Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, told the Financial Times yesterday, that Kiev is willing to discuss the future of Crimea with Moscow if its forces reach the border of the Russian-occupied peninsula. “If we 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, referring to Kyiv’s long-planned counteroffensive. He added: “It doesn’t mean that we exclude the way of liberation [of Crimea] by our army.”
While Sybiha’s mention of diplomacy in connection with Crimea is being commented upon widely, there is very little of an offer here, and much more of an assurance to some nervous Westerners that the ‘counteroffensive, then negotiate’ narrative is being heard in Kiev. Whether that is simply what needs to be said to assure the maximum of weaponry and munitions for the vaunted counteroffensive is not clear.