Razumkov does not support Kravchuk's initiative for referendum on issue of occupied territories

01.02.2021 17:16

Ukrinform

Verkhovna Rada Speaker Dmytro Razumkov disagrees with the initiative put forward by former president of Ukraine, Chairman of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group Leonid Kravchuk for holding a referendum on the issue of temporarily occupied Donbas and Crimea.

"With all due respect to Leonid Kravchuk, I do not think that a referendum should be held on this issue. Because ... everyone understands even without a referendum that the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea, the territory of the temporarily occupied parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions is definitely the territory of Ukraine, and sooner or later they will return," Razumkov said at a briefing on Monday.

Razumkov added that there are other issues that could be put to a nationwide referendum. "We all know how much holding of a referendum costs, and I don't think it's worth spending money to confirm that again... There are other issues that can also be considered on a national referendum," he said.

As reported, ex-president Leonid Kravchuk said on the air of one of the Ukrainian TV channels that the issues concerning the temporarily occupied Donbas and Crimea should be put to the all-Ukrainian referendum.

According to him, it might be necessary to put this issue to a referendum so that people would say "how life should be organized in those Ukrainian territories that are not controlled by Ukraine today."

As reported, on January 26, the Verkhovna Rada passed the Law of Ukraine “On Democracy Through All-Ukrainian Referendum.”