Zelenskyy: Crimea to become part of EU together with Ukraine

OLENA ROSHCHINA –  TUESDAY, 23 AUGUST 2022, 15:13

The President of Ukraine has opened the second summit of the international Crimea Platform in Kyiv and addressed its participants with the words that Ukraine will regain control over temporarily occupied Crimea.

Source: Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the second summit of the Crimea Platform

Quote from Zelenskyy: "Citizens from Crimea and in Crimea... I know that Crimea is with Ukraine and is waiting for us to come back. I want you to know: we will definitely come back."

Details: Zelenskyy said that when Ukraine regains control over Crimea, it will fix "everything that the occupiers did on the peninsula" in various areas and restore justice.

The Crimea Platform is designed to facilitate this.

According to the President of Ukraine, "the degradation of Russia began with the seizure of Crimea, with the terror experienced by the Crimean Tatar people" and the repression of the Muslim community.

Zelenskyy cited the letter of Nariman Dzhelyal, imprisoned by the occupiers, that "it began with Crimea, and it will end with Crimea".

In order to overcome terror, to restore predictability and security to our region, Europe, and the whole world, we must win the fight against Russian aggression. It is necessary to liberate Crimea from occupation. It will end there, where it all began. And this will be an effective resuscitation of the international legal order," he said.

The president emphasised that the occupation turned Crimea into a depressed and dependent region with high fences and lawlessness, an ecological disaster zone and a military bridgehead for aggression.

Ukraine's restoration of control [over Crimea - ed.] will return freedom and modernity to the peninsula, Zelenskyy assured.

Quote: "Crimea was and is Ukraine. And after liberation, together with our entire state, it will become part of the European Union, I am sure of it. The passport of a citizen of Ukraine will also be a passport of the European Union. And these are enormous opportunities for all our people living in Crimea.

The roads of Crimea will be the roads of the entire European continent. The ports of Crimea will be the ports of the whole of Europe. Only Ukraine can connect Simferopol with Berlin, and Yalta with Naples."

Details: According to Zelenskyy, only Ukraine is worried about the real security of Crimea, i.e. normal supply of clean water, normal waste disposal, effective rules for handling waste and sewage.

Only Ukraine can build a modern irrigation system in Crimea and integrate Crimean agricultural production and the entire business sector with the tremendous European market, the president said.

Only Ukraine, he is convinced, will provide Crimea with modern and affordable medicine and education, as well as a digital system of public services.  

Background: 60 countries and international organisations, including about 40 presidents and prime ministers, are taking part in the second summit of the Crimea Platform. For security reasons, the summit is being held online, but some representatives of the international community have come to Ukraine.

This year, the geography of the Crimea Platform expanded to include countries on the African continent and the other side of the Atlantic.

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