President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the war will not end as long as Crimea remains under Russian occupation.

“We cannot imagine Ukraine without Crimea. And while Crimea is under the Russian occupation, it means only one thing: the war is not over yet,” he said in an interview with CNN published on Monday.

When Asked whether there was any scenario under which there could be peace without Crimea, Zelenskyy said: “It will not be victory then.”

Zelenskyy called Putin's reaction to Yevgeny Prigozhin's rebellion "weak." “We see Putin’s reaction. It’s weak,” he said.

Zelenskyy also told CNN he was “surprised” to see his meeting with Burns reported in the media. “My communication with the CIA chief should always be behind the scenes,” he said. “We discuss important things – what Ukraine needs and how Ukraine is prepared to act,” the president explained.

“We don’t have any secrets from CIA, because we have good relations, and our intelligence services talk with each other,” Zelenskyy said.

“The situation is pretty straightforward. We have good relations with the CIA chief and we are talking. I told him about all the important things related to the battlefield which we need,” the CNN quoted him as saying.