It all started from the Crimea, it will end-it is necessary to release the peninsula from the occupation-the speech of the President of Ukraine at the opening of the second summit of the Crimean Platform
What came to the Crimea and the entire Black Sea region with Russian aggression, with Russian weapons? Catastrophic threats to ecology, unprecedented destruction of the nature of Crimea, destruction of social life, economic decline, destruction of monuments, militarism. And when the Russian fleet, based in the occupied Crimea, blocked our ports on the Black and Azov Seas, it provoked a global food crisis and the crisis of human rights - Crimeans, beautiful citizens of our unitary state Ukraine.
But despite all the threats, Ukraine is strong enough and was able to see the prospect for Ukrainian Crimea. I have the honor to announce the beginning of the second summit of the Crimean Platform. During the year, we managed to significantly expand the capabilities of the Crimean platform - said Minister Kuleba. Last year, delegations of 46 foreign countries and international organizations participated in the summit. This year - almost 60. I am grateful to everyone.
Much more leaders of the states-40 presidents and prime ministers, including the leaders of the Great Seven. I am grateful to all of you for understanding how important such actions are now - your support, our joint actions and our joint work. This year, representatives of two more continents - Africa and South America, have joined, and it demonstrates that there is no limit in the world that would not overcome the truth about the Russian war against Ukraine and our people.
Of course, it is clear who you have to fight. The presence of obvious safety risks causes that the summit is going on online. But it has already been proven international practice that such a regime can be absolutely effective for politics, diplomacy, and most importantly for the protection of freedom. And I especially want to thank one of the leaders who are with us here in Kiev today. This is Andrzej Duda, President of Poland and a true friend of all Ukrainians.
Andzeu, your presence near me, next to the people of Ukraine, again confirms the extremely close connection and historical understanding that are between Ukrainians and Poles. Thank you! Ladies and Gentlemen! When I speak with our citizens, I often use honorable appeal: all our defenders, all our defenders.
In fact, today, by addressing you, dear leaders, dear ministers, I can use the same words with a related meaning: all defenders and defenders of international law and order! This is where we have been here, for this purpose, the Crimean Platform has been created and operated.
We return the force of international law, and it is because of this that we will return the Ukrainian flag to our land of Crimea, which is why we will bring freedom to Ukrainian citizens in the Crimea and be sure to restore justice to all who have suffered from repression, from the abuse of Russian occupiers. But to win, we need to not forget. Do not forget what the path was to the current situation. Russia's degradation began with the capture of Crimea.
It began with terror against the Crimean Tatar people, the indigenous people of Crimea. From religious repression, which became the most large-scale religious persecution in Europe in the 21st century, against the Crimean Muslim community. There was also an expulsion from the occupied Crimea of all ordinary people who said that Crimea was Ukraine, who was not afraid to defend Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian freedom in Crimea.
Both the murders and torture - we saw everything - both humiliation and looting - all the occupiers did in the Crimea and continue to do so from the first weeks after his shameful admiration. Further, these crimes were spread to Donbas, to other countries, including Syria, to Africa, where Russian banditry is now available under the cover of Russian special services.
Massive terror after February 24 became the logical completion of the degradation of this state, which was recently invited to the table with the Great Seven and now competes for the championship with the most violent regimes of the past responsible for genocides, invading wars and deportations. We are grateful for the fact that many in the world have not been silent about all this, many constantly counteracted - helped us, fought.
But at the same time, many were silent - and this is true - he tried not to notice what was happening in the Crimea. And this, in my opinion, has become one of the key causes of everything that is happening in Ukraine and the world now. It is important to remember that he was the resistance on the peninsula. We know that there were and are people who are not silent, who protect freedom and simply protect a normal life in Crimea. They are repressed.
But we see them, we know about them, we are grateful to them. I recently received a letter from one of Kimila - Nasiman Jellya. He is, unfortunately, behind bars. The invaders imprisoned him for a completely false accusation for fighting for his homeland for participating in the first summit of the Crimean Platform, which took place last year. Last year, he left the occupied Crimea to tell the participants of the summit that really happens on the peninsula and what would lead to it.
And nine days after returning back to Crimea, the invaders deprived him of his freedom. Because he was just a free man. This was Russia's response. In his letter, Mr. Jalyal wrote: "From Crimea began, Crimea will end. " And that's really. I believe that. In order to overcome the terror to restore the predictability and security of our region, Europe and the world, we need to win the fight against Russian aggression, and therefore it is necessary to free Crimea from occupation.
