Russia is unlikely to sign a contract with Ukraine on power supply to Crimea if Kyiv insists on a clause stipulating that the peninsula belongs to Ukraine, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

"It can be assumed with a great degree of probability that the president will opt not to sign a contract on such terms," Peskov told Interfax in commenting on preliminary findings of a poll of Crimeans conducted by the VTsIOM public opinion survey service, which showed that an overwhelming majority of the local residents objected to concluding a power supply contract with Kyiv on such terms.

"The first results of the sociological survey show quite an unambiguous picture. Sure, it makes sense to wait for the final results, although the preliminary ones are also quite illustrative," he said.

Asked whether Russia would sign a contract on power supplies to Crimea if Kyiv drops the demand that the peninsula be denoted as one belonging to Ukraine, Peskov replied," Then the situation would change."

"Actually, this is something on which our Russian colleagues have been insisting throughout the negotiations," he added.

Talking about the VTsIOM's poll, Peskov pointed out that it had been conducted at the president's behest.

"After the Energy Ministry reported about the precondition put forward by Ukraine on denoting Crimea as part of Ukraine in the contract, the president decided to find out the Crimean population's attitude toward the problem," Peskov said.

"Before making a decision on whether to sign the contract, the president decided to find out the Crimean people's opinion, that is, to learn whether the Crimeans are prepared to be denoted as part of Ukraine in the contract and receive electric power from there or whether they are prepared, say, to experience a certain shortage in power supplies until May 1, when the power bridge is to reach its full capacity," Peskov added.

Valery Fyodorov, the general director of VTsIOM, had said at a press conference earlier on Friday in presenting the findings of a poll of residents of Crimea and Sevastopol concerning a power supply contract with Ukraine: "In general, the findings are as follows: 6.18% of the respondents support the Ukrainian version of the contract, while 93.2% do not support the conclusion of such a contract,".

The poll also showed that 94% of Crimeans are prepared to experience temporary difficulties caused by the absence of a power supply contract with Ukraine, while 5.4% are not prepared for this.

VTSIOM conducted the poll of 2,525 respondents in Crimea and 500 in Sevastopol on December 31, 2015 and on January 1, 2016. Its margin of error is within 2.4%.