Polish Foreign Minister Proposes Transfer of Crimea to UN Mandate
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski at a YES meeting in Kyiv suggested transfer Crimea to a UN mandate for “preparing a fair referendum” on the peninsula’s status. In his opinion, this procedure could be postponed for 20 years.
Polish Foreign Minister notes importance of Crimea for Russia
Sikorski stressed that Crimea is symbolically important for Russia and the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, and also has strategic value for Ukraine.
“That’s why I don’t see how they can reach an agreement without demilitarizing Crimea. We could hand it over to a UN mandate with a mission to prepare a fair referendum after checking who the legal residents are, and so on,” the Polish Foreign Minister suggested, adding that this procedure could be postponed for 20 years.
A UN mandate is a long-term international mission authorized by the UN General Assembly or the UN Security Council. Such mandates are usually associated with peacekeeping operations.
Russia has repeatedly spoken out about Crimea’s ownership
Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Andrei Klimov commented on the Polish side’s statement in a conversation with Lenta.ru. According to him, such a scenario is impossible, since Russia has the right of veto in the UN Security Council. In addition, Crimea’s affiliation is enshrined in the Russian Constitution, Klimov added.
In early September, Putin said in an interview with the Mongolian newspaper Onodor that the leader of the USSR Nikita Khrushchev had effectively given Ukraine Crimea, which was part of the RSFSR. “The borders of the union republics were cut quite arbitrarily, based on ‘proletarian necessity’. Thus, the industrial Donbass, populated predominantly by Russians, was given to Ukraine (…) In 1954, Khrushchev effectively gave Ukraine Crimea, which was part of the RSFSR,” he noted.
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Before this, the head of state said that the status of Crimea, Sevastopol, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), as well as the Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions as regions of Russia should be recorded in international treaties.
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