«There Can Be No Talk About That»: Peskov

Ukraine has not abandoned its position that Crimea should be returned through forceful methods, which, for Russia, implies discussions about the cession of Russian territory. This issue cannot be discussed, stated Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of Russia. The information was reported by RIA Novosti.

Earlier, Vladimir Zelensky had expressed a willingness to determine the fate of Crimea through non-military means. In an interview with the Financial Times, he admitted that the question of Crimea's fate is being raised in the international agenda. At the same time, he noted that no one should waste their time if the decision regarding Crimea implies that it belongs to the Russian Federation.

“You know that from the very beginning, in Ukraine’s Constitution, it was stated that Crimea should be returned to Ukraine through forceful methods, through military means. And de facto, Ukraine has not abandoned that. For us, it is nothing less than the topic of discussing the cession of Russian territories; there can be no other understanding, there can be no talk about that,” said Peskov to reporters, commenting on Zelensky's statements.

According to the Russian President’s press secretary, unfortunately, Russian media have completely misinterpreted the essence of the statements. Furthermore, Peskov believes that such declarations from the Ukrainian President indicate that Kyiv does not want to use non-military methods to resolve the issue.

“Such statements once again indicate that the Ukrainian side is not ready, does not want, and cannot be prepared to resolve the issue through non-military methods,” emphasized Peskov.