Ukraine has not abandoned the idea that Crimea should be returned by force, but for Moscow this means discussing the alienation of the Russian territory, which is out of the question, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"You know that from the very beginning, and the president spoke about this more than once before the start of the special operation, the Constitution of Ukraine said that Crimea should be returned to Ukraine by force. And de facto, Ukraine has not refused this, for us it is nothing more than a discussion of the topic of alienation of the Russian territories, there can be no other understanding here, this is out of the question," Peskov told reporters.
Russian media "absolutely misreported" the essence of the statements by Zelensky, saying that he was almost ready "to deal with this topic in a non-military way, but through peaceful negotiations," the official said, noting that this is an absolutely wrong interpretation.
"Such statements once again speak of the unpreparedness, unwillingness and inability of the Ukrainian side to be ready to resolve the problem by non-military methods," he said.
