Kuleba stressed that the Crimean issue is “closed” only in the minds of Kremlin residents

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba stated this during an online briefing.

"You may have heard various recent comments from a spokesman for the Russian president that Crimea will be discussed nowhere, that the issue is "closed." I can state quite definitely that the Crimean issue is "closed" only in the minds of the Kremlin residents. For the rest of the world, and for the Russians themselves not burdened with propaganda impressions, the issue of Crimea will remain open until it returns to Ukraine, i.e. with the status it had until February 2014," Kuleba said.

He added that all crimes and violations committed by the Russian occupation administration in Crimea are being properly documented, and "the time will come when we will hold Russia accountable for them."

In this context, the diplomat reminded that when we celebrate the Day of Defender of Ukraine, the Russian occupation administration has planned to send the people illegally called up by the Russian Federation for military service in the Russian Black Sea Fleet and Southern Military District from the assembly point in Sevastopol on October 14.

 "I want to clarify that conscription in Crimea is a war crime explicitly prohibited by international humanitarian law. This illegal conscription campaign is the twelfth. So the Russian Federation has already committed twelve war crimes of illegal conscription into its armed forces in the occupied Crimea. All this shows that the Russian aggression continues," Kuleba said.

As reported, the Russian President's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that "the problem of Crimea does not exist and cannot exist in Russia's relations with some countries," the Donbas issue has priority, commenting on Volodymyr Zelenskyi's statement on a peace agreement with Russia, which will return the Russian-occupied Donbas and Crimea.