"There is no question of any 15 years": Member of Ukraine’s negotiating team spoke of a major breakthrough on Crimea

"There is no question of any 15 years": Member of Ukraine’s negotiating team spoke of a major breakthrough on Crimea

The question of Crimea’s status, long considered a taboo topic for the Russian side, is now being discussed in talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations.

This was reported by Rustem Umerov, a member of Ukraine’s delegation to the negotiations with Russia, in an interview with Novoye Vremya.

"We did not talk about Crimea for eight years; this topic was considered a taboo for the Russian side, something Moscow does not discuss. Today we have recorded that we will discuss Crimea, the problems of Crimea — this is actually a major breakthrough. We are already beginning to discuss Crimea; there is no question of any 15 years. Personally, I am not in favor of including any timelines or focusing attention on that. Our position is that the question of Crimea is important for the Ukrainian side, and we are already discussing it," the MP said.

Umerov also noted that Ukraine supports Crimean Tatars and is ready to discuss Crimea-related issues in more detail. "As a Crimean Tatar myself, I am part of the Ukrainian delegation to the negotiations; this demonstrates that Ukraine supports the Crimean Tatars, supports the Crimea agenda, and there is an understanding that we will discuss the situation in Crimea in greater detail," Umerov emphasized.

The member of the negotiating team stressed that liberation of the region by military means is not being considered. "Last summer we established the Crimean Platform, an international format within which we will continue to discuss the fate of our Ukrainian Crimea. The decision on Crimea is initially framed as a nonviolent liberation of the region by diplomatic and negotiation means. These are principles that were set much earlier in our Strategy for the Deoccupation and Reintegration of Crimea, so the military route to liberate the region is not being considered today, as before. As Mustafa Dzhemilev said during a briefing: the Crimea issue must be resolved exclusively by political-diplomatic means, without any military component," he noted.