Crimea, where have we gone? For more than nine years, the Sicilian Black Sea peninsula has been occupied by the Russians, who annexed it with the March 2014 referendum, the regularity of which is not recognized by Kyiv and the West as a whole. The outbreak of war in Ukraine on February 24 raised the stakes on the table, ramping up Moscow’s territorial claims in Ukraine and handing over the idea of Vladimir Putin’s “conquest” of the peninsula, a bit like yes, it was a down payment. But yesterday, on the occasion of the second meeting of the Crimea Platform, exactly one year ago, on August 23, 2021, the international alliance mobilized by Volodymyr Zelenskyy to bring the Crimea issue back on the agenda before the thunder of arms thinks about it Western leaders their belief that Crimea is Ukrainian, not Russian.
“It is necessary,” said Zelenskyi, “to liberate Crimea so that victory can really be achieved: everything began in Crimea and must end in Crimea. The Ukrainian flag will fly again in all occupied territories”. Everyone else joined the choir. Above all, EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen, who promised: “The EU will never recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia. Our desire to see Ukraine as a member of the EU has never been stronger ». She is joined by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (“The international community will never accept the illegal imperialist annexation of your territory by Russia”) and outgoing Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi (“We are deeply concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in the peninsula” ) But Britain, too, with fellow Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is promising “military, humanitarian, economic and diplomatic support until Russia withdraws its troops from the country.” For the United States (which Bllomberg said today announced a new $3 billion military aid package Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken said: “Crimea is Ukraine. That was our position in 2014 and it will remain so in 2022”. Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, agrees: “Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began in 2014 the annexation and illegal occupation of the K rim.” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is gloomy: “Winter is coming and it’s going to be tough.” And even Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says: “The return of Crimea to Ukraine, of which it is an inseparable part, is essentially a requirement of international law.”
But everyone knows very well that it will be difficult to walk the talk. Also because, as Andrey Kfortov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council, points out, “It is difficult to imagine that the Russian leadership could consider withdrawing from Crimea because it would mean a strategic defeat for President Putin and his allies. I think if there were real concerns that Ukraine might retake Crimea, Russia would consider some sort of escalation. For the head of the pro-Russian government in Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, the matter is simple: all participants of the Crimean platform are “terrorists or their accomplices”.