Ukraine angered after Polish foreign minister reportedly suggests putting Crimea under UN mandate

Ukraine’s foreign ministry and Crimean Tatars have reacted angrily after Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, reportedly suggested that Crimea – part of Ukraine currently occupied by Russia – could be put under a United Nations mandate.

Sikorski’s alleged remarks – which have been widely reported in Ukrainian media but thus far not confirmed by the Polish foreign ministry – came at the Yalta European Strategy conference held in Kyiv last week.

News agency Interfax reported on Thursday morning that the Polish foreign minister had said that “Crimea is symbolically important for Russia, and particularly for Putin, but strategically crucial for Ukraine. So I don’t see how they can reach a deal without Crimea being demilitarised”.

“We could put it under a UN mandate with a mission to prepare a fair referendum after having verified who are the rightful inhabitants and all that,” he added. “And we could kick it down the road by 20 years.”

However, Sikorski also said that it had been a mistake for the West to tell Ukraine not to fight in Crimea. “If the Ukrainians fought in Crimea, even symbolically, he [Putin] might not have dared to do Donbas.”

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On Thursday evening, Ukraine’s foreign ministry issued a statement on what it said were “unacceptable proposals regarding the future status of…Crimea”. It did not, however, specifically name Sikorski as being responsible for any such proposals.

“The territorial integrity of Ukraine has never been, and will never be, a subject for discussion or compromise,” they wrote. “Crimea is Ukraine. Full stop.”

“We count on further strong support from our partners to force Russia to return to respect for international law and…to withdraw its troops and military equipment from the entire sovereign territory of Ukraine,” added the ministry.

Meanwhile, the Mejlis – a body representing the Crimean Tatar people – also issued a statement, one that did specifically criticise Sikorski by name.

They said that his “unacceptable and cynical” proposal does “not correspond to the national interests of Ukraine, nor to the rights and interests of the indigenous Crimean Tatar population of Ukraine”, reports Polish news website Interia.

At the time of writing, Poland’s foreign ministry has not responded to requests for comment on the issue made by Notes from Poland and other Polish media outlets.

Russia invaded and occupied Crimea in 2014 before holding a disputed referendum to justify annexing the territory. Its actions have been widely condemned as a violation of international law.

Earlier this year, Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, faced criticism from Ukraine after suggesting that Kyiv may never recover Crimea. In response to that controversy, Sikorski issued a statement saying that “Poland recognises the independence of Ukraine within its internationally established borders”.

Poland has been one of Ukraine’s closest allies since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, providing large quantities of military equipment, humanitarian aid and diplomatic support.

The two countries have, however, also experienced tensions, in particular over the issue of massacres during World War Two of ethnic Poles by Ukrainian nationalists.

Main image credit: MFA/Flickr (under CC BY-NC 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.