Polish Foreign Minister proposes to place Crimea under UN mandate

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski believes that the UN will be able to hold a "fair referendum" in the temporarily occupied Crimea

According to Interfax-Ukraine, during a speech at the 20th annual YES meeting in Kyiv, Radoslaw Sikorski proposed to place Crimea under the United Nations mandate to hold a referendum there.

The post says that Sikorski is sure that Crimea is symbolically important for Putin, but strategically important for Ukraine. Therefore, it is almost impossible to reach an agreement without demilitarizing the peninsula. Therefore, he believes that if both countries are willing, a solution could be found.

"We could put it under a UN mandate with a mission to prepare a fair referendum after verifying who the legal residents are and so on... And we could postpone it for 20 years," Sikorsky suggested as one of the options.

Sikorsky also expressed the opinion that it was a big mistake of the West, particularly the Americans, to tell Ukrainians not to fight in Crimea.

"If Ukrainians had fought in Crimea, even symbolically, he (Putin - ed.) might not have decided to go to Donbas," Sikorsky explained his position.

Earlier, it was reported that the European Union strongly condemns Russia's so-called "elections" in Ukraine. This is stated in a statement by the EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Peter Stano, about the regional elections and their inadmissibility in Ukrainian territories. The statement reads that the aggressor country's holding of the so-called "elections" in Crimea on September 6-8 is another act of violation of international law, the UN Charter and the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

It was also said that Ukraine proposed to establish a Military Administration of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Володимир Шкаєв