The Ukrainian authorities are starting the procedure for returning the ashes of the country's outstanding citizens to their homeland. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said this in a speech dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence, the event was broadcast on the website of the edition Parlament.ua.
“They lived for Ukraine, fought for Ukraine. They were not buried in Ukraine, “Zelensky began, speaking of his famous compatriots who are buried in other countries (quote from Gordon.ua). These are, in particular, the hetmans of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, figures from the times of the Ukrainian People's Republic (existed in 1917-1920), participants in the liberation movement, as well as scientists, cultural figures and many others, the president of the republic continued. Ukraine, Zelensky assured, will return “not only its own, but also its own.”
The president called the remains of these people Ukrainian “historical and cultural values that are located abroad,” and said that the republic “will never again donate a single pebble <...> of its history to anyone.” “We will not allow <...> to annex our writers, scientists, athletes, our heroes who defeated Nazism,” Zelensky concluded.
On the eve of the Independence Day of Ukraine, the international forum “Crimean Platform” was held in Kiev on 23 August. During the event, the Ukrainian authorities hoped to develop with foreign partners a strategy for the return of Crimea to Ukraine.
Speaking at this summit, Zelensky announced the beginning of the countdown to the return of the peninsula to the republic. In early August, he said that the peninsula would never become Russian territory, since the new authorities and the Crimeans themselves would never love Crimea as much as the Ukrainians.
The peninsula became part of Russia following the results of the 2014 Crimean referendum. During it, there were armed people in the republic in uniform without identification marks. Russian President Vladimir Putin later admitted that they were the Russian military. However, according to the president, they did not influence the expression of the will of the Crimean people, the voting was voluntary.
Kiev and Western countries, on the other hand, view Russia's presence in Crimea as an “annexation.” In this regard, since 2014, they have been introducing and extending sanctions against Moscow.
