In an interview in Le Figaro, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposes, among other things, new referendums in areas under Russian control in Ukraine as part of an effort to end the war.
The move was not well received in Kiev, which instead accused Sarkozy of “knowingly participating in the organization of genocide”.
The tone from Ukraine is high, with Mikhail Podolyak, one of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s closest confidants and key advisors, in a statement last week, going so far as to say that Sarkozy “knowingly participated in the organization of genocide and war”.
This follows Sarkozy’s proposal for a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, as reported by The Telegraph and others.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy:
“When it comes to the territory of Crimea, which was Russian until 1954 and where the majority of the population still consider themselves Russian, I think that any return of it to Ukraine is an illusion” pic.twitter.com/OQwZH7tAko— Natalia Gabriella Dominica (@Natalia96058112) August 17, 2023
“Crimea belongs to Russia”
Sarkozy was interviewed by the Parisian newspaper Le Figaro about his forthcoming memoir, “The Time of Battles”, which covers the period 2009-2011 during his 2007-12 presidency. “We need the Russians and they need us” is the title of the interview.
On the situation in Ukraine, Sarkozy argues that Russian President Vladimir Putin was wrong to “invade the country” and has failed to achieve his goals, but that he is “not irrational” and should be approached through diplomacy.
– Russia is a neighbor of Europe and will remain so. EU needs to get out of the current impasse because in this regard, European interests are not aligned with American interests. We cannot stick to the strange idea of fighting a war without fighting.
In Sarkozy’s vision of the future, a compromise would be for the West to recognize Crimea as Russian, because “when it comes to this territory, which was Russian until 1954 and where a majority of the population has always felt Russian, I think any step back is illusory”.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in the aftermath of the so-called Maidan revolution in 2014, which also sparked a separatist uprising in the Russian-speaking Donbass region. More than 14,000 people are estimated to have died in Kiev’s protracted war with the separatists since then.
Proposes referendums
Sarkozy proposes a series of referenda “organized under strict control of the international community” to break the current deadlock.
Podoljak calls the proposals “criminal” and declares that this will never happen.
The fantastic criminal logic of former French President @NicolasSarkozy, in which he justifies Russia's wars of aggression, has once again exposed one of the fundamental causes of today's war. It was the encouragement by Western leaders of Putin's criminal plans to seize foreign…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) August 17, 2023
The presidential advisor says that declaring Crimea and Donbass to be “unconditional territories of Ukraine” means that Russia has no right to hold referendums in these areas, and that there are no “no cultural or linguistic peculiarities in these regions“. According to Podoljak, there is only one way to end the ongoing conflict and “Russia will lose”.
