Ukraine does not trade territories and people: Zelenskyy opens third summit of Crimean platform
Ukraine does not trade in territories because it does not trade in people.
This statement was made by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the third summit of the Crimean Platform.
The Head of State also told all those present a story about a 25-year-old Crimean woman who is being held in a Russian prison and is about to be convicted for trying to get to Crimea, temporarily occupied by Russia, to visit her father who has cancer.
– I want to tell you a story about a girl who is 25 years old. She is a citizen of Ukraine and a Crimean Tatar, her family affectionately calls her Bojek, which is a bug in Crimean Tatar. She is short, very kind and sincere. Her father is ill – he has terminal cancer. She tried to go to her father to see him and help him. The girl’s name is Leniya Umerova. She has been in a pre-trial detention centre in Moscow for more than six months,” the President said.
Zelenskyy noted that the girl is in one of the most brutal detention centres in Russia, and the only connection with her family is her short letters. Russia wants to sentence her to 20 years in prison.
This is just one example of Russian repressions against citizens in Crimea, against the Crimean Tatar people, and against the Muslim community in Crimea.
– Crimea will be de-occupied. When someone talks about Crimea, it is not about an empty land, it is about the land of people, children, parents, millions of families with different destinies. Ukraine does not trade in territories because it does not trade in people, and that’s it,” the Ukrainian president stressed.
Zelenskyy also said that representatives of 63 states and international organisations are taking part in the event and thanked everyone who is taking part in the Crimean Platform Summit.
