When interviewed by the German newspaper Bild, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was asked what he would tell Vladimir Putin when he met him for the first time.
“Let us start from the point that Donbas and Crimea are Ukraine,” he answered.
The Ukrainian leader believes that Crimea is not lost for Ukraine.
“We hope that soon it will be returned. I love Crimea very much. I have been there many times. This is a unique place in Ukraine with its nature and history. For me, Crimea has always been and still stays a part of Ukraine,” Zelensky stressed.
The Kremlin did not congratulate Zelensky on his being elected president of Ukraine; it also failed to extend greetings on the occasion of his getting into office.
“President Putin will congratulate president Zelensky on the first success in the settlement of the domestic conflict in southeastern Ukraine and on the first success in the normalization of Russian-Ukrainian relations,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The parties have not agreed to hold a meeting yet; the Russian side does not rule out that it might take place, but at the moment, they are monitoring ‘the developments in Kyiv’.
