“The first summit of the Crimean Platform will take place on August 23rd. This is an initiative of Ukraine, which was supported by dozens of our international partners. We are returning Crimea to the world agenda in order to return it home to Ukraine. The USA, Great Britain, Poland, have already confirmed their participation in the summit. Turkey, the Baltic states, France, Germany, many other countries of the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea – and in total today there are 29 countries.This is a large, but far from the last and not the final list of all countries that will sign a joint a declaration of joint agreements and intentions, “the president said.
Zelensky noted that “we must forever forget that Ukraine will forget about Crimea.”
“Ukraine will not raise the issue of Crimea only in one case – when it will raise the Ukrainian flag in Crimea,” the head of state summed up.
Russia annexed Crimea after illegal referendum on March 16, 2014… The annexation of the peninsula to the Russian Federation is not recognized by Ukraine and most countries of the world.
The Crimean Platform is a new consultative and coordinating format initiated by Ukraine to improve the effectiveness of the international response to the occupation of Crimea, increase pressure on Russia, prevent human rights violations and protect victims of the occupation regime. The main goal of the platform is the de-occupation of Crimea. It is assumed that the platform will operate at several levels: heads of state and government, foreign ministers, in the dimension of inter-parliamentary cooperation, in the format of an expert network.
The format of the Crimean platform became necessary after Zelensky “several times unsuccessfully tried to raise the issue of the de-occupation of Crimea on international platforms,” in particular during Summit of the Normandy Four countries in 2019, said the deputy head of the President’s Office Igor Zhovkva.
Officially, the activities of the Crimean Platform will begin at the inaugural summit on 23 August. It is planned adopt a document called the Crimean Charterwho will condemn Russia’s policy towards the occupied Crimea.
Zelensky’s invitations to attend the Crimean Platform summit were accepted, in particular, President of Poland Andrzej Duda, President of Latvia Egils Levits, President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda, head of the Council of Europe Charles Michel and High Representative of the European Union Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell. The United States of America will be represented by the former presidential candidate and Minister of Transport of the country Pete Buttidzic.
At the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called “illegitimate” Ukraine’s attempts to return the Crimea occupied by Russia, in particular with the help of the Crimean Platform initiative.
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