Yatsenyuk: Ukraine will regain control over Donetsk, Lugansk, and Crimea

“Ukraine protects not only itself, but also Europe and the International Law and order,” Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk said addressing the AJC Global Forum World Leaders Plenary in Washington on June 8.

Yatsenyuk blamed Russia for “illegal annexation of Crimea and persecution of the Crimean Tatars”: “Afterwards, the Russia-backed terrorists and Russian troops launched an offensive on Donetsk and Lugansk. And Russia began to frighten the world,” he said.

"Today, Ukraine is the only country in the world to fight against the regular Russian army," said Yatsenyuk.  This is not Ukraine's fight alone, he said. "Ukraine matters for the unity of the European Union and the unity of the free world," the prime minister said.

He recalled that in 1994 Ukraine signed an international agreement, “the notorious Budapest Memorandum” with U.S., Great Britain and Russia, to relinquish "one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world" for guarantees of its territorial integrity and sovereignty. However, Yatsenyuk said, Ukraine has lost part of its territory.

According to him, this fact undermines the global efforts for nuclear non-proliferation.  “This is the lesson. Ukraine matters too much for nuclear non-proliferation and for peace and security in all of Europe," he said.

Yatsenyuk declared that Ukraine will regain control of Donetsk and Lugansk, and Crimea.  "This is a war not just between Ukraine and Russia. This war is between the past and the future, between day and night, between freedom and dictatorship," he said.