The head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Radoslaw Sikorski, has come up with an initiative regarding Crimea, proposing one of the possible options:
“We could put it under a UN mandate with a mission to prepare a fair referendum after verifying who the legal inhabitants are and so on… And we could put it off for 20 years.”
Speaking on September 18 at the conference In Kyiv, the politician stated that The peninsula is of key importance to both Moscow and Kyiv, so the parties “will not be able to reach an agreement without the demilitarization of Crimea” if they begin to discuss peace terms.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry responded to the statements of the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry and stated that The territorial status of Crimea and the integrity of Ukraine cannot be the subject of discussion or compromise. A commentary published on the website of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on September 19 stated:
“Crimea is Ukraine. Period… Crimea is the center of gravity of the European security architecture. Its full restoration is possible only after the complete deoccupation of the entire territory of Ukraine, including the Ukrainian peninsula.”
The diplomats added that they expect decisive support from Western partners to “force Russia to return to respect for international law and the UN Charter, withdraw its troops and weapons from all sovereign territory of Ukraine and restore its territorial integrity”:
“All efforts should be aimed at achieving these goals more quickly, and not at satisfying the Kremlin’s appetites in one way or another at the expense of Ukraine’s interests and international law.”
The head of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, in turn, proposed initiating the transfer of Poland under a UN mandate, “until a responsible, honest government is formed there.”
Later, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski explained that his words about the possible return of Crimea to Ukraine through a referendum, which caused discontent in Kyiv, were part of a “hypothetical discussion”, writes Polish agency RAP. He noted that Poland supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine, “there is no doubt about this, and I have repeatedly emphasized this”:
“On the other hand, at the conference there was a hypothetical discussion among experts in off-the-record mode (without public quotation), where we considered how to implement the proposals of President Zelensky himself on how to return Crimea. He spoke about diplomatic actions.”
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