Mustafa Dzhemilev: Any ‘peace deal violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity will prepare the ground for new Russian invasion
Russia’s demands have not changed and US President Donald Trump’s talk about “swapping territories” cannot hide the fact that Ukrainian territory is in question, including territory under Ukrainian control, but which Russia wants. In an interview on the eve of Trump’s meeting in Alaska with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Crimean Tatar leader and Ukrainian MP Mustafa Dzhemilev dismissed Russia’s demands as unacceptable for Ukraine. He pointed out that any territorial concessions which breach both international law and Ukraine’s territorial integrity will simply help the aggressor state to begin a new war.
Mustafa Dzhemilev was speaking before the summit. Despite initial relief after the meeting that no secret ‘deal’ had been done, the concerns have not been allayed. Probably the contrary, as Putin made it clear that he wasn’t backing down over any demands, and Trump has now changed his stance accordingly. If Putin won’t budge, then Ukraine must be coerced and threatened into making territorial concessions. Trump will then, yet again, blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Russia’s war of aggression against his country.
Mustafa Dzhemilev commented that Trump’s plans were clear: he wants an end to the war, whatever this takes, removal of sanctions from Russia and renewal of trade with the latter. “He’s not concerned about Ukraine’s interests.”
He points out that Putin’s demands have not changed: they include ‘recognition as part of Russia’ Crimea: Kherson; Zaporizhzhia; Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and the full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from those parts of the above oblasts that are not under Russian occupation. Ukraine’s Armed Forces should, according to the aggressor state’s demands, be reduced to 80 thousand soldiers; there would be a ban on Ukraine joining NATO and on its receiving military aid from western countries. “That is, turn Ukraine into the sort of country which could all be occupied at once.”
What Trump means by “swapping territories” is fairly unclear. Dzhemilev says, but it could, at most, refer to exchange of some Ukrainian territory for other, which is entirely unacceptable. This does, in fact, appear to be what Trump had suggested earlier: namely that Ukraine should, somehow, ‘cede’ all of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, as well as Crimea, while Russia would, purportedly, leave occupied territory in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. This was always a meaningless claim as high-ranking Russian politicians, as well as Putin himself, had made it quite clear they had no intention of relinquishing any illegally seized Ukrainian territory.
Since that interview, one supposed ‘proposal’ from Putin has confirmed this. According to the Guardian, Putin ‘demanded’ that “Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk as a condition for ending the war but offered Trump a freeze along the remaining frontline”.
Presumably Trump would ignore ‘details’, such as where the people of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, to name just the two main cities involved, would be moved to, before the land was “handed over to Russia” As well as profoundly immoral and lawless, any such deal achieved this week or next would also be entirely dishonest. Russia is openly claiming that all of four oblasts, as well as Crimea, have become ‘Russian’, with these including the main cities of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts. The so-called new Russian ‘constitution’ was pushed through after its invasion and armed occupation of Ukrainian territory, including Kherson, and there is simply no possibility that Russia will stop until it retakes Kherson, which was liberated on 11 November 2022.
Russia will not stop, unless it is stopped, and this is what Trump clearly has no wish to do. Even the supposedly “severe economic sanctions” that he mentioned before the meeting now appear to once again be off the table.
As Mustafa Dzhemilev noted before the meeting, any such violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity will simply be used as a breathing space, for Russia to mobilize more forces and invade more Ukrainian territory.
Talk on Saturday from European leaders of “robust security guarantees” is needed, but which are to be believed? Ukraine had every reason in 1994 to believe it had received just such “guarantees” from Russia; the United States; the United Kingdom and France when it gave up its nuclear weapons and signed the Budapest Memorandum.
Mustafa Dzhemilev mentioned a very welcome declaration issued, also on the eve of Trump’s meeting with Putin, by all member-states of the European Union, except Hungary. This clearly stated that "the people of Ukraine must have the freedom to decide their future" and that "international borders must not be changed by force".
An important statement was also issued prior to the summit by the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, the representative assembly of the Crimean Tatar people. This reiterated their categorical rejection of any attempt to recognize Crimea as ‘Russian’, whether de jure or de facto.
“Noone has the right to pass any decisions about the fate of Crimea without the participation of the Ukrainian state and the indigenous Crimean Tatar people”.
The Mejlis insists that “the future of Crimea must be viewed solely within the context of the reinstatement of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the ensuring of the inalienable right of the Crimean Tatar people to self-determination in their historical homeland as part of the Ukrainian state.”
It was thanks to an initiative from the Mejlis, supported by around 10 thousand Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainians that Russia failed to pull off a covert coup d’etat in February 2014 and resorted to armed invasion. It was, doubtless, for this reason, as well as due to Crimean Tatars’ unwavering support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and the Crimean Tatar human rights movement, that they have suffered quite disproportionately from Russian repression and terror on occupied territory.
It should, however, be stressed that the rights and freedoms of all Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainians are gravely violated on any occupied territory. While it is certainly true that ‘Ukraine’ must decide its fate, Ukraine includes a huge number of Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners and other civilians living on occupied territory. Russia has deprived them of a voice. Ukraine must not forget them.
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