Crimean Tatars are preparing to help Ukraine's Armed Forces on peninsula - Mustafa Dzhemilev

Mustafa Dzhemilev, the national leader of the Crimean Tatar people, Member of the Ukrainian parliament, said this in an interview with the Krym.Realii project on May 18, 2024.

"I have already spoken with Budanov that when Ukrainian troops approach the border with Crimea, they will be pleasantly surprised. The Crimean Tatars are seriously preparing for this. However, they are not trained, they have few weapons. But there will be significant support," the politician stressed.

At the same time, according to Dzhemilev, when the Ukrainian army is on the Perekop Isthmus, the Russian invaders should be offered to voluntarily leave the peninsula.

"But I think when the Ukrainian Armed Forces approach the border between Crimea and mainland Ukraine, we will once again propose negotiations, but this time on the condition that Russian troops leave Crimea without losses, without military action," he explained.

If the Russians refuse such a proposal, Dzhemilev continued, then the peninsula will have to be liberated exclusively by military means.

"We have to shoot. There is no other way," the Crimean Tatar leader said.

• On May 18, Ukraine marks the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People. On this day in 1944, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin began the deportation of Crimean Tatars from their historic homeland.