President Zelenskiy: Crimea will return to Ukraine
(Baonghean.vn) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy believes that the Crimean Peninsula will return to Ukraine. The head of state said this at a meeting with the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar communities in Ankara (Türkiye).
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| Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Photo: AP |
“In general, I know for sure that the day will come when Crimea will return,” Zelenskiy was quoted by UNIAN news agency as saying. The Ukrainian leader expressed hope that in the future there will be only a happy dawn in the history of his country.
Earlier, Yury Gempel, head of the Crimean Parliamentary Committee on International Relations, said that the people determined their future themselves in a referendum in 2014.
“For more than 20 years, Crimea has been part of Ukraine, always oriented towards the Russian Federation. Crimea as a whole is originally Russian territory, and what happened in the 90s when the peninsula became part of Ukraine was deeply wrong and unnatural for the citizens living on the peninsula. This land returned to Russia entirely based on the will of the Crimean people. This is the most important and key position.”
Crimea joined Russia in March 2014, following a referendum held after the coup in Ukraine. 96.77% of voters in the Republic of Crimea and 95.6% of Sevastopol residents voted in favor of unification with Russia.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that it took this decision democratically, in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter. According to President Vladimir Putin, the Crimea issue is completely closed.
