Pyotr Poroshenko: "Ukraine will never consent to any trading, any behind-the-scenes agreements. Crimea will be returned to Ukraine. We'll do our best to make it happen as fast as possible, right after the presidential election. We've seen Putin's repeated statements that it won't happen before the election, as he hopes very much that they will elect anybody except Poroshenko and the Ukraine government will crawl to him and give him Crimea. This is what I stand for. I personally promise you this. I promise it to the Crimea residents. Those people won't have it, we'll liberate Crimea. It's absolutely certain. That's why we're enhancing our military strength, we're strengthening our international support and providing for economic growth. The same will happen with Donbass".
"The majority of Russians regarded the events in Crimea as the restoration of historical justice. They were not concerned with the fact that the country lied and violated international law. They're used to being deceived by the state. "Hybrid warfare" is the covert use of force, distribution of false rumors, work with provocateurs. This is what happens in the hybrid internal politics in Russia where democracy is only imitated. Only this time, it's hostile foreigners who were deceived, while, instead of being victims, the Russians became the Kremlin's accomplices. Now, the state sees its mission as the defense against real and imagined threats from the West, but not in the development of their own nation. While Putin celebrates yet another victory in his historical mission, his nation has lost its future".
- That was the Der Spiegel Bureau. Yes, Mikhail Yurievich. It's evident who among those in the studio participated in the return of Crimea. You have the medal on your left lapel. Well, we returned Crimea, but we don't have a future, they say.
Mikhail Markelov, Russian Government: "You know, I think that we should treat Mr. Poroshenko's words condescendingly and with understanding. Because in the situation Ukraine (and himself during the election campaign) has found itself in, two birds in the bush are better, of course, than bird droppings in your hand. You see, as of today, Mr. Poroshenko and many people who are around him, well-known politicians in Ukraine, on the backdrops of those victorious messages, continue paying taxes in the aggressor country from their businesses in the Russian Federation, and they aren't going to withdraw from these businesses. Many of today's politicians in Ukraine that proclaim that Crimea can be returned for some reason, couldn't do anything, despite all their feeble attempts, in all these five years, not just for Crimea, I won't even go there, but for their own nation. And, in all those five years, they've been doing everything they could to destroy their own nationhood. Despite the fact that the Crimean situation is solved once and for all, there's Donbass, there are other regions in Ukrainian territory which don't want to obey to the fascist Ukrainian government.
Moreover, there is one serious drawback. It'd be better if the events of the famous Crimean Spring had happened 25 years ago instead of just five years ago. In that case, the Ukrainians, Crimean residents included, wouldn't have had to bear this humiliation on their own territory, endless exploitation of their territory, as they saw it, and paying Kiev its toll. All of this could have been avoided, if, in 1991, our Russian government, too, hadn't committed a number of tragic mistakes. Then we could have protected the residents of Crimea and time wouldn't have been lost. But, in those five years, we have caught up for this lost time".
