlled peninsula in their much-anticipated spring counteroffensive, a top official in Kyiv reportedly said.

Andrii Sybiha, deputy head of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, on Wednesday told the Financial Times that Kyiv may reopen a discussion about Crimea it called off a year ago, depending on the outcome of the upcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive in southern Ukraine.

“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,” Sybiha said, as quoted by the Financial Times.

“It doesn’t mean that we exclude the way of liberation [of Crimea] by our army,” Sybiha told the outlet.

In southern Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian forces are currently facing each other along the Dnieper River, about 100 miles from the Crimea border Sybiha referred to. Russian troops occupied the strategic port city of Kherson and both banks of the Dnieper until they were ordered to withdraw in November 2022, and have since been fortifying their positions on the east bank.

The critically important Antonivsky Railroad Bridge, capable of supporting the passage of tanks between Kherson and Crimea, was also destroyed in the wake of the Russian withdrawal. Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up the bridge, although Ukrainian troops also used long-range artillery to strike it as part of an effort to disrupt Russian reinforcements and supplies from crossing the Dnieper.

It’s not immediately clear whether Sybiha’s comments are serious or yet another attempt to mislead Moscow on what Kyiv’s “strategic goals” could possibly be.

In August 2022, following weeks of Ukrainian propaganda about a major counteroffensive in southern Ukraine, Russia redeployed troops, including elements of the elite 1st Guards Tank Army, away from the eastern frontline to reinforce positions in the south. Ukraine claimed that the successful deception campaign allowed them to further exploit Russia’s overextension of its limited resources when the actual counterattack took place in September in the east.

The comments by Sybiha nonetheless represent a dramatic shift from Zelenskyy’s previous statements, in which he said it would be impossible to hold peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin until Russian forces left all of Ukraine, including Crimea.

“It began with Crimea, and it will end with Crimea,” Zelenskyy said last August, quoting Crimean Tatar activist Nariman Dzhelyal, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for alleged sabotage.

The Black Sea peninsula, officially annexed by Russia in 2014, provides the Russian Black Sea fleet with a much-desired forward base in Sevastopol. Since the start of what Putin called a “special military operation” against Ukraine in February 2022, Crimea has come under attack many times, with Russia blaming the United States for inciting Ukraine to escalate the war by condoning those attacks.

“Now the American warmongers have gone even further: They incite the Kyiv regime to further escalate the war,” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, according to Reuters. “They supply weapons in huge quantities, provide intelligence and participate directly in the planning of combat operations.”