Ukrainian Presidential Representative on Russians in Crimea: Cross Kerch bridge and go home

Citizens of Russia living in occupied Crimea are participants in the war crime of colonisation, so they should leave the peninsula.

Source: Radio Liberty with reference to Tamila Tasheva, Presidential Representative of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea

Quote from Tasheva: "And if they do not leave, they must be forcibly deported. This is present in Ukrainian legislation and in any other legislation. If a person illegally crossed the state border, it means that they must be deported. We had several border checkpoints (Kalanchak, Chonhar and Chaplinka) and all these citizens – from 500,000 to 800,000 at least – did not enter through these checkpoints, and so they should turn around on the Kerch bridge and go back. If not, they will be forcibly thrown out."

Details: She believes that citizens of the Russian Federation should have left occupied Crimea after the first explosions on the peninsula in the summer of last year.

At the same time, according to Tasheva, the issue of real estate that Russian citizens received after February 2014 in Crimea should be discussed carefully. Because if the property was taken from a citizen of Ukraine, that's one story, and if there was a voluntary agreement, for example, to receive a plot of land, that's another matter.

According to the authorities, approximately 800,000 Russians moved to Crimea during the occupation.

Background: Earlier, Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, announced the points of the strategy of de-occupation of Crimea. Among them is "eviction of Russian citizens who came to Crimea after the occupation in 2014."

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