Russia is forced to consider the participation of certain countries and international organizations in the meeting of the Crimea Platform as an encroachment on its territorial integrity, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.
She called the Ukrainian initiative populism and "a political play detached from reality," which aims to "preserve the theme of Crimea's temporary stay within Ukraine in the information space." "At the same time, as we warned, we will be forced to consider the participation of certain countries, international organizations and their representatives in the Crimea Platform as an encroachment on the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, which will inevitably affect our relations accordingly," she stressed.
Zakharova pointed out that the final declaration of the Crimea Platform meeting, which was held in Kiev on August 23, urged Russia to "join" this initiative. Moscow does not see an opportunity for itself to participate in the Crimea Platform because of its "cynical anti-Russian orientation". Instead, the Russian side invites foreign partners to Crimea to participate in truly Crimean platforms in various areas of the peninsula's development.
"We are fully open to interacting with all our international partners in unlocking the unique potential of Russia's Crimea. To this end, we invite our foreign friends to the peninsula to participate in truly Crimean platforms for economic, humanitarian and cultural cooperation," the Russian Foreign Ministry official said.
She also stressed that the issue of Crimea's return to the Russian Federation was ultimately closed in March 2014 as a result of the referendum of the peninsula's residents. This decision allowed the Crimeans "to retain their loyalty to their history, their Russian culture, their right to speak their native language, including Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar, while avoiding the punitive operation and civil war that was later unleashed by the Kiev regime in Donbass, as well as the fascist atrocities to which the residents of Odessa were subjected in May 2014," Zakharova concluded.
In September 2020, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, speaking at the UN General Assembly, announced a plan to create a so-called Crimea platform. The meeting was originally scheduled for May this year, but uncertainty about the participants forced the postponement of the event until August. As a result, representatives of 46 countries and international organizations agreed to come. Most European states sent their foreign or defense ministers to Kiev.
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Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS