President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with the Dom TV channel said that most Russians allegedly “feel ashamed of the “annexation” of Crimea.
“There are a large number of Russians who support a united Ukraine. They support Donbass and see it only as Ukrainian. They are unpleasant and generally ashamed of everything connected with Crimea. Very ashamed. And they all say that Russian history will still mourn Russia’s steps and decisions on Crimea”, Zelensky said.
In his opinion, Moscow allegedly “deliberately convinces the population of Russia that all Ukrainians hate Russians.” In addition, Zelensky said that it was the return of the peninsula to the Russian Federation that exacerbated “negative relations between the two peoples.”
Crimea returned to Russia following a referendum held in the spring of 2014 following a coup d’état in Ukraine. Kiev continues to consider the peninsula its own, but temporarily “occupied” territory. The Russian side has repeatedly stressed that the procedure for voting in the referendum fully complied with the requirements of international law: about 97% of the inhabitants of the peninsula cast their votes for the return of Crimea to the Russian Federation.