In a comment for the Daily Mail, Tamila Tasheva, Permanent Representative of the Mission of the President of Ukraine in Crimea noted that the 800,000 Russians who illegally moved to the temporarily occupied Crimea should be “forcibly expelled” after Ukraine deoccupies the peninsula, the Mission said in a FB post.
“According to Ukrainian and international law, if citizens of a foreign state illegally cross the border, they must be forcibly expelled. Therefore, if they are illegals, they must return to Russia, and leave Ukrainian Crimea after de-occupation. Only then will these people be able to demand the right to stay/residence from the Ukrainian state.”
She added that applications from Russian citizens who have Ukrainian spouses or children will be accepted with understanding, as well as applications from those Russians who prove their support for Ukraine:
“This is a difficult issue because they are illegally staying on the territory of our state and participating in the criminal colonization policy of the Kremlin.”
Tamila Tasheva said that Ukraine is also developing plans to review all property transactions and court decisions made during the Russian occupation to ensure that Ukrainians have not had their homes stolen, assets confiscated, or their rights violated by unfair and illegal decisions of occupation courts.
The Permanent Representative stressed that the temporarily occupied Crimea is a place of pride for Putin, a symbol of his rule. However, no matter what Russia claims, Crimea is the legitimate territory of Ukraine: “We are fighting for our people. Russia will leave this war zone, and we will return our land.”
