Former Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anton Korynevych: This war started with the occupation of Crimea, and it will end with the de-occupation of Crimea

Anton Korynevych was the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea from 2019 to April, 2022. During the seventh #UkraineDialogue with Aspen institute Germany he explained why it is important to de-occupy all the Ukrainian territories.

If some parts of Ukraine remain under Russian control, this whole tragedy of 24th of February will repeat again

Anton  highlighted that the Russian-Ukraine war started in February 2014 with the occupation of Crimea, and it must end with the de-occupation of Crimea and the integration of the peninsula to the Ukrainian legal order.

— Before the 24th of February it looked like some world leaders decided to act like “let’s forget about Crimea, the main thing is that Russia will not go further”. But it was the wrong strategy. As we saw, one of the biggest waves of attacks came from Crimea in order to seize control over Southern Ukraine: part of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk regions are now occupied by Russia as a result of their attack from Crimea. 

Anton stressed that Crimea is one of the key points which will be the final stages of the Russian war of aggression. 

— It is really important for our colleagues in Germany and in other countries to understand this notion and to feel that Crimea should not be taken as some sort of acquisition. Crimea shall remain under the Ukrainian flag and under Ukrainian control because if some parts of Ukraine remain under Russian control, this whole tragedy of the 24th February may repeat itself in the future. 

Russia was seriously concerned with Ukraine’s active engagement with Crimea since 2019

Anton said that before February 24th Russia was seriously concerned with Ukraine’s active engagement with Crimea since 2019. 

— Among the main achievements were the adoption on the Decree of the President, the strategy of deoccupation and reintegration of Crimea, the adoption of law about indigenous people, which is primarily for the Crimean Tatars, and the establishment of the International Crimea Platform in August 2021. The last one could be seen as a kind of communication platform in order to understand how Ukraine can move forward and how we can fight the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

The second summit of the Crimean Platform took place on August 23, 2022. For security reasons, due to the constant shelling of Ukrainian cities by the Russian army, the Summit was held online, with the arrival of Polish President Duda.

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