The summit

The heads of many leading countries of the world performed at the forum: last time the same states were represented by ministers or parliamentarians. Video of the day I will not ask what happened. Because we all know well that the war has happened. However, I am sure, the situation with the Crimean Platform is a wonderful illustration of misunderstanding in Ukraine and in the West of the true intentions of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Vitaliy Portnikov writes for Crimea.

The very idea of ​​the Crimean Platform was to gather a representative international summit in Kiev during the celebration of Independence Anniversary on a topic that has no differences in anyone - the topic of the Ukrainian status of annexed Crimea. It was also an opportunity to invite delegations in many countries of the world, and return Crimea to the international agenda, and at the same time maintain the possibility of continuing negotiations on the settlement in the Donbass.

But in Ukraine, I think many could not understand that Putin's issue was much more important for Putin than Donbass. The Russian president is very painful about the fact that in the world they do not recognize the "Russian status" of Crimea, but holding a summit of the Crimean Platform has become a true public humiliation for him.

It was after this summit that the notorious thesis emerged that Ukraine wants to return Crimea to military means and therefore cannot be taken to NATO, as there will be a threat of war between Russia and the Alliance. And this despite the fact that the Crimean Platform summit again confirmed the desire of Kiev to use political and diplomatic levers for the de -occupation of Crimea.

Many Western leaders seem to think the opposite: the discussion of Crimea is an open call of Putin and it is not necessary to get angry with the Russian president, and he still has to talk to him. Neither French President Emmanuel Macron nor the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, nor Turkish President Recep TaiP TaiP Erdogan, arrived in Kiev. And the Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel flew to Kiev, but did not come to the summit.

But now everyone is performing great - Macron, Johnson, Erdogan. And the successor of Merkel Olaf Soltz. It is worth saying clear to yourself: the underestimation of the consequences of the occupation of Crimea in 2014 and led to a great war in Europe. It was necessary to listen to those who said that Putin needed not Crimea, but all Ukraine, all the Soviet Union. What he has, and in his thoughts, does not give the occupied territories that Crimea, Donbas.

That what seemed to be a representative political summit in Kiev on Independence Day, Putin seems to have already been perceived as a declaration of war. This, of course, does not mean that the summit of the "Crimean platform" did not need to be carried out - it was still necessary! It was simply necessary to realize Putin's reactions, to be psychologically ready for his new attacks. And Western leaders, certainly, had to be afraid to make the Russian president.