Polish foreign minister explains remarks about "referendum on Crimea": It was a hypothetical discussion

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has clarified that his remarks about the possible return of Crimea to Ukraine through a referendum, which have displeased Kyiv, were part of a "hypothetical discussion".

Source: European Pravda, citing the Polish media outlet PAP 

Details: Sikorski stressed that Poland supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine: "There is no doubt about that, and I have repeatedly emphasised this."

"However, there was a hypothetical discussion off the record among experts at the conference in which we considered how to implement President Zelenskyy's own proposals on how to regain Crimea. He was talking about diplomatic measures," he added.

The Polish foreign minister was answering a question about remarks that he made at the Yalta European Strategy (YES) conference in Kyiv.

According to Ukrainian media reports, Sikorski had suggested placing Crimea under a UN mandate with the prospect of holding a referendum on the territory's status in the distant future.

This provoked an angry reaction from Ukrainian officials, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which, without naming Sikorski, insisted that "the Kremlin's appetites must not be satisfied at the expense of Ukraine's interests and international law".

The international community in general and Poland in particular do not recognise Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. The European Union imposed sectoral sanctions on the Russian economy and has extended them numerous times.

In June, the European Court of Human Rights issued a judgement on the merits in the first inter-state case, Ukraine v. Russia (re Crimea), finding the aggressor state guilty of systematic human rights violations on the occupied peninsula.

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