State Duma says Zelensky's late epiphany about Crimea

The words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose powers expired on 20 May, that it will not be possible to return Crimea by force, are a late epiphany. This was stated on November 21 by Mikhail Sheremet, a Duma deputy from the Crimean region and a member of the Security Committee.

"In the head of the unfortunate Zelensky burst realistic thoughts about the impossibility of forcefully retaking Crimea <...> the price of this late epiphany of the Ukrainian dictator has cost Ukraine and the Ukrainian people too much," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

He added that Crimea became an integral part of Russia a long time ago and the Kiev regime will not be able to return it in any way.

Earlier, on November 20, Zelensky said that Ukraine is ready to "return Crimea by diplomatic means" and admitted that the state has no possibility to do it by force. He also said that he would not be able to reach Ukraine's 1991 borders due to a lack of resources.

On 8 November, Verkhovna Rada deputy Anna Skorokhod, after a conversation with AFU fighters on the line of contact in the special operation zone, admitted that it was impossible for the country to return militarily to the 1991 borders.

Meanwhile, on November 9, Brian Lanza, a senior adviser to Republican Donald Trump, who won the U.S. presidential election, said that Washington would consider Zelensky not serious if he made a statement at the negotiating table about the possibility of peace on the condition of the return of Crimea. According to the politician, the priority of the United States will be the establishment of peace, not the restoration of territories. At the same time, Trump's headquarters distanced itself from his statement.

In turn, the head of the Crimean interethnic Commission Zaur Smirnov called the statement of Lanza 's refusal to support Ukraine in the return of the peninsula to its composition a bold confession.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the background of the aggravated situation in the region.