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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be ready to discuss the issues of Crimea and the recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics with Russia after the Ukrainian side receives security guarantees, TASS reported.

"This is a very difficult situation for everyone. For Crimea, Donbass, and for everyone. In order to find a way out, you have to take this first step, which I have mentioned: security guarantees, the end of the war," he said in an interview with TV companies from European countries and from Ukraine.

According to Zelensky, he is ready to discuss these issues at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I am ready to raise these issues at the first meeting with the President of Russia, they are relevant, they are important for us," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.