11 july 2024 # School Club

Returning Occupied Territories: A Strategic View

On 10 July, the Ukrainian School of Political Studies and the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea held the USPS Club “Returning Occupied Territories: A Strategic View.” Lyudmila Yankina, director of the civil society protection programme of the ZMINA Centre for Human Rights and a participant of the 2024 USPS, moderated the event.

The de-occupation and reintegration of Ukrainian territories that have been under Russian occupation for more than ten years is a very sensitive topic for our society. After all, we do not have definite answers to many questions, from how to return territories and people to agree on what the achievement of justice will look like.

However, Ukraine as a state defends the key message – all Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia must and will be liberated. Therefore, we must have a step-by-step plan to return territories and people.

This plan changed after the start of a full-scale invasion. Tamila Tasheva, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and a 2021 USPS Alumna, shared this during the USPS Club. Until 2022, Ukraine talked about political and diplomatic ways of liberating the territory of Crimea, but now we don’t rule out a military component.

It is important that the state prepares for Crimea’s return. In particular, “Priority steps of the Ukrainian state after the de-occupation of Crimea” was developed, which covers the issues of restoring public authorities, prosecution, amnesty, and lustration, verifying documents and decisions of occupation courts, matters of property rights, humanitarian policy, and demilitarisation of educational and cultural spheres.

In addition to strategic documents, it is necessary to move to the level of implementation. In particular, the Representative Office, in collaboration with ministries, members of parliament, and experts, developed a draft Law of Ukraine on the peculiarities of restoring public power in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. Such documents shall be adopted right now. We must have a clear plan. It is much easier to correct it than to restart from the very beginning later. This gives people clear messages that the Ukrainian state has a vision and it is preparing.

It takes a lot of courage to develop and implement reintegration policies. Although reintegration decisions are very difficult, they are necessary to ensure stable peace after de-occupation in both the liberated territories and the entire territory of Ukraine. During the event, Olena Luniova, Advocacy Manager at ZMINA Human Rights Centre, spoke about this with the USPS Community.

We are in a situation where a balanced conversation about the future is complicated. We do not know what situation we will be in a month from now and when the territories are de-occupied. However, we must find solutions that will allow Ukrainians to understand the “rules of life” in the liberated territories. Legal decisions will be made on issues of responsibility, as well as on tools for building trust in the restored authorities in the de-occupied territories and removing from power those who compromised themselves by collaborating with the occupation authorities and the Russian Federation. And it is very important to look for ways to communicate these decisions with society.

The cognitive aspect is not less important regarding de-occupation and reintegration, a large part of which is education. During ten years of occupation, a generation of children grew up studying only according to Russian standards, where school is a place for childhood militarisation. Roman Hryshchuk, MP of Ukraine, Member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science and Innovation, and a 2023 USPS Alumnus, spoke about the biggest challenges in ensuring education in the de-occupied territories.

There are many problems with restoring education in the de-occupied territory, but I will focus on two. First are teachers. Who will come to de-occupied territories to teach the Ukrainian programme? Do we have enough professionals? What shall we do with teachers who have been working under the Russian standards? Second, there is the matter of content. It could seem that this is just a different language, but in fact, it is a completely different outlook. The education system of Ukraine stems from a child’s personality up to the society's interests. In Russia, it is completely different. The interests of the state ideology and no personality at all rank first. We will have to fight this.

When discussing de-occupation, we also need to consider the historical context. Our knowledge, in particular, about Crimea is fragmented and distorted by the Soviet legacy and propaganda. However, if we look back to the period from the beginning of Ukraine’s independence until 2014, we will see that despite Russia’s significant influence in Crimea, both political and cultural, at the end of the 2000s, Crimea was gradually on its way to incorporation into the Ukrainian space. Martin-Oleksandr Kyslyi, Ph.D. in Historical Sciences, researcher of Crimean Tatar history, and teacher at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy National University, noted this during the discussion.

A lot of things changed during the ten years of occupation. 2014 is important for us as a trauma. In historical terms, this is the beginning of recolonisation. Militarisation of the region, change in identity, and Russification take place, and there are now a lot of immigrants from the RF in Crimea. Therefore, Ukraine now has to build an understanding of the role of Crimea, its future, and its rooted trauma. A strategy for the cognitive de-occupation of Crimea must be based on the following thesis: people are important, not territories.

This event of the USPS Club was held with the support of the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine, financed by the governments of Great Britain, Estonia, Canada, the Netherlands, the United States of America, Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden. We are grateful to the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the ZMINA Human Rights Centre for the successful partnership and important discussions of the Foundation!