Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that the Ukrainian flag will be displayed again in Crimea, a temporarily occupied peninsula and this act will bring back European values on the peninsula and put an end to the religious and ethnic persecutions.

Addressing the First Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimea Platform in Zagreb via video link, President Zelenskyy said that Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014, destroyed the peninsula’s economic perspective and is conducting ethnically and religiously motivated repression there.

“However, the Ukrainian flag will be flown in Crimea again. Crimea will be liberated and only then will the world feel that the war is over and only then can people feel that the world is safe again,” the Ukrainian head of state added.

“Our cooperation can change the situation. Displaying again the Ukrainian flat on Crime is the restoration of European norms, the norms that you have in your countries: security, welfare country, culture, education,” Zelenskyy said.

While fighting the Russian aggressor my country needs military and financial support as well as sanctions on Russia, he added.

This will lay the foundations for the future and after Russia’s invasion, the world has grown into a more brutal place in which Russia can trigger hunger by impeding free navigation and halting exports, Zelenskyy underscored.

He thanked “Croatian friends” for this invitation to address the summit and thanked Prime Minister Andrej Plenković for Croatia’s organisation of the summit.

He also invited the participants in the Zagreb gathering to visit Crimea as soon as we take back that part of Europe.

The International Crimea Platform was officially launched with the Inaugural Summit in Kyiv on 23 August 2021, when the Joint Declaration was also adopted. 47 state representatives at the level of presidents, prime ministers, speakers of parliaments and ministers from G7 member states, EU member states, NATO, Council of Europe, European Council, European Commission, and Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development participated.

On 23 August 2022, the summit was held online.

The First Parliamentary Summit of the Crimea Platform in Zagreb brought together 42 delegations from 32 countries, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and NATO.