“The de-occupation of Crimea has an external and an internal component. External – international organizations, international courts, and the summit “Crimean Platform”, the organizing committee of which has already been approved. As well as the internal one, where the Strategy of de-occupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol has already been approved by the Presidential Decree, which is the basis for the activities of relevant government agencies in relation to the Crimea, it contains many important thematic blocks: information policy, protection of human rights, economic component, environmental component, cultural, technical component, socio-economic rights.
Earlier we talked about the de-occupation of Crimea, but there were no political decisions. This is very important, especially on the eve of the Crimean Platform. Coming to our international partners with a request for assistance, we must show that we are doing something ourselves.
The key thing that we advocated: that the text of the Strategy for De-occupation and Reintegration – should include the mention of indigenous peoples, as there is no law on indigenous peoples yet, and the Strategy of indigenous peoples is clearly stated. Strategy has a broad framework. But, of course, it could not add all the comments, remarks and edits to its component. It is now very important that a clear action plan is developed and this action plan should consist of specific legislation”.
Anton Korynevych commented on the water situation in Crimea: “Water cannot be supplied to Crimea before the de-occupation of the Crimean Peninsula. This is now the one voice position of all state bodies of Ukraine. This is an absolutely clear position from the point of view of international law. Nobody called the occupying state there. As it temporarily occupies the territory, it is responsible for everything that happens there, including the needs of the civilian population residing in the temporarily occupied territory.
In Crimea, in fact, a catastrophe is already happening, because Crimea is temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation has illegally relocated, approximately about half a million of its citizens to Crimea – this is a war crime. The Russian Federation has filled Crimea with its military. They are changing Crimea: they are building new facilities, high-rise buildings. And, of course, water is used for the needs of military personnel and new projects implemented by the occupying power there”.