MOSCOW. June 14 (Interfax) - Russia did not rule out preserving Kiev's sovereignty over the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions on the condition that a land corridor to Crimea was provided to Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the Russian Foreign Ministry's leadership.
A Western politician visited Russia in March 2022 and offered to mediate a settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, Putin said. The politician asked whether Russian forces would remain in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions and what would happen to those regions after the achievement of the special military operation's goals, he said.
"I told him I did not rule out preserving Ukrainian sovereignty over those territories on the condition that Russia has a stable land corridor to Crimea. Kiev should guarantee the so-called servitude, the legal right of Russia's access to the Crimean Peninsula through the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions," Putin said.
"This is a major political decision. In the end, it would not be adopted unilaterally, but only after consultations with the Security Council and other bodies, after discussions with the citizens and the national public, primarily with residents of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions," he said.
The Western visitor also asked why Russian forces were maintaining a presence in southern Ukraine, including the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, Putin said. "We answered that it was a decision of the Russian General Staff, which planned the operation. The idea was to bypass some of the fortifications built by the Ukrainian authorities in Donbass over eight years, primarily to free Mariupol," he said.
The visitor said he was backed by the leaders of Germany and France and senior U.S. representatives, Putin said, without disclosing the politician's name.
The politician said in March 2022 that he was going to visit Kiev to continue the conversation with Ukrainian counterparts, Putin said. "We welcomed that, just as we did the attempts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, because every day of hostilities means new casualties and losses. However, as we learned later, Ukraine rejected the services of the Western intermediary and accused him of taking a pro-Russian stance. I should say they did so in a rather harsh manner," Putin said.