Ukraine’s president has promised not to trade Crimea for peace in the country’s war-torn east, a move aimed at assuaging the fears of Crimean Tatars, the Russian-occupied peninsula’s indigenous population.
President Volodymyr Zelensky also pledged further support for residents of the Crimean peninsula with help from Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Zelensky’s comments came during opening remarks at a Feb. 26 forum in Kyiv marking the sixth anniversary of Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea. They addressed concerns, particularly among Crimean Tatars, that the president is so invested in ending the war in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where wide swaths of territory are occupied by Russia-backed militants, that he would cede Crimea in return for Russian concessions in the east.
“We are doing everything to stop the war in the Donbas,” Zelensky said at the forum. “But it doesn’t mean that Crimea is removed from the agenda and may become the price for peace in the Donbas.”
However, Zelensky did not provide any information about the next prisoner swap with Russia — currently under negotiation — and whether Crimean Tatars will be included in the exchange. Tatars currently comprise the largest group of political prisoners held by the Kremlin.
Bringing Crimea back
Returning Crimea to Ukrainian control is a difficult task and “won’t be solved tomorrow,” Zelensky said. However, once it happens, faith in justice and international law will be restored, he added.
For now, the Ukrainian government can prove it still stands with Crimeans who oppose the Russian annexation, Zelensky said.
He also called on the government to make life easier for residents of the peninsula.
Bureaucratic hurdles for Crimeans to receive Ukrainian birth certificates, open accounts at Ukrainian banks and gain access to loans should be removed, he said. Crimean youth should also have eased access to Ukrainian education, he added.
Zelensky promised that ATR, currently the only Crimean Tatar television channel, won’t lose state funding and will continue to be broadcast.
For over two weeks, ATR has halted its news and program productions and appealed for donations from the public after the Ukrainian Treasury froze its financial aid.
Read more: As TV channel loses state aid, Crimean Tatars worry about Ukraine’s support
Additionally, Zelensky announced joint construction projects with Azerbaijan and Turkey in Kherson Oblast.
Ukraine and Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR will build a center for administrative services and a rest area at the Chongar checkpoint on the administrative border with the Russia-occupied peninsula.
Turkey will help build homes for 500 Crimean Tatar families who resettled from the occupied Crimea.
Both projects aim to ease the burden on Crimeans who live in mainland Ukraine or frequently travel there.
Prisoner swap
Among the most pressing issues related to Crimea is freeing Ukrainian political prisoners held by Russia. Negotiations on the next prisoner exchange are already underway, but it remains unclear who will be included.
Of 85 Ukrainian political prisoners currently held by the Kremlin, more than 60 are Crimean Tatars. Many have faced prosecution on charges of extremism or terrorism for their membership in the Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic party, which is outlawed in Russia, or the Crimean Tatar volunteer military battalion, which has never been officially registered with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.
While Zelensky did not say whether Crimean Tatar prisoners would be included in the exchange, he told forum attendees that his administration “is doing everything for the release of every Ukrainian citizen.”
In September 2019, during the first prisoner exchange with Russia, Ukraine returned several prominent Crimean political prisoners: filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, farmer Volodymyr Balukh and activists Oleksandr Kolchenko and Edem Bekirov.
In October 2017, Russia released two Crimean Tatar politicians, Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov, but only after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan intervened on behalf of Ukraine.
