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Russian security chief cautions against pandering to Ukraine’s territorial ambitions

According to Nikolai Patrushev, the Crimea Platform was created by Washington to put on a show that the US ‘cares’ for Ukraine’s interests

MOSCOW, September 21./TASS/. Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev excoriated the Zelensky government’s Crimea Platform as unrealistic, and warned the global community against pandering to the unrealistic — and even dangerous — territorial ambitions of Ukraine, when speaking with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper on Tuesday.

According to Patrushev, the Crimea Platform was created by Washington to put on a show that the US ‘cares’ for Ukraine’s interests. The aims it declares "are doomed to failure. Plots to violate Russia’s territorial integrity will remain in the offices where they were hatched. Pandering to Ukraine’s unrealistic territorial ambitions is unreasonable and dangerous," the top security official stressed.

The Crimea Platform brought together delegates representing countries that back Kiev’s official authorities who are "grooming nationalists, catering to radicals and openly declaring their readiness for large-scale military action against Russia," Patrushev stated.

A forum of the so-called Crimea Platform was held in Kiev on August 23, which, according to a declaration is aimed to become a platform to coordinate "joint diplomatic efforts aimed at restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders."

The Crimea Platform was spawned by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who voiced this idea in a speech at the UN General Assembly in September 2020. Representatives from 46 countries and international organizations agreed to attend the event. Most European nations sent their foreign or defense ministers to the forum.

After the Western-backed coup of February 2014 in Ukraine, Crimea and Sevastopol held a referendum, in which 96.7% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deal on March 18, 2014, which the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian parliament) ratified on March 21, 2014. Despite the convincing results of the referendum, Kiev refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.