Where it started, it will end. And it will be an effective resuscitation of international law. But it's not just a political and legal task for the world. It's about a specific land, about specific people living in Crimea. About cities, about culture, about specific monuments. About the hopes of specific living people.
The fact that someone invested his life in the Crimea, and after Russia's arrival was forced to either leave and escape on other lands, or be afraid, whether they would not take away something of their little: house, land, work, any business . . . and and was forced to restrict himself. Or lose everything when they were selected. Russia has stolen some of their lives in the Crimea who were lucky not to be a victim of repression.
And it was impossible to imagine this, but the occupation turned Crimea, it is a paradise for all of us, into a depressed and dependent region. To the region of tall fences, barbed wire and lawlessness. To the area of ecological disaster and a military bridgehead for aggression and the spread of grief. From February 24, 750 different winged missiles were launched from the occupied Crimea to our cities.
Imagine: 750 - in six months! They have destroyed at least a hundred civilian sites: schools, universities, ordinary dwellings, hospitals. And so Ukraine's restoration of control over the Crimea Peninsula will be a historical anti -war step in Europe.
It will return safety and give justice, it will reintegrates Crimea into the modern world and it will allow each of us - participants and participants of the Crimean Platform - to tell their children, their relatives and loved ones that they can be proud of us as peacekeepers. And I want to emphasize: for Ukraine Crimea is not just a territory, not a feature in a geopolitical game, as for a terrorist state, for Ukraine Crimea is part of our people, our society.
The community of people we guarantee freedom and return the present. Crimea was and is Ukraine. And after its de -occupation, together with our entire state, it will become part of the European Union. I'm sure of that. The passport of the citizen of Ukraine will also be a passport of the European Union. These are tremendous opportunities for all our people who live in Crimea. The roads of Crimea will be the roads of the entire European continent, the ports of Crimea will be ports of all Europe.
Only Ukraine is able to connect Simferopol with Berlin, and Yalta - with Naples. Only Ukraine is concerned about the real security of Crimea. That is, normal supply of clean water, normal waste disposal, effective waste management rules and sewage. Only Ukraine can build a modern irrigation system in Crimea and integrate agricultural production of Crimea and the entire entrepreneurial sector into a colossal European market.
Only our state will give Crimea a modern and affordable medical system, a modern and affordable educational system, a modern digital system of public services. Ukraine will remove the barbed wire that close the path to ordinary people to the best places, and illegal fences that simply raised the coast of our beautiful Crimea. Free access to the beaches, the real protection of protected areas, historical objects - only Ukraine, not the one who came to capture, steal and humiliate people.
It is Ukraine that will restore the system of sanatoriums and rehabilitation centers in the Crimea, which will be able to accept hundreds of thousands of people every year. Millions of tourists. Children and adults, civilians and veterans, our citizens and foreigners - all who help the precious nature of Crimea. And millions of tourists - at least middle class - can only come to Crimea stable through Ukraine.
There will never be repression in the Crimea in the Crimea - and everyone knows this, the freedom or moral aspirations that Russia brought in 2014. Moreover, Ukraine will never spit on the social needs of pensioners or anyone else in Crimea. Ukraine will never tell people: "The deneg is no, but you are state. " Because we respect people, and even this year, in the bloody times of a full -scale war, we have indexed pensions for all our retirees.
Ladies and Gentlemen! I think you felt from my words that we have a very worked view on how to restore our Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea after the expulsion of Russian invaders. And so we add two more directions to the Crimean Platform: economic and legislative. We have a strategy for the restoration of Crimea - today it will be represented within the economic panel.
And we create a legislative foundation for Crimea - after de -occupation, as well as for all those to whom Crimea is much more than the house. We adopted the Law "On the Native Peoples", which defended the rights of the Crimean Tatar people and the Majlis, Karaites and Crimean. We develop Crimean Tatar. They adopted a law on the protection of political prisoners - all who suffered from repression by the invaders. And these are just some examples.
We are not going to stop on this - there is a lot of work. This year the Crimean Platform will be continued in the fall - a parliamentary summit in Croatia. Not online, but with the presence of parliamentary delegations in the world. We attract all the power of democracies to protect our country and international order.
And, returning to the letter of Nasiman, the invaders of Nariman, I want to read a few more important words: "Thanks to the change on the agenda on the world stage, in Europe and in Ukraine, through the aggression of the Russian Federation, the participants of the Crimean Platform have more decisive moods, focused on specific cases. " .