Zelensky vows to restore Ukrainian rule in Russia-annexed Crimea

Regaining Crimea would be ‘biggest anti-war step’, Ukraine’s president says

Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to restore Ukrainian rule over Russia-annexed Crimea, a move that he said would help re-establish “world law and order”.

Ukraine’s president told an international conference on Crimea that regaining control of the peninsula, which was seized and annexed by Russia in 2014, would be the “biggest anti-war step”. Most of the world still recognises Crimea as part of Ukraine.

“It all began with Crimea, and it will end with Crimea,” Mr Zelensky said in an opening address to the Crimea Platform, a forum that seeks to restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity and end Russia’s annexation of the peninsula.

“And this is true, and I believe in it 100 per cent, that to overcome terror – to return guarantees and security to our region, to Europe, to the whole world – it is necessary to gain victory in the fight against Russian aggression,” the Ukrainian leader said.

“It is necessary to liberate Crimea from occupation,” he added. “This will be the resuscitation of world law and order.”

People rest on a beach in Novofedorivka as smoke rises following explosions at a Russian military airbase (Reuters)

Mr Zelensky said representatives of about 60 states and international organisations were taking part in the summit, including around 40 presidents and prime ministers. Almost all were participating online, but Polish president Andrzej Duda attended in person during a visit to Kyiv.

Mr Duda promised that his country would support Ukraine until “the last day of the fight” against Russia. “Crimea is and will be a part of Ukraine, just like Gdansk and Lublin are part of Poland,” he said.

The outgoing British prime minister, Boris Johnson, echoed these words, saying the UK would “never recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea or any other Ukrainian territory”.

Mr Johnson also called on the West to continue helping Kyiv. “In the face of Putin’s assault, we must continue to give our Ukrainian friends all the military, humanitarian, economic and diplomatic support that they need until Russia ends this hideous war and withdraws its forces from the entirety of Ukraine,” he said.

Russia shows no sign of abandoning Crimea, which is home to its Black Sea fleet. Since the start of its invasion six months ago, it has used the peninsula as a platform from which to launch missile strikes against Ukrainian targets.

The Kremlin’s forces have fired 750 cruise missiles at Ukrainian “cities and communities”, with Russia’s military presence turning the peninsula into “an ecological disaster zone”, according to Mr Zelensky.

After eight years of Russian rule in Crimea, the Ukrainian president is confident it will return to his country soon. “Ukraine’s restoration of control over the Crimea peninsula will be a historic anti-war step in Europe, restoring security and justice,” he said.

The peninsula has recently been rocked by a number of explosions, including the attack on Saki airbase earlier this month. It is understood that a number of Russian jets were destroyed in the blasts, which took place far from the front lines.

Russian commanders are likely to be increasingly concerned about a “deterioration in security across Crimea, which functions as rear base area for the occupation”, the British Ministry of Defence said last week.

Meanwhile, German chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed on Tuesday that he plans to deliver further arms to Ukraine, worth more than €500m (£421m).

A participant at another online conference on Ukraine, which took place in Toronto, said that Germany planned to supply three additional Iris-T air defence systems, a dozen armoured recovery vehicles, 20 rocket launchers, precision ammunition, and anti-drone systems.

The arms would be delivered in 2023, some possibly sooner, a source told Reuters, adding that Germany’s parliamentary budget committee must still approve the supplies, which Mr Scholz described as a contribution to the modernisation of Ukraine’s armed forces.

Ukraine is expecting the Kremlin to scale up its attacks in and around Ukrainian Independence Day, which will be marked on Wednesday, exactly six months after the start of the war. As a precaution, Kyiv has banned all public celebrations.

The US corroborated Mr Zelensky’s warning that Moscow could try “something particularly ugly” around the national holiday, with Washington’s embassy in Kyiv urging American citizens to leave the capital if possible.

In the first six months of war, at least 5,587 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and 7,890 others wounded, according to the UN.