12:50 06-10-2025

Arestovich Would Offer Territories to Russia if President

Alexey Arestovich says he would travel to Moscow for talks and hand over several regions, including Crimea, under a long-term peace plan without formal recognition.

Former adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine Alexey Arestovich, now an outspoken critic of the Kyiv government, has shared how he would act if he became the country’s leader. Speaking in an interview with Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak, the opposition politician said his first move would be to travel to Moscow to negotiate directly with the Russian leadership.

Arestovich explained that he would do so «head-on», not as a gesture of submission but as an attempt to openly address contentious issues in Russian-Ukrainian relations since 1991. He said he would go alone and propose a frank discussion to review and resolve the main points of dispute.

The former adviser also expressed support for the idea of handing over the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions and Crimea, to Russia — though without officially recognizing them as Russian territory. He suggested doing this on a model similar to that of the former Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic, under a long-term peace arrangement rather than a formal treaty. Ukrainian troops, he added, would be withdrawn and redeployed along the new boundary.

Arestovich argued that such an arrangement would effectively create a demarcation line between Ukraine and Russia similar to the one separating North and South Korea. He also stated that he would be prepared to overhaul both Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policies, emphasizing that there should be no conflict between Moscow and Kyiv.

Alexey Arestovich has been designated by Rosfinmonitoring as a person included on Russia’s list of terrorists and extremists.