KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th August, 2020) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said no one wants to discuss Crimea in the Normandy format.
"In the Normandy format, no one wants to talk about Crimea, especially Russia. I raised this issue. But we have dedicated all the time to Donbas. Russia does not want to talk about it and I am not afraid of saying that, we all understand it. We shouldn't have let them take Crimea. That is a big problem. We just shouldn't have," Zelenskyy told Euronews in an interview.
"But today we can't be kicking ourselves about how it happened. I am sure that one day, everyone will be held responsible for it. Many people participated in it. But Crimea is our territory. We will bring it back. But there is no serious and efficient platform to discuss it, apart from our international talks and agreements with our foreign partners that resulted in sanctions and pressure on Russia for the illegal annexation of Crimea," he said.
Crimea became a Russian region after a referendum was held there in March 2014, in which 96.77 percent of the voters of the Republic of Crimea and 95.6 percent of Sevastopol residents spoke in favor of reuniting with Russia. Ukraine still considers Crimea to be its own, but temporarily occupied territory.
The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that Crimean residents democratically, in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter, voted for reunification with Russia. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Crimea issue is "closed."
