The secretary of the Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksi Danilov, has assured that “there is no option” beyond the military for the liberation of the Crimean peninsula, annexed to Russia in 2014 after a referendum, and has warned that not to recover it would be to “maintain the war” for future descendants.
“Crimea is part of our territory and we must liberate it. We will liberate it,” Danilov remarked, on the eve of the third meeting of the so-called Crimean Platform, an initiative launched in 2021 by the president, Volodimir Zelenski, at the expense of Russia to reverse the current status of this territory.
Danilov has pointed out that “most likely” this liberation of Crimea will be carried out by “military means” in case Russia does not understand that it has to “abandon” this territory. “We have no other option,” he assured.
“Only by expelling Russia from the territory of Crimea, pushing them towards the Azov Sea, our State will have certain security guarantees for a certain period of time. (…) – Will it be difficult? Yes, it will be difficult”, he acknowledged, according to the UNIAM news agency.
“We must do our thing, liberate territories, return to the Black and Azov seas. If we do not have our own military fleet in Crimea, we will be in an extremely difficult situation in terms of security,” he warned.
Danilov has insisted on one of the demands that Ukraine has expressed most insistently after the start of the invasion a little over a year and a half ago now, which is to return to the international borders of 1991. “If this does not happen, the existence of our country will be under constant threat,” he said.
This is part of the peace plan presented by President Zelenski, which includes other prerequisites before sitting down to negotiate an agreement with Russia, such as their departure from the territories occupied during the invasion and sitting down those responsible for it before Justice.