Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council: the most likely path to liberating Crimea is through military means
The most likely path to liberating Crimea is through military means, specifically by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), said the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, at a press conference on the eve of the third summit of the Crimea Platform.
"For us, Crimea is part of our territory. We must liberate it. Moreover, we will liberate it. Most likely, this will happen by military means if the aggressor country does not understand that it needs to leave our territory. We have no other option," the official believes.
Danilov stated that "any other scenario regarding Crimea will mean the perpetuation of the situation, passing on the war to our descendants, our children, and grandchildren."
"Because the Russian Federation, having control over Crimea, will never accept that it should calm down and live peacefully. Only by expelling Russia from Crimea, pushing it into the Sea of Azov, will we understand that our country will have certain guarantees of our security for a certain period of time. There simply cannot be any other option," he assured.
The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council believes that Ukraine does not need to prove this position to anyone nor hold any consultations.
"We need to do our work - as our military, our AFU, are doing. It is only a matter of time. Will it be difficult? Yes, it will be difficult. Will they try to persuade us behind the scenes? Most likely, messages will be sent, but in such cases, I always say, 'Gülçatay, show your face.' Many anonymous messages are received, supposedly someone is asking or offering us something. But no one has shown their face. And as soon as a NATO official showed his face (presumably referring to NATO Secretary-General's office director Stian Jenssen), he immediately received a worthy response from the public," Danilov concluded.
Earlier Stian Jenssen stated that "the solution for Ukraine could be to abandon the territory and instead obtain NATO membership." However, he later claimed that he "made a mistake."