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Crimea and Sevastopol

Czech president calls Crimea’s reunification with Russia ‘accomplished fact’

The Czech politician also said Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s decision on handing over Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 was a mistake

Czech Republic's President Milos Zeman AP Photo/Petr David Josek

Czech Republic's President Milos Zeman

© AP Photo/Petr David Josek

STRASBOURG, October 10. /TASS/. Crimea’s reunification with Russia is already an "accomplished fact" and any Ukraine’s attempts to return the Black Sea peninsula would trigger a European war, President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Czech politician said Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s decision on handing over Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 was a mistake. "Nikita Khrushchev made an unpardonable stupid thing, and many politicians acknowledge today that Crimea cannot be returned to Ukraine," Zeman said.

Read also

No Russian president will let Crimea secede from Russia in future — ex-German chancellor

Zeman cited former German President Joachim Gauck as saying: "If we want to take Crimea and return it to Ukraine, this would mean a European war." According to Zeman, this is impossible. "We should avoid a European war, and you should understand this," he said.

"Crimea is already an accomplished fact," the Czech leader said, adding that Russia could pay compensation to Ukraine "in financial form or in oil and gas."

Zeman also stressed that sanctions against Russia were futile.

Other lawmakers from France, Armenia, the United Kingdom and Serbia agreed that Zeman was "wise." However, First Deputy Speaker of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada Irina Geraschenko wrote on Facebook, commenting on these words: "It is so sad to see full political degradation" in Strasbourg.

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Crimea and Sevastopol

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