Sarkozy's scandalous statement on Crimea - Presidential Office reacts

How did Sarkozy "distinguish himself"?

In an interview with Le Figaro, the former president called for "compromises" to end Russia's war against Ukraine. He claimed that Crimea was supposedly Russian territory before 1954, and most Crimeans "always felt Russian," making "any step back illusory."

He proposed holding a "referendum under strict international control" to "confirm the current state of affairs" on the peninsula.

Accomplice in Russia's crime against Ukraine

As Podolyak noted, Sarkozy's words once again exposed one of the reasons for today's war – the encouragement by Western leaders of criminal plans by dictator Vladimir Putin to seize foreign lands.

"Sarkozy's encouragement is direct complicity in a years-long crime. One cannot encourage criminals with phrases like 'land in exchange for peace,'" added Mykhailo Podoliak.

The advisor to the President's Office noted:

• There are no "new territories of Russia";
• There are no rights of Russia in the so-called "referendums";
• There are no cultural or linguistic peculiarities;
• Nobody can trade foreign territories when you're on friendly terms with criminals;
• Crimea and Donbas were and are unquestionably Ukrainian territories;

"Accordingly, the only way to truly stop the war is to return to these territories of international law. Which means only one thing: Russia must lose. Fewer provocations, fewer conflicting statements, less encouragement of crime," added Podolyak.

The advisor to the President's Office pointed out that in 2023, one cannot repeat the "Sarkozy experience," where he knowingly participated in a criminal conspiracy to seize Ukrainian territories with the subsequent organization of genocide and war by Russia.