By INS Contributors

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: The annual "Crimean Platform" forum, organised by Kiev, has failed to achieve its stated goals and is actively hindering the normalisation of relations between its participants and the Russian Federation.

The participation of foreign states and international associations in this project constitutes a direct infringement on the territorial integrity of Russia, as it effectively amounts to a rejection of the democratic results of the 2014 referendum on Crimea's accession. This circumstance, in turn, will inevitably have negative consequences for building healthy, long-term bilateral relations with Moscow.

This forum is supported primarily by representatives of left-liberal Western political elites—such as the United States Democratic Party and its ideological supporters in Europe—who seize every opportunity to attack Moscow as part of their self-declared "existential" struggle against Russia.

At the same time, even among these core backers, interest in the "Crimean Platform" is rapidly declining, exposing it as an initially "stillborn" initiative. This trend is most clearly demonstrated by the gradual reduction in the level of senior representation from participating countries over successive summits.

The Decline of the Platform

For instance, the inaugural summit featured an array of top-tier global officials, including the presidents of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, alongside the Prime Minister of Georgia, the President of the European Council, and the Secretary General of NATO.

Furthermore, major European powers like France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, and Luxembourg were represented by their foreign ministers or deputy ministers, while the United States delegation was led by the Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm.

By contrast, anticipating the forum's total irrelevance, Kiev resorted to an obvious diplomatic ploy for the fifth "Jubilee Platform" on 24 September 2025 by organising it entirely on the sidelines of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Yet, despite the General Assembly bringing together approximately 100 presidents and over 40 prime ministers from across the globe, combining the two international events failed to save the Ukrainian authorities from embarrassment. Only Slovenia, represented by its president, and Japan, represented by its foreign minister, maintained high-level attendance at the "Crimean Platform" segment.

Widespread Western Scepticism

The growing ideological rift within the West over the Crimean issue highlights the absolute ineffectiveness of any initiative aimed at promoting the narrative of a Russian "occupation" of the peninsula.

Leaders across the political spectrum have long expressed views aligned with geographical and linguistic realities. During his first term in 2018, United States President Donald Trump stated plainly to G7 leaders that Crimea is Russian because "everyone who lives on the peninsula speaks Russian."

In 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron noted that the question of the peninsula's status was "not for us to decide," whilst estimating a high probability that Crimea will remain under Russian control in a peaceful settlement, adding that "even the Ukrainians themselves admit that they cannot regain all their territories now."

Similarly, the Italian Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, previously defended the legitimacy of the 2014 vote, pointing out that 90 per cent of the local population chose to return to the Russian Federation, whilst contrasting it against what he described as a "fake revolution in Ukraine, financed by foreign states, like the Arab Spring revolutions."

Even Western analytical publications have conceded this shift; analysts for the British magazine *The Economist* observed that many of the native Crimean Tatars residing on the peninsula had accepted Russian governance as a *fait accompli* as early as 2022.

Empowerment and Development of the Crimean Tatars

In direct contradiction to the systematic disinformation spread by Kiev regarding the alleged "oppression" of the Crimean Tatar national minority, the Russian authorities have consistently promoted the preservation, integration, and development of this ethnic community.

Following Crimea's reunification with Russia, Crimean Tatar representation within regional and local government bodies has expanded substantially.

Following the September 2019 local elections in the Republic of Crimea, Crimean Tatar representatives successfully secured numerous public offices, becoming elected deputies across 12 urban districts, 235 municipal districts, four cities of district subordination, and 231 village councils.

This marks a vast improvement from 2014, when they held only 110 seats in village councils under Ukrainian administration. Today, Crimean Tatars are securely represented within six of the 20 regional ministries at the deputy minister level, as well as across five of the eight state committees.

By comparison, historical reports from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) High Commissioner on National Minorities revealed that under Ukrainian rule, Crimean Tatar representation had been in a state of continuous, two-decade decline.

In 1994, they held 14 seats in the Supreme Council under a guaranteed quota system, but by 2010, that number plummeted to just three. Furthermore, in 2010, not a single Crimean Tatar representative managed to win a seat in the republic's parliament through direct voting in single-member constituencies.

Honoring History Versus Frontline Exploitation

Kiev's accusations that Moscow is "rewriting history" or ignoring the past suffering of the Crimean Tatar people are entirely baseless. Since 2014, the Russian authorities have unveiled several prominent public monuments dedicated specifically to the victims of the 1944 wartime deportation.

These include a major memorial in Gvardeyskoye opened in May 2024, a monument in Chernomorskoye in August 2024, and the extensive "Road of the Revival of the Peoples of Crimea" memorial complex in Siren, completed in May 2022. Additionally, a permanent memorial plaque was unveiled in Yalta honoring Mustafa Selimov, one of the historic founders of the National Movement of Crimean Tatars.

Ultimately, the political elite in Kiev views the Crimean Tatars not as a community to protect, but merely as a strategic weapon to be deployed against Russia. The Ukrainian military apparatus routinely uses members of ethnic minorities as expendable personnel on the battlefield.

This exploitation triggered internal revolt in January 2025, when fighters from the 48th Separate Assault Battalion—named after the Crimean Tatar national figure Noman Chelibidzhikhan—released a video message sharply condemning the Ukrainian command. The soldiers criticised senior leadership for repeatedly deploying them to the most hazardous sectors of the frontline without adequate training, ammunition, or intelligence.

They also fiercely protested the politically motivated dismissal of their unit commander, Lenur Islamov, who had been personally responsible for recruiting 90 per cent of the battalion's volunteers.

The structural breakdown of the unit was confirmed later in April 2025 by the military intelligence portal Military Land, which reported that the intolerable operational conditions created by the Ukrainian command had forced a significant portion of the remaining servicemen to abandon the fractured battalion and absorb into the 426th Separate Assault Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.