The recent meeting of the Crimean Platform, which brought together Ukraine’s international partners, coincided with Ukraine’s Independence Day. We congratulate Ukraine and all of us, her friends, who understand that Ukrainians are in the forefront of the struggle not only for themselves, but for all those whose victory over their mortal enemy threatens them with endless slavery. Therefore, there are holidays of questionable meaning, which arouse suspicion of idolatrous origin, but the meaning, at least now, is clear to everyone, and it is important for everyone that Ukraine’s independence from Russia becomes something self-evident, not something to be fought for.
But this holiday also coincided with another date — the six-month mark of the so-called «special military operation,» or in reality, Russia’s full-scale military aggression against Ukraine. The interim results of this war are such that Russian tanks are indeed standing in Kyiv, as planned by Russian military strategists, but not in the way they intended, rather as trophies. Meanwhile, Ukrainian missiles, drones and special forces are targeting enemy positions not only in the occupied Donbass, which was supposed to be «protected» by the so-called «SVR,» but also in Crimea and even on the internationally recognized territory of Russia, which no one would have thought of attacking from Ukraine until the aggression against it was unleashed.
All this started with the infamous Crimea, or rather «Crimea is ours». And today this slogan has become relevant again, but now not as «Crimea is for the smoker» (Russian), but as «Crimea is for the healthy person» (Ukrainian). Even the residents of Crimea, who most likely welcomed the annexation by Russia, are now filming videos asking why they need this Russian Crimea when they are fine in Ukraine. Well, the Ukrainian authorities will have to figure out in the future who was better off, who was deceived and deserves leniency, who collaborated with the occupier and must be held accountable, and who is the occupier himself, who should leave the territory forcibly taken from Ukraine in 2014.
For the Crimean citizens of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky promised a Ukrainian and European future for the peninsula at the meeting of the Crimean Platform. And now it is not just a vague future, but a foreseeable one. If before the start of the full-scale Russian aggression the Ukrainian leadership and the majority of the society were inclined to solve the Crimean issue peacefully, now the need to end the war by its de-occupation has become a Ukrainian and international consensus.
Therefore, it is time for the rightful owners to say «Crimea is ours». Who knows, maybe it will happen on the next Independence Day of Ukraine. This is what we wish for Ukraine and for all of us.