Fellow
Ukrainians!
Crimea was, is
and will be an integral part of the Ukrainian state and the country-criminal
will be forced to return the loot. Sooner or later, this will happen no matter
how long the de-occupation of the peninsula will last. Such crime as annexation
has no limitation period. However, we use the term “annexation” only as an
international legal definition of the issue. Speaking more emotionally and
figuratively, it is better to use the word “Anschluss”. Historical parallels
are too expressive and absolutely relevant here.
The annexation
was not sudden. Russia has been preparing for the seizure of Crimea since 1991.
In the course of the first twenty years, the Ukrainian authorities have been
aware of this threat and underestimated it. And those who started ruling the
country in 2010, like a real fifth column, facilitated Russians in their
preparation to the seizure of Crimea, first of all, ruining the defense
infrastructure of the entire Ukraine. They are the first to bear responsibility
for the temporary loss of Crimea and Sevastopol.
I say
“temporary”, for I am confident that we will certainly return these two
administrative territories under the Ukrainian sovereignty. This extremely
complex and promising process has already begun.
Today, I have
instructed to organize a special session of the National Security and Defense
Council to clarify our strategy for the reintegration of Crimea. I expect the
Cabinet of Ministers to provide a detailed schedule for the protection of
Ukraine’s national interests in the international courts and holding the
country-aggressor accountable to Ukraine and Ukrainian private companies.
In addition, I
require the Government to submit the issue on temporary regime of special
customs protection along the line of administrative border between Kherson
region and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as well as the energy strategy on
Crimea, for consideration by the NSDC.
The Ministry
of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are instructed
to submit proposals for substantial enhancement of military capacity of Ukraine
in Kherson region and along the entire Black Sea coast. Russia has increased
its military presence in the region, completes the peninsula’s transformation
from a flourishing international resort into a big military base, which poses a
nuclear threat not only to Ukraine, but also to all countries of the Black Sea
region.
It is obvious
that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs plays a leading role in ensuring political
and diplomatic conditions for the return of Crimea, filing the aforementioned
lawsuits and preserving the regime of international sanctions against Russia,
which has become a result of its aggression against Ukraine in Crimea and
Donbas.
It is natural
that Ukraine does not recognize and will never de jure recognize residents of
the peninsula who received Russian passports as Russian citizens. Russian
citizens do not live in Crimea. It is inhabited only by Ukrainian citizens. Our
people live on our territory, which is temporarily occupied.
Until the
return of Crimea to its historically determined place within Ukraine, our key
task is to protect citizens’ rights and freedoms in Crimea and provide support
to any source of legitimate resistance to the Russian occupants and their local
“goblins-puppets”.
Occupation
authorities in Crimea carry out massive violations of fundamental human rights
and freedoms, make people acquire Russian nationality, implement a deliberate
policy to change the composition of the population and press out ethnic
Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, and other ethnic minorities, destroys the Ukrainian
language and persecutes Ukrainian language speakers. Ukrainian churches also
face persecution.
Ukraine will
resolutely defend collective rights of cultural and religious communities on
the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, particularly
the rights of ethnic Ukrainians, as well as indigenous peoples –
Crimean Tatars, Krymchaks and Karaites, other national minorities, all
Ukrainian patriots who did not recognize the occupation regime and carry out
resistance in every possible way. We will broadly involve international
organizations for the protection of their rights, including the right to
protest.
Kyiv will take
every action to keep the issue of illegal occupation of the territory of the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol on the agenda of the European and
global politics as an unprecedented violation of the international law since
the World War II.
The main
precondition for reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory is the
faster economic development of Ukraine, its democratic institutions and human
rights protection mechanisms, as well as the increase in the level and quality
of life.
I am grateful
to all Crimean residents who do not break their civil and spiritual contact
with true Homeland – Ukraine despite extremely difficult conditions of the
authoritarian regime and persecution of dissent.
I am
particularly grateful for the resistance of courageous and long-suffering
Crimean Tatar People, the Mejlis and its leaders started on February 26, 2014.
Support
provided last week by the entire Ukraine to a prominent Crimean Tatar daughter
Jamala became a national recognition of their role. She has got my vote as
well.
It seems as if
Moscow tries to return Crimean Tatars back in 1944. Kyiv, albeit belatedly,
realized the necessity of creating the national autonomy of Crimean Tatars in
Crimea with a full guarantee of equal rights and civil liberties of ethnic
Russians, Ukrainians and other ethnic groups of the peninsula.
Everything
will be as it should be in a European country.
This war will
be finished for Ukraine only when the leg of the last invader leaves the sacred
Ukrainian land in Donbas and Crimea. But we must be strong and steadfast in our
faith for that.
Crimea is not
Russia. Ukraine is not Russia.
Crimea is
Ukraine. Ukraine is Europe.
Glory
to Ukraine!
No comments:
Post a Comment