Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said that Ukraine is preparing developments for 2024 that will help liberate the temporarily occupied Crimea from Russia.
Preparation for the deoccupation of Crimea
The Minister of Defence was asked about the topics of conversation during the visit of the Ukrainian delegation to the United States.
There was a Defence Industry Conference and a meeting at the Pentagon to discuss how to "cleanse" the Black Sea of Russian presence and technologies that would help Ukraine fight Kalibr missile carriers, in addition to the drones already in service.
We have shown the world that we can succeed. Despite the fact that we don't have such a powerful navy, we forced Russia to leave the temporarily occupied Crimea. The developments we are preparing for 2024 will give us very good opportunities to make them leave our Crimea forever, Umerov said.
Russia relocates 800,000 Russians to Crimea
The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UGS) reported that since 2014, the Russian authorities have relocated up to 800,000 Russian citizens to occupied Crimea and forced about 100,000 Ukrainian citizens to leave the peninsula.
The UGS notes that such a Russian policy violates international humanitarian law, namely Article 49 of the Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War: "The Occupying Power shall not transfer or deport any part of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies".
