By Ulviye Filiyeva ERKEC
Forty-six countries, including the EU, NATO members and the USA, participated in the Crimean Platform Summit held in Kiev on the 23 August 2021, the capital of Ukraine, called for Russia to return Crimea.
NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana, who attended the summit, emphasized that they stand by Ukraine and called Russia to return control of the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who attended the summit, also said that Turkey strongly supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
The Crimean Platform Summit ended in Kyiv. In the final edict, it is stated that forum participants will consider the possibility of imposing new sanctions against Russia. The platform itself will serve as a consultation and coordination format for the peaceful end of the temporary occupation of the region.
At the same time, the document included an urge for participants to invite Moscow to join in the work of the forum. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delineated the launch of the platform as the start of the countdown to the return of Crimea.
Russia, evaluated the results of the Crimean Platform Summit organized by the Ukrainian authorities. Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin views the Crimean Platform as an anti-Russian initiative. He also emphasized that Moscow does not accept the line on which forum participants stand regarding the regions of Russia.
The leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Jirinovsky wrote on his Telegram channel that Ukraine should be divided into two parts, one of which must be part of Russia:
“The best solution is to divide Ukraine into Galicia and Lesser Russia. The Russian enemies will gather in the West and found a Galician state of five million people, with Lvov as its capital. This country can be accessed to NATO and the European Union. And all Southeast Ukraine will join Russia, following the path of Crimea.”
Ivan Abazher, a member of the Public Chamber (CC) of Russia and Crimea, said that Russia should impose sanctions on the participants of Kyiv Summit Crimean Platform for violating the country’s territorial integrity.
Sergei Nechaev; Russia’s ambassador to Germany, in his statement to the Welt am Sonntag newspaper in connection with the Crimean Platform international summit, said that the question of ownership of Crimea was finally resolved in 2014 and he said that also no provocative initiative will persuade to change their minds of the inhabitants of the peninsula. “In particular, the results of the latest sociological surveys also proved of This: 93% of Crimeans positively evaluate the reunification of the peninsula into Russia,” Nechaev emphasised.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, described the forum as a Witches’ Sabbath[1] in which “the West will continue to feed on the neo-Nazi, racist sentiments of the modern Ukrainian government”.
Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Relations Leonid Slutsky said: “The Summit of the Crimean Platform was not only ineffective, but also a very boring event, as evidenced by the expressions on the faces of the participants. Ministers and other Western officials on duty spoke the workaday words representing their country”.
Despite Russia’s objections, in the joint declaration, signed by all 46 summit participants, including the leaders of 14 countries, highlighted the possibility of Ukraine regaining full control of the peninsula.
[1] The Witches’ Sabbath is a gathering of people believed to practice witchcraft and other rituals.