Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to negotiate with the head of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. However, the topic of the Crimean peninsula should be off the table.
This was stated by Dmitrii Peskov, Press Secretary of the President oftheRussian Federation, on the air of Russia-1 TV channel.
"If we talk about President Putin's political will, he clearly confirmed it and reaffirmed it once again: he is ready to meet, and he believes that current conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian bilateral relations is no good," Peskov said.
According to him, there will not be any movement forward in the preparations of such meeting if President Zelensky will keep raising the issue of Crimea.
“The fact is that for us the topic of Crimea does not exist. And as they tell us in the Office of the President of Ukraine, Zelensky wants to discuss Crimea. Well, from what point of view can we discuss Crimea? Obviously not from the point of view that it is a region of Russia. So this cannot be an item on the agenda. Therefore, so far, zero progress has been made in this regard," he added.
It's worth noting that despite the occupation of Crimea and part of the Donbas region, Russian President Vladimir Putin assures the relations between Ukraine and Russia can be fully restored.