2024-09-19 21:47 update: 2024-09-21, 16:44
Fot. PAP/Viktor Kovalchuk
The Crimean Tatar government in Ukraine (Mejlis) has protested a statement made by the Polish foreign minister which suggests that to end the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Russia-occupied Crimea could be put under a UN mandate.
"Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski publicly expressed a belief that in order to end the Russian war against Ukraine, our state should give up Crimea," said Refat Chubarov, the head of the Mejlis on Wednesday.
According to Chubarov, the Mejlis considered such public suggestions unacceptable and cynical, and added that they do not align with Ukraine's national interests or the rights and interests of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people of Ukraine.
Sikorski mentioned Crimea during the Yalta European Strategy conference held in Kyiv on September 13 and 14, saying that the issue of the peninsula will be crucial during peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.
He explained that the Crimean Peninsula was symbolically important for Russia, but it was also strategically important for Ukraine. He added that he could not envision how to achieve peace without the demilitarisation of Crimea.
Sikorski suggested placing the peninsula under a UN mandate with the objective to prepare a fair referendum after verifying who the legal residents were, as quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 through a military intervention followed by a referendum that was considered illegal by Ukraine and the West. Tatars made up 12-15 percent of the peninsula's population before its annexation by Russia and faced persecution after boycotting the referendum. (PAP)
wpb/jch
