Will, the summit itself takes place on August 23? What will it consist of and what will be its structure?

The summit will consist of two main parts. The first part is the speeches of officials of the Ukrainian state, which initiates the Crimean platform, as a negotiating, communication platform for the deoccupation of Crimea, where leaders of the countries, representatives of the expert network, representatives of the Crimean Tatar people will speak. The second part of the summit will consist of an expert discussion, the so-called panel discussions, of the Crimean platform. It will consist of four panel discussions, which will be attended by experts, representatives of the participating countries who attended the inaugural summit of the Crimean Platform. It will consist of representatives of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, activists from the Crimea and public intellectuals in a mixed format, both in physical, offline and video appeals, as well as online participation in panel discussions. It will be on several main topics: the policy of recognizing the regime, the issue of colonization, the restoration of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people, one of the discussions on security in the Azov-Black Sea region, and reintegration through and protection of human rights. Four panel discussions, which will be attended by officials of the levels who come to the Crimean platform, the expert community, representatives of the Crimean Tatar people, leaders of public opinion and so on. Then there will be a cultural program. In addition to the space in the Parkovo residential complex, there will be an opening of an extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada, a solemn sitting, which will be attended by parliamentarians who come from different countries and support the Crimean platform, together with our parliamentarians. It will be a solemn meeting. In addition, an office of the Crimean Platform will be opened at one of the locations.

How will the Crimean Platform office work?

The Crimean Platform is an international coordination mechanism initiated by Ukraine, joined by partner countries, for the deoccupation of Crimea. This is one of the mechanisms of deoccupation of Crimea, which consists of several levels. The first level is the leadership level, the second level is the expert level, the third is the parliamentary level, local self-government, the regional level of the Crimean platform will be introduced. This is, if we talk about the mechanism of the Crimean platform. Office of the Crimean Platform, it will be a permanent mechanism, an office that will work 24/7 to coordinate the efforts of Ukrainian authorities, law enforcement agencies, experts, donors, public opinion leaders, who will develop various decisions and the President's Office becomes this base for the office of the Crimean platform. That is, the President of Ukraine last week signed additional powers by Decree, extended them to accompany the expert, consulting, informative, analytical, and so on, the Crimean platform. Therefore, the opening of this office of the Crimean Platform will be officially attended by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine together with the leaders who will arrive, prime ministers, presidents. This is a component of the entire inaugural summit of the Crimean platform. There will be various locations on the margins of the summit, where elements of cultural diplomacy will tell more about Crimea, the occupation, the history of Crimea, the future and so on. That is, through interactive cultural objects, those who come to the Crimean platform, guests, experts, will be able to get acquainted. In short, this is what the whole day of the summit will look like with some elements, both the official part with the signing of the Crimean Declaration and the informal part with the opening of the office, panel discussions, the cultural component.

In preparation for the summit, the Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stated that the Russian Federation has intervened in the preparations and attempts to abolish the Crimean platform. Can you give some examples of how they did it?

I can't name the countries, it will be correct in relation to these countries, including, but these are the countries that are in close economic ties with Russia, the countries of South America, some countries of the European Union, the countries of the Persian Gulf, and so on. Thus, the question arises whether you are going to the Crimean platform, or some economic problems. While most countries are intimidating, I am not talking about countries that did not vote on the March 27, 2014 Resolution on the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state. The Crimean platform is not just about maintaining territorial integrity, it is about taking certain actions, it is an active action on the part of partner countries. Therefore, they often compare, it seems to me that it is incorrect to say that 100 countries supported this Resolution in March 2014, and now fewer will come.

Will participants from Crimea be present on the platform? How safe is their participation in the platform or does this participation endanger their return to the temporarily occupied peninsula?

The Russian Federation is taking many steps to intimidate our population in Crimea, and the participating countries are also involved in intimidation and blackmail. The Crimean platform, countries that wanted to join, but in fact, such threats, the rupture of economic relations and so on, have not yet joined the Crimean platform. As for people from Crimea, certain participants will participate, but in a safe format.

Do you have any reactions from the Crimea the Crimean people, in your opinion, they mostly support this summit?

In my opinion, support. At least those Crimeans with whom we communicate unequivocally support the idea of ​​the Crimean platform, support it informationally, first of all, therefore there are a lot of responses. I communicate with the active part of the citizens or the pro-Ukrainian part and I have not yet heard from those with whom I communicate, any negative response to the Crimean platform, to its need in general.

Will the Crimean platform help in the issue of releasing Kremlin political prisoners, or will it slow down the process even more? In a recent interview with Crimean journalists, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the issue was being blocked by Russia.

The issue of the release of political prisoners has always been blocked by the Russian side, and we understand that this side will continue to block it. This means that we are doing our job, we are negotiating, including raising this issue within the public format, but unfortunately, Russia is not making concessions. So whether it will help the fired, I think it will. More than 40 countries will come and join the Crimean Platform, including the issue of human rights, the release of political prisoners, will be raised within the Crimean Platform and we certainly need the support of our international partners, including in the protection of human rights, including our Ukrainian prisoners held both in the Crimea and in the territory of the Russian Federation.

Why was the Crimean platform initiated only in the 8th year of occupation, why has this problem not been raised at the state level in a similar format before?

I will answer the following questions: Why was the "Strategy for Deoccupation and Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol" adopted only on February 26, 2021? Why was the Presidential Decree on the "Day of Resistance to the Occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea" signed on February 26, 2020? Why was the Law "On the Roots of the Peoples" and the repeal of the Law "On the Free Economic Zone" Crimea "made only in July 2021?" These are all rhetorical questions, unfortunately, I have no answers to them. The only answer is the lack of political will of the previous leadership of the state. I have no other explanation. And now, I have seen this political will, I can really say it, as a person who has worked for many years in human rights, who has dealt with the abolition of the free economic zone, and indigenous peoples, and a number of other issues, first of all, the strategy of deoccupation. And when they did not want to hear these important arguments and questions, and no decisions were made. If you look at the whole period, from the beginning of 2014, important historical decisions for the whole period, until 2019, were not made, unfortunately. Therefore, this issue should be addressed primarily to the political leadership of the previous administration.