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Crimea and Sevastopol

Zelensky calls for alienation of Crimea from Russia, which is ruled out — Kremlin

"Such speculations indicate once again the unpreparedness, unwillingness and inability of the Ukrainian side to be ready to resolve the problem by non-military methods," Dmitry Peskov said

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky

© Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. Moscow sees Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s statement about Kiev's wish to retake Crimea "by non-military means" as a discussion about the alienation of Russian territories, which is out of the question, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Friday.

"For us, this is nothing but a discussion over an alienation of a territory from Russia. There can be no other understanding here. This is out of the question," Peskov said, when asked for a comment on Zelensky's statement.

"Such speculations indicate once again the unpreparedness, unwillingness and inability of the Ukrainian side to be ready to resolve the problem by non-military methods," Peskov added.

Earlier, Zelensky in an interview with the British daily Financial Times said that he would be "only in favor", if someone was ready to offer a way of retaking Crimea by non-military means.

Peskov pointed out that a number of media outlets "absolutely misrepresented the essence of that statement," interpreting it "almost as President Zelensky's readiness to deal with this issue not by military means, but by peace talks."

"This is an absolutely wrong interpretation," Peskov emphasized. "You know that from the very beginning - in fact, the president [of Russia Vladimir Putin] mentioned this more than once, even before the start of the special military operation - Ukraine’s constitution says that Crimea must be retaken by force. De facto Ukraine has not given up on this."

Tags

Foreign policy Crimea and Sevastopol Dmitry Peskov Vladimir Zelensky

Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict

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