Today, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave an interview to journalists from Crimea on the topic of deoccupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as the protection of Ukraine from potential threats from the side of Russian Federation.

The interview was recorded on Zmiinyi Island on August 9, 2021, immediately after the naval exercises.

This is the first interview in seven years of occupation of Crimea in which the President of Ukraine talks to Crimean journalists about the intentions and plans to return the peninsula. It is given specially for «How We Will Get Crimea Back’ project.

During the conversation, the President openly answered about the goals of the Crimea Platform, how the process of deoccupation of Crimea is planned, what are the problems during the process of release of political prisoners on the peninsula and many other issues.

“This small island, like any other territory of ours – is Ukrainian land, and we will defend it with all our might. Today you had the opportunity to observe military exercises here, we pay a lot of attention to them. We devote a lot of attention to them. You know that we have an army development programme that consists of three stages. We are actively conducting them and it is already clear that we are able to protect every Ukrainian region, airport, city, and Zmiinyi Island as well. Because we are aware of Russia’s interests, we see what plans the West-2021 joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises have. We are ready for various steps on the part of these states”.