Kuleba: While the West has not had a consistent Black Sea strategy, Russia has always had one
While the West has had no consistent strategy related to the Black Sea, Russia has always had one - aggressive, vindictive, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said on Thursday. He was speaking online at a conference on the security of the Black Sea region being held in Bucharest under the aegis of the International Crimean Platform.
"Every time we hear that anyone from anywhere in the world says that Crimea is somehow special and should not be returned to Ukraine, we have to say that Ukraine categorically rejects this. There is no difference between Simferopol, Donetsk, Lugansk, Herson or any other Ukrainian city. We have to be and will be the whole Ukraine again," the Kiev diplomacy chief said, quoted by Agerpres. He said that "many of us believed that the 21st century would be one of peace, development and cooperation".
"Unfortunately, Russia went in the opposite direction in the 19th century of colonial competition," Kuleba added. "The Black Sea is essential for the whole of Europe to be a place of peace," Dmitro Kuleba pointed out.
Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu and National Defence Minister Angel Tîlvăr are hosting the first Black Sea Security Conference under the aegis of the International Crimean Platform in Bucharest on Thursday.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba cancelled his trip to Romania at the last minute due to developments on the Ukrainian front and made a video intervention at the conference.
