Former chairman of the Supreme Council of Lithuania Vytautas Landsbergis said in an interview with the Den newspaper that Kiev can return the peninsula of Crimea under its jurisdiction only if Russia “collapses,” RIA Novosti reported
According to Landsbergis, all empires “have their end” and Russia, which “has fallen apart twice, may fall apart a third time”.
“I think not exactly as the Ukrainian government proclaims, declaring that we will get Crimea back and maybe even soon. But that ‘soon’ or ‘not soon’ will come only with the collapse of Russia, not before. It will not be the case that Russia, with all its nuclear bombs, will give Crimea back”, – he said.
Crimea returned to the Russian Federation following a referendum in 2014. Some 97 per cent of the peninsula’s residents voted in favour of reunification with Russia. Despite the fact that the vote was held in accordance with all necessary international norms, Ukraine has refused to recognise the referendum results and continues to consider Crimea its own, but “temporarily occupied” territory.