Secretary Antony J. Blinken at 4th Crimea Platform

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you very much.  Mr. President, it’s so good to see you; colleagues, leaders, fellow ministers. 

Crimea teaches us a lot.  Crimea shows the future Putin seeks for all of Ukraine.  Crimea shows Ukrainian resilience, and what drives it.  And Crimea shows what we partners of Ukraine – and nations committed to defending international rules and rights – what we must do to respond to Russia’s relentless war of aggression. 

Crimea is a reminder that Putin didn’t launch his invasion in February 2022 – but over a decade ago, in February 2014.  At the time, some argued that if only Ukraine were to hand over Crimea, Putin would be satisfied, and the threat of Russian aggression would subside.

Putin’s aggression since that time have punctured that myth – demonstrating that he will never be sated with just part of Ukraine.  He wants all of it.  He’s said so openly; he’s said he wants to reconstitute Russia’s empire, end Ukraine’s very existence.  And here, we should take Mr. Putin at his word.  Like autocrats before him who believed they had the right to withdraw borders by force, Putin’s appetite grows as he eats.

Crimea is also an alarming illustration of how Russia governs the territory that it seizes.  In Crimea, Russian occupiers have eradicated the free and independent press.  They have arbitrarily detained, tortured, disappeared human rights defenders, journalists, and other civil society activists who dare to document Russia’s abuses or criticize its purported annexation.

They have repressed non-Russian culture, language, religion – including that of Crimean Tatars – and destroyed non-Russian cultural heritage sites.  They have repeatedly held sham elections at gunpoint.  They forcibly transferred children and compelled them to participate in Russian re-education programs.

Crimea is not an isolated case – it’s a blueprint.  This is how Russia governs every part of Ukraine that it occupies.  And it’s what we can expect Putin would do whenever and wherever he seizes Ukrainian territory.

This in turn is a big part of the reason why Ukrainians fight.  They know the world that awaits them if Putin were to succeed in absorbing Ukraine into Russia.

But the story of Crimea is not just the story of what Russia has done.  Crimea is also the story of Ukrainian tenacity, ingenuity, perseverance.  Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukraine has sunk or damaged nearly a third of Russia’s fleet, pushing Russia back from the Black Sea – feats that Ukraine achieved without a fleet of their own.  Ukraine has reopened a maritime corridor, once again allowing its grain to feed the world.  And now, with long-range missiles supplied by its partners, Ukraine is effectively targeting Russian military assets in Crimea.

Finally, Crimea is about much more than what Ukrainians are fighting against.  Crimea is about what Ukrainians are fighting for.

In Crimea – and in all of Ukraine – Ukrainians fight for the inalienable right of people to choose their own future, and to have their human rights respected.  They fight for the right of nations to have their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, their independence respected – principles at the very heart of the United Nations Charter.

And when the United States and so many other partners stand with Ukraine, we not only help affirm those rights for Ukrainians, we help affirm them for all nations – and for all people.

That’s why we are proud to join Ukraine in reaffirming, today and every day:  Crimea is Ukraine.