Ukraine has reignited hopes of peace talks with Moscow, saying it stands ready to discuss Crimea’s future should Kiev’s forces reach the border of the illegally occupied Russian peninsula.
Andriy Sybiha, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and deputy head of his office, told the Financial Times that Kyiv may soon be “ready” to start talks.
This is the first time such discussions have been held by Ukraine since it broke off talks with Moscow in April last year.
But the news came as a series of loud explosions were heard in the occupied city of Melitopol on Wednesday night, as Russian collaborators warned that the spring offensive from Kiev could begin.
The southern city, known as the “Gateway to Crimea” in the Zaporizhia region, reported explosions yesterday but gave no further details.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi delivers a speech in the courtyard of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland on Wednesday. He is pictured with his wife First Lady Olena Zelenska
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday
Speaking to the FT, Sybiha said: “If we manage to achieve our strategic goals on the battlefield and if we are on the administrative border with Crimea, we are ready to open [a] diplomatic site to discuss this issue.”
But he emphasized: “This does not mean that we exclude the path of liberation [of Crimea] from our army.’
Western officials are largely skeptical about the potential for Kiev forces to retake the peninsula, fearing that doing so would only lead to a possible nuclear escalation of the war. Sybiha’s statements, which indicate a willingness to talk, could now exonerate these officials.
Peace talks have been categorically ruled out by Ukraine until all Russian troops have left their territory.
The signal for possible talks comes as Ukraine prepares for its spring counter-offensive amid ongoing fighting in the eastern city of Bakhmut.
British Defense Attaché in Washington, Rear Admiral Tim Woods, Kyiv needed “a political solution simply because of the concentration of forces there and the importance it would mean for the Ukrainians to invade there”.
He told the FT: “I don’t think there will be a very quick military solution… so we have to see what favorable conditions Ukraine has for negotiations and I think Ukraine would be ready for that.”
After the invasion last February, Ukraine was open to negotiations with Russia over Crimea’s future. But since then, communication between Kiev and Moscow has revolved around prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of Ukrainian children who were detained and taken to Russia.
Kyiv also broke off any potential for talks after the exposure of alleged Russian war crimes in Bucha, Kyiv, in March 2022.
But despite openness to talks, Zelenskyi recently made it clear that Ukraine is interested in seeing all of its lands returned, including annexed Crimea.
Crimea has been under Russian occupation since 2014 following a sham Kremlin referendum.
Amid the news, ousted Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov, who was elected in 2020 before being ousted by the Russians, said explosions could be heard in the southern city.
“Collaborators from the temporarily occupied part of the Zaporizhia region have sounded the alarm. It turns out the orcs are abandoning their own,” Fedorov reported.
A view of a night street in Simferopol, Crimea on March 17, 2023
Flames and smoke rise from the Crimean Bridge after Russian authorities planted a bomb in Kerch, Crimea, October 8, 2022, causing a fire and a partial collapse of the bridge
A Ukrainian service member of the 28th Mechanized Brigade launches a frontline RPG amid the Russian attack on Ukraine in the Bakhmut region on Wednesday
A Ukrainian military member of the 28th Mechanized Brigade adjusts his communications unit before heading to the frontline in Bakhmut on Wednesday
A Ukrainian soldier repositions his machine gun during a front-line firefight amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine in the Bakhmut region on Wednesday
Zelenskyy paid Warsaw a rare overseas visit to thank Poland for its support since the Russian offensive began on Wednesday
Earlier on Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin accused Western security services of helping Kiev stage “terrorist attacks” in Russia after giving an icy welcome to the new US and EU ambassadors.
Zelenskyi, meanwhile, made a rare overseas visit to Warsaw to express his gratitude for Poland’s support since the start of the Russian offensive.
Putin was addressing a meeting of the Kremlin’s Security Council dedicated to ensuring law and order in four Ukrainian territories he allegedly annexed last year.
“There are reasons to claim” that other countries and Western intelligence agencies “were involved in the staging of sabotage and terrorist attacks,” Putin said in a televised address.
In an apparent allusion to the Ukrainian authorities, Putin said that “neo-Nazis and their accomplices acted in Russia and in the annexed territories, including the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.”
Putin’s comments come days after an explosion at a cafe in Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, killed a high-profile military blogger and staunch supporter of Moscow’s attack on Ukraine, Vladlen Tatarsky.
Moscow said the attack was orchestrated by Ukraine with the help of supporters of jailed critic Alexei Navalny. Kiev has blamed Russia’s domestic power struggles for this.
But Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday the blogger’s death was “one of the topics of discussion” at the UN Security Council, where Moscow has assumed the rotating presidency.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky addresses well-wishers in the courtyard of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland
Polish President Andrzej Duda and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands after speaking at a Polish-Ukrainian business forum in Warsaw
Polish President Andrzej Duda (second from right) and his wife Agata (right) wave to well-wishers next to Zelensky (second from left) and his wife Olena (left) at the Royal Castle in Warsaw
Hours earlier, Putin had received the new foreign ambassadors in Moscow at a ceremony in the Kremlin.
He told US Ambassador Lynne Tracy that Washington was responsible for the “Ukrainian crisis,” adding that relations between Russia and the United States are in a “deep crisis.”
Putin also told the new EU envoy to Moscow, Roland Galharague, that the bloc had instigated a “geopolitical confrontation” with Moscow.
Also on Wednesday, Russian state media quoted the FSB security service as saying that it had detained a pilot of a Ukrainian light aircraft that crashed in the southern Bryansk region bordering Ukraine.
“The plane crashed for unknown reasons near the settlement of Butovsk in the Bryansk region. The pilot (citizen of Ukraine) who tried to flee to Ukrainian territory was detained by a border patrol,” the FSB was quoted as saying by the state news agency RIA Novosti.
In Warsaw, Zelenskyy expressed Ukraine’s gratitude to Poland, one of its staunchest supporters since the Russian offensive, for providing arms and taking in refugees.
“Today we are trying to get Ukraine… additional guarantees, security guarantees that will strengthen Ukraine’s military potential,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said after talks with Zelenskyy.
These guarantees are an “introduction to Ukraine’s full membership of NATO,” Duda added, saying Poland “strongly” supports Kiev’s bid to join the alliance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses a ceremony to receive credentials from newly appointed foreign ambassadors to Russia at the Kremlin on Wednesday
Putin sits with Leonid Pasechnik, head of the Russian-controlled Luhansk region, and Vladimir Saldo, head of the Russian-controlled Kherson region, at a Security Council meeting on Wednesday
Putin has used Ukraine’s desire to join NATO to justify Russia’s military operation there, although Ukraine was far from joining when fighting began in February 2022.
Zelenskyy thanked Poland for supporting Kiev’s efforts to join both the European Union and NATO.
“I would like to convey to our partners, who are constantly looking for compromises on our way to NATO, that Ukraine will be uncompromising here too,” said Zelenskyy.
Poland, Ukraine’s western neighbor, was the first NATO member to pledge the MiG-29 fighter jets Ukraine requested.
Warsaw said on Monday it had transferred some of its already promised warplanes to Ukraine after NATO member Slovakia announced it had delivered a first batch of its own.
“I think that in the future we will be able to transfer our entire remaining fleet of MiG-29s to Ukraine if there is still such a need,” Duda said of the 28 MiG-29 jets in Poland’s possession .
He would need NATO approval for such a move, he added.