Senior Ukrainian officials insisted Thursday that Kyiv will make zero territorial concessions in its fight against Russia, following remarks from a deputy in the Ukrainian president’s office about the future of Crimea.
What the presidential official said: In comments first reported Wednesday by the Financial Times, top adviser Andriy Sybiha said if a Ukrainian counteroffensive pushed Russian forces back to the administrative border with Crimea, “we are ready to open (a) diplomatic page to discuss this issue."
“It doesn’t mean that we exclude the way of liberation (of Crimea) by our army," Sybiha added.
Why it's notable: The suggestion that Crimea might ever be up for negotiation has been essentially taboo for Ukrainian officials since the early days of the war.
Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014, in a move denounced by Ukraine and many Western allies as violating international law. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to take back the territory as the country fights off Russia's full-scale invasion, launched eight years after seizing the peninsula.
The two countries have not held talks on ending the fighting in a year.
Ukrainian leaders restate their position: Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, appeared to restate Ukraine’s uncompromising stance on Crimea Thursday.
Yermak said “the return of all Ukrainian territories” was key.
"We will return everything that is ours, and the enemy will be brought to justice," Yermak tweeted.
Another senior official in the president’s office, Mykhailo Podolyak, said in a tweet that the basis for "real negotiations" with the Kremlin is "the complete withdrawal of Russian armed groups beyond the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine in 1991. Including Crimea."
View the full tweet below:
CNN's Rob Picheta contributed to this report.