The President of Ukraine spoke about the situation in Crimea.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that without Ukraine, Crimea and Donbass will be “dead regions.” He said this in an interview with the French edition of Le Figaro, according to the website of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Zelensky noted that for him “Crimea and Donbass did not go anywhere,” and he still continues to consider these territories Ukrainian.
“They will not be happy without Ukraine. It will be worse than Chernobyl. Because even tourists come to Chernobyl. And these will just be ‘dead’ regions, unfortunately,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, also telling about the inhabitants of these territories, who, according to the Ukrainian leader, “they live as if in captivity, but they consider themselves Ukrainians and want to be together with Ukraine.”
Recall that Crimea became the territory of Russia after the 2014 referendum on the status of the peninsula. Since then, Ukraine has considered the peninsula “temporarily occupied territory.” The Russian authorities have repeatedly stated that they will not consider the possibility of a second referendum on the peninsula, since Crimea has already returned to its historical homeland.