Zelensky insists war ‘not over’ until Ukraine reclaims Crimea

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will not consider his country victorious in its 16-month war with Russia so long as Moscow holds Crimea.

“We cannot imagine Ukraine without Crimea. And while Crimea is under the Russian occupation, it means only one thing: war is not over yet,” Zelensky, 45, told CNN in an interview over the weekend.

When pressed on whether he thought there could be a scenario of “victory and peace” in which Crimea is not part of Ukraine, the onetime actor and comedian stated: “There will not be victory there.”

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, after popular protests led to the ouster and exile of Kyiv’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych.

Prior to Russia’s annexation, which was condemned by the US and its allies, the strategic Black Sea peninsula had been part of Ukraine since 1954.

Western nations slapped sanctions against Russia in response to the takeover of Crimea, and booted it from the Group of Eight nations, now known as the Group of Seven.

In the years since, Russia held a firm grip on the peninsula despite Ukrainian efforts to limit water supply and undercut their control.

Seemingly buoyed by Ukraine’s strong performance on the battlefield against Russia, Zelensky has maintained that liberation of Crimea is key to ending the war.

Ukraine claims to have notched some territorial gains as it continues to mount its counteroffensive.

Last month, Russia’s military was plunged into disarray when the Wagner mercenary group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, ordered his forces to march on Moscow.

The mutiny was done in apparent protest of the Ministry of Defense’s plans to fold the paramilitary group into the regular army and followed allegations by Prigozhin that a Russian strike had killed some of his troops.

Eventually, Prigozhin reached a deal with the Kremlin, brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, and called off the march to Moscow. He then accepted apparent exile to the neighboring country.

“We see Putin’s reaction. It’s weak,” Zelensky mused on the abortive coup. “Firstly, we see he doesn’t control everything. Wagner is moving deep into Russia and taking certain regions shows how easy it is to do. Putin doesn’t control the situation in the region.

“His whole army is in Ukraine,” the Ukrainian leader added. “We understand that Putin doesn’t control the regional policy, and he doesn’t control all those people in the region. So all that vertical of power he used to have just got crumbling down.”

Zelensky further surmised that Putin “doesn’t full control all the processes” in the Russian military, particularly when it comes to the rank-and-file.

The Ukrainian leader also voiced his displeasure with reports revealing that he met last month with CIA Director William Burns.

“I was surprised to see the information in some media, both in the US and Ukrainian and European media. My communication with the CIA chief should always be behind the scenes … because we discuss important things,” he said.

“We don’t have any secrets from CIA, because we have good relations and our intelligence services talk with each other.”

The Washington Post reported last week that Burns was told by Ukrainian officials that Kyiv hoped to retake Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine’s east and southeast before opening cease-fire negotiations with the Kremlin by the end of this year.

CNN is set to air its full interview with Zelensky Wednesday.