Leonid Kravchuk: Crimea will return when Russia is not able to control it
In the broadcast of a joint project by Radio Liberty and TV channel 112 Ukraine on January 7, former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk said that he believes that “Crimea will return when Russia is not able to control it”.
“I think that Crimea will be returned [to Ukraine] when Russia is not able to control Crimea,” the former president observed.
He noted that Ukraine has spent billions of dollars developing the peninsula.
“Since 1954, Ukraine has invested more than a hundred billion dollars there in order to develop water, roads, and resorts to establish agriculture, culture and so on. And so these myths that are constantly coming out of Moscow that Crimea is their territory, their glorious city – this is all a fiction. Khrushchev did not give Crimea to Ukraine, he forced it to take it, motivating to the political bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party that Ukraine, having experience in provinces such as Odessa, Kherson, and Mykolaiv, could help Crimea, which, of course, actually happened. Ukraine helped, putting Crimea on its feet. And now Crimea has been annexed, and they still report that this is bringing Crimea back,” Kravchuk said.
International organizations have recognized the annexation of Crimea as illegal, condemning Russia’s actions. Western countries have introduced a number of economic sanctions. Russia denies that it is occupying the peninsula, calling it “restoration of historical justice”. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine officially declared February 20, 2014, as the start of the temporary occupation of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia.