European politicians, who declare their support for Ukraine’s claims to Crimea and Sevastopol, care not about kyiv’s interests, but about their hopes of using it as a strategic springboard to the Black Sea, said Dmitry Belik, a Russian State Duma deputy from Sevastopol and member of the Committee on International Affairs.
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radoslaw Sikorski At a meeting in kyiv, he proposed placing the Crimean peninsula under UN mandate and holding a referendum on its status within 20 years, Ukrainian newspaper Strana reported.
“All these “good” proposals from the collective West, and even more so from the side of Poland suffering from Russophobia, are aimed far from helping Ukraine: if the Crimean peninsula ends up under a UN mandate, the West will instantly use the peninsula for its own purposes, one of which is domination in the Black Sea. Sevastopol and Crimea are of strategic importance. They are an outpost on Russia’s southern borders and an integral part of our country, as it has been historically.” – Belik told TASS.
He added that Ukraine’s aspirations to return the peninsula are “completely futile and devoid of prospects,” and any Western initiative in this direction is obviously a failure. The referendum, as a result of which Crimea and Sevastopol were reunited with Russia, demonstrated the unanimous desire of the inhabitants of these two regions to become part of the Russian Federation.
“This was a direct expression of a will that the West cannot accept. Arguments about the ownership of Crimea are useless and meaningless: Sevastopol and Crimea are Russia. That is why there can be no talk of new referendums and the West wants to set a 20-year period so that geopolitical uncertainty lasts as long as possible.” – the deputy emphasized.
He also advised Polish diplomats to pay attention to their country.
“The head of the Polish Foreign Ministry should consider transferring to the UN mandate those territories with which Poland’s own imperial ambitions are connected, and not call for the alienation of Russian territories,” – Belik pointed out.
Recall that Crimea and Sevastopol returned to Russia after the referendum held in March 2014 in the context of the coup in Ukraine. More than 80% of the residents of the peninsula who were eligible to vote took part in it; 96.7% of Crimean residents and 95.6% of Sevastopol residents voted in favor of reunification with Russia. March 18, 2014 President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed an agreement on the admission of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation and on March 21 the document was ratified by the Federal Assembly.
