Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that Ukraine has finally broken with the “Russian world” and will continue its path as part of the West
According to him, Kiev will under no circumstances retreat from “two fundamental principles”.
“First, Ukraine will never give up either Crimea or Donbass. Secondly, Ukraine will continue its way as a European country, as part of the West, as its break with the ‘Russian world’ is final. Everything else is a matter of time and diplomacy”, – Kuleba told Internationale Politik.
Relations between Moscow and Kiev have deteriorated against the backdrop of the situation in Donbas. Ukrainian authorities have previously repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in the country’s internal affairs. In January 2015, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a statement calling Russia an “aggressor country”. Russia has denied the Ukrainian accusations and called them unacceptable. Moscow has repeatedly stated that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict and a subject of the Minsk settlement agreements, and is interested in Kiev overcoming its political and economic crisis.
Crimea became a Russian region after a referendum held there in March 2014, in which 96.77% of Crimean voters and 95.6% of Sevastopol residents voted in favour of becoming part of Russia. Ukraine still considers Crimea its own but temporarily occupied territory. The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the residents of Crimea voted democratically, in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter, to reunite with Russia. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the issue of Crimea is “closed for good”.