VIENNA, August 25. /TASS/: The joint positions of the NATO and EU states at the Crimean Platform forum that took place in Kiev on August 23 reflect the false understanding of solidarity on the matter of Crimea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference in the wake of talks with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg Wednesday.
The Russian Minister noted that Russia has "repeatedly invited special representatives from the OSCE, from the Council of Europe and the UN to come and assess the human rights situation in Crimea." Meanwhile, the majority of invited officials stated their readiness to visit Crimea "only from Ukrainian territory."
"Are you engaged in human rights or playing political games??" Lavrov said about the position of the Western partners. "Those who come are well aware of what actually happened and what is happening in Crimea. And those who want to support this incomprehensible regime in Kiev, they should also declare this: we want Kiev to rise up in this dispute. But this way is a dead-end."
The Minister noted that if the West wanted to engage in real politics instead of a virtual one, they should first and foremost be "guided by reality."
"The solidarity displayed by NATO and EU member states at yesterday’s event, which looked like a spectacle, does not go anywhere. This is a falsely understood solidarity. We cannot do anything about it," he continued. "[The West] continues to blindly support the Ukrainian regime in its attempts to maintain interest in its own government while begging from all kinds of concessions, some money, some political gestures of support from the West. The Crimean Platform was not a real event."
In September 2020, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, speaking at the UN General Assembly, voiced the plan for the establishment of the so-called Crimean Platform. The meeting was initially supposed to take place in May this year, but the lack of certainty regarding the participants forced the event to be postponed until August. In the end, representatives of 46 countries and international organizations agreed to attend. Most European states sent their Foreign or Defense Ministers to Kiev.
