Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged today to restore Ukrainian rule in Russian-annexed Crimea, a move he said would help restore “global law and order”.
He told an international conference on Crimea that regaining control of the peninsula, seized and annexed by Russia in 2014 in a move not recognized by most other countries, would be “the biggest anti-war step”.
“Everything started with Crimea, and it will end with Crimea,” Zelensky said in a speech at the launch of the Crimea Forum, a forum that seeks to restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity and end Russia’s annexation of Crimea .
“And this is true, and I believe in this 100%, that in order to overcome terror, to give back guarantees and security in our region, in Europe, in the whole world, we have to achieve victory in the battle against it Russian attack”.
“We must liberate Crimea from occupation,” he said. “It will be the restoration of world law and order.”
Zelensky said representatives of about 60 countries and international organizations are taking part in the summit, including about 40 presidents and prime ministers. Almost everyone is participating online, but Polish President Andrzej Duda watched it live during a visit to Kyiv.
Russia has given no indication that it will abandon Crimea, home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and has used the peninsula as a staging ground from which to launch missile strikes on Ukrainian targets.
“Despite (Russian) threats, Ukraine is strong enough to see the prospects for a Ukrainian Crimea,” Zelensky said. “Ukraine’s restoration of control over the Crimean peninsula will be a historic anti-war step in Europe that will restore security and justice.”
He said Russia had turned Crimea into “an ecological disaster zone and a military springboard for aggressive action”, using it to fire 750 cruise missiles at “cities and communities”.
Russia has not been able to verify how many missiles have been fired from Crimea during the conflict.
Earlier, the Ukrainian president warned Moscow that it would receive a strong response if Russian forces carried out attacks on or around Independence Day.
Zelensky has warned that Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, may try “something particularly bad” ahead of Independence Day from Soviet rule on Wednesday.
Answering a question at a press conference with the visiting Polish president Andriy Duda about the possibility of a Russian missile strike on Kyiv, the Ukrainian president said there was a daily threat of attacks and that Ukrainian intelligence services were cooperating with foreign intelligence services.
“Russia does this all the time. It can [οι Ρώσοι] increase the number of these plagues? Yes, they might do it on 23, 24 (August),” Zelensky said.
“What will Ukraine do if they hit Kyiv? The same as now. Because for me as president, and for every Ukrainian, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Donbas, everything is the same. Ukrainians live there. (And) in Kharkiv , in Zaporizhia.”
Volodymyr Zelensky said the response would be the same if any Ukrainian city was attacked by Russia.
“If they hit us, they will get a response, a strong response,” Zelensky said. “I want to say that every day … this response will grow, become stronger, stronger and stronger.”
Source: Capital
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