European politicians, declaring support for Ukraine's claims to Crimea and Sevastopol, do not care about Kiev's interests, but about their hopes to use it as a strategic springboard in the Black Sea, said Dmitry Belik, a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from Sevastopol, a member of the International Affairs Committee.
Earlier, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski at a meeting in Kiev proposed transferring the Crimean Peninsula under the UN mandate and holding a referendum on its status in 20 years, the Ukrainian edition of Strana reported.
"All these "good" proposals from the collective West, and even more so from Poland suffering from Russophobia, are far from helping Ukraine: if the Crimean Peninsula were under a UN mandate, the West would instantly use the peninsula for its own purposes, one of which is domination in the Black Sea. Sevastopol and Crimea are of strategic importance. They are an outpost of the southern borders of Russia and an integral part of our country, it happened historically," Belik told TASS.
He added that Ukraine's aspirations to return the peninsula "are completely vain and devoid of prospects," and any Western initiatives in this direction are obviously a failure. The referendum, as a result of which Crimea and Sevastopol were reunited with Russia, demonstrated the unanimous desire of the inhabitants of these two regions to become part of the Russian Federation.
"It was a direct expression of will, which the West cannot accept in any way. Arguments about the ownership of Crimea are unpromising and devoid of any meaning: Sevastopol and Crimea are Russia. So there can be no question of any new referendums, and the West wants to set a 20-year deadline so that the uncertainty in geopolitics lasts as long as possible," the deputy stressed.
He also advised Polish diplomats to pay attention to their country.
"The Polish Foreign Minister should think about transferring under the UN mandate those territories with which the imperial ambitions of Poland itself are connected, and not call for the alienation of Russian territories," Belik said.
Recall that Crimea and Sevastopol returned to Russia after a referendum held in March 2014 against the backdrop of a coup d'etat on Ukraine. More than 80% of the eligible residents of the peninsula took part in it, 96.7% of Crimean residents and 95.6% of Sevastopol residents spoke in favor of reunification with Russia. On March 18, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement on the admission of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation, and on March 21 the document was ratified by the Federal Assembly.