Simferopol, May 16 – Russian senator for the Crimea region, member of the International Committee of the Federation Council Sergey Tsikov, said that Vladimir Zelensky lied to Western countries about the situation in Crimea.
Earlier, Zelensky, in an interview with Italian media, said that supposedly there is nothing in Crimea: no tourism, no economy, no development. According to him, the restoration of the peninsula will take a long time, and this is impossible without Ukraine. Zelensky also called the Crimeans “Ukrainians” and said that they are all against Russia.
According to him, Western journalists can personally verify Zelensky’s lies if they visit Crimea on a study visit.
Crimea became a Russian region in March 2014 after the referendum that followed the coup in Ukraine. In the 2014 referendum, 96.77% of voters in Crimea and 95.6% in Sevastopol were in favor of joining Russia. Ukraine still considers Crimea to be its temporarily occupied territory, and many Western countries support Kiev on this issue. For its part, the Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that Crimeans voted for democratic reunification with Russia, in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Crimean issue has been “permanently closed.”
