Ukrainian official: The return of Crimea is impossible within the next five years
Deputy Minister for the Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons Heorhiy Tuka does not believe that Russia will return the Crimean peninsula in the coming years.
“I find it impossible [that Russia will] return the Crimea in the next 3-5 years. Let me explain why. My personal view is that Crimea [will be returned] to Ukraine when the economic forces begin moving again in Russia. Now it may seem nonsense and a fantasy, but you can watch the news from the mid 90s, how the events unfolded in Kaliningrad and Tatarstan, and how Chechnya then went off. We all saw it with our own eyes,” he said on Saturday on channel 112.
According to him, these processes could start in five to ten years.
Tuka recently made a similar statement regarding the Donbas, saying the region's de-occupation could take five years.
The Crimea has been under Russian occupation since February 20, 2014. This date was defined by the Verkhovna Rada at the legislative level; on this day Russia’s Armed Forces crossed the border for the first time with the goal of further temporary occupation of the peninsula.
The annexation was completed on March 18, 2014, when the Russian Federation adopted the relevant agreement and law on the procedure for the accession of the Crimea and Sevastopol into the Russian Federation. Both documents were adopted by the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma. Ukraine and the world community does not recognize the accession of the Crimea into the Russian Federation.