War with russia cannot end without returning Crimea – Ukraine’s top official

Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the head of the President's Office, said that the russian-Ukrainian war would not end without returning Crimea, which is a kind of political death for the russian president putin.

He said this in an interview with UNIAN.

"Definitely, it has already started, a few months ago," Podoliak said, answering whether it is possible to say that the "hot spring season" has already begun in Crimea, as previously announced by the adviser to the head of the Office of the President.

He noted that "global political elites have declared that Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine."

"And any military operations of Ukraine there are absolutely legitimate within the framework of International Criminal Law. It is already obvious that since a war of such intensity is ongoing, Crimea must return to Ukraine," Podoliak emphasized.

The adviser to the head of the President's Office emphasized that "Crimea is our territory."

"We talked about the crimes that russia commits and the inevitability of punishment. Well, it all started in Crimea. Everyone who stole our property, seized our houses, and expelled our people, must be identified, including collaborators, and brought to justice. Thirdly, the war will not end without [returning] Crimea. It is, in fact, a "political death" for putin. This will nullify everything related to the so-called "putinism" and finally desacralize putin in the domestic market," Podoliak said, noting that "all the transformation that russia had to go through in 10-15-20 years after putin's death, it will go through in the next year or two."

Podoliak believes that "russia in this form is absolutely uncompetitive and useless for the world community."

"It [russia – ed.]  sold only one thing on the global market – "be afraid of us." The concepts of blackmail, political assassination, support for terrorist movements, interference in internal political processes, the concept of dictation, creation of local crises, and so on. Now it offered the world more and the concept of hot large-scale wars. In this form, the russian federation is absolutely unnecessary; it will always destabilize international rules and principles. Yes, there are other countries, for instance, North Korea or Iran. But as russia disappears from the global order, the aggressiveness of these countries will drop sharply. Accordingly, we will get a completely different world political map," Podoliak believes.

For reference:

The permanent representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Tamila Tasheva, said that the strategy of de-occupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol would establish the critical thesis that the end of the war to begin with the liberation of Crimea.