Any speculation that Crimea could be traded off with Russia for peace is unsound and dangerous, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said during the Crimean Platform parliamentary summit in Prague on Tuesday.
The platform gathers legislators from forty countries. In addition to most EU countries, representatives from the United Kingdom, Canada and Sierra Leone confirmed their participation. Other countries such as Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United States sent video messages.
In his speech, Lipavský (Pirates, Greens) emphasised that Crimea is “the key to ending Russia’s imperialist ambition in Europe”.
“Once Moscow is forced to end its occupation of Crimea, it will not be able to block the export of Ukrainian grain to the countries of the global south through the Black Sea,” Lipavský said.
“The policy of the European Union and all democratic countries should be to restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its 1991 borders, including Crimea,” he added.
The meeting was joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video contribution and by the head of the Ukrainian Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, in person.
“There is no doubt that Crimea is Ukraine. Crimea is Ukrainian, and we want to see it liberated just like other parts of Ukraine where there is fighting now,” said the speaker of the Czech Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová (TOP 09, EPP).
Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula in the spring of 2014 in violation of international law. According to Czech politicians, the West responded inadequately at that time, which gave Russia the impetus to occupy even more territory in Ukraine.
(Aneta Zachová | Euractiv.cz)
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