Dear participants of the First Parliamentary Summit of the Crimean Platform!
Let me first of all address our Croatian friends and partners. Thank you for hosting the Parliamentary Summit of the Crimean Platform at a time when Ukraine, which is subjected to brutal enemy attacks every day, cannot do it.
Mr. Speaker of the Parliament, Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for this bold and responsible decision, as well as for consistently supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as our European integration and Euro-Atlantic aspirations. We go not only on our own, but also on your heroic path!
Dear participants of the Summit!
The holding of our meeting outside the borders of Ukraine and the wide presence of highly respected participants in Zagreb indicate that the powerful international initiative called the Crimean Platform, launched more than a year ago by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has confidently taken a priority place on the international agenda, is expanding its geography, and today and acquires a new dimension — parliamentary!
I want to emphasize right away that the goals of the Crimean platform, which is not only a matter of Ukrainian, but of international and world security, are clear, open and fair. And the main one of them is the de-occupation of the peninsula and its return under the jurisdiction of Ukraine.
When, on October 12 of this year, 143 countries of the world voted "In Favor" of the resolution "Territorial integrity of Ukraine: protection of the principles of the UN Charter" within the framework of a special session of the UN General Assembly, they supported, including, their own territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Because only political dialogue, negotiations, mediation and other peaceful means can be the only way to solve any international issue, and not armed aggression and the occupation of foreign territories.
Also, I am convinced that by protecting Ukraine, you are also protecting your own states and peoples. We must unite, rally around democratic values, not false totalitarian ideals. The time of truth has come - the power of our unity must become a decisive response to the front of the forces of evil, which we must overcome together for the sake of the future.
Today, our country is going through perhaps the most difficult stage in its recent history. Just a year ago, we all celebrated 30 years of Independence, hatched plans for a peaceful future. And at the same time, russia was preparing to destroy everything Ukrainian, to kill our citizens, to destroy our infrastructure.
But the enemy was never able to develop a plan how to defeat the Ukrainians, how to overcome our will to independent life, our desire to be ourselves.
Russia's attack on Ukraine has catastrophic consequences: thousands of lives have been destroyed, civilian infrastructure is destroyed, and global energy and food crises have been triggered. Russia is blackmailing the whole world with nuclear weapons, openly threatening to use them against a sovereign state.
Unable to advance in open combat against the Ukrainian army, the insidious and cynical enemy uses missiles and drones to destroy energy infrastructure to leave Ukrainians without electricity and water, to intimidate and force an end to resistance.
Despite the incredible heroism of Ukrainian soldiers and citizens, we still very much need the support of international partners, because only with joint efforts can we stop the knowing aggressor and restore territorial integrity.
Here I want to mention and thank the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and peraobally President Tiny Kox, present with us today, for the adoption of the resolution on October 13, in which the russian federation is called a "terrorist regime."
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe became the first international organization to recognize russia as a terrorist state, that is, to call a spade a spade. We very much hope that the same decisions will be made by the parliaments of the member states of the Council of Europe, and ultimately by everyone who respects and professes the principles of international law and peaceful coexistence.
We are also grateful to all states, as well as the host country of our meeting today, for joining the lawsuit filed by Ukraine on February 27 against russia under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Dear friends!
Over the past year, thanks to the International Crimean Platform, the issue of the deoccupation of Crimea has gained ground and intensified in the international debate.
Separately, I would like to note the decision of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, as well as the parliaments of Lithuania and Latvia regarding the creation of a support group for the Crimea platform. I urge you and your parliaments to join this initiative by creating such associations in your highest legislative bodies.
We organized this First Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimea Platform as a wide complex of multilevel and multifaceted events aimed at developing the parliamentary dimension of our initiative.
Allow me to remind you that these activities began with an online address on October 18 to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic.
An important side event within the Summit was the offline program of discussions, which was organized and successfully held yesterday by the Office and the expert network of the Crimea Platform, where various important topics related to and around the occupied Crimea were covered.
The second side event of the Summit will be an online meeting of ombudsmen of the Crimea platform, which will be held on October 26, moderated by Ukrainian and Croatian human rights defenders.
We must state that the russian federation is committing genocide against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, which is accompanied by war crimes, crimes against humanity, gross disregard for international law, and numerous violations of human rights.
It is very important that today in the field of our attention and discussion is the situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea, where repression continues not only against the indigenous population - the Crimean Tatar people, but also against everyone for whom human rights, freedom of speech, and, ultimately, human dignity are not empty words. Ukrainians are also being persecuted, our Ukrainian Church is being destroyed here.
There is no independent journalism in occupied Crimea. The occupiers coined the term "single assembly" to apply punitive restrictions on the freedom of peaceful assembly. Forced disappearance is practiced. After all, in russia, those who speak the truth and fight for their rights are considered terrorists. While for the entire civilized world, these people are political prisoners, "prisoners of conscience."
Dear ladies and gentlemen!
At the beginning of my speech, I said that the main goal of the Crimea Platform is the de-occupation of Crimea and its return to Ukraine. Yes, all our thoughts are directed towards the liberation of all Ukrainian territories occupied by the enemy without exception. But we are also thinking about what to do after de-occupation.
- safely reintegrate the de-occupied territories;
- bring to justice those who committed crimes there;
- protect property rights;
- implement a humanitarian policy, including restoring the work of free media, rebuilding the educational system;
- demilitarize the peninsula;
- to resolve the issue of citizenship and, of course, economic development of the peninsula as an attractive object of internal and external investment.
Currently, a vision for steps in these areas is being formed, and a new comprehensive document is expected to appear in the near future.
I sincerely believe that in the near future we will together realize the Ukrainian dream, which is victory and peace. And one of our next meetings will take place in free Ukraine, in liberated Crimea!
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