Melnik called Schroeder’s “shameless” statements in an interview with Tagesspiegel that “not a single Russian president will ever give Crimea to Ukraine.”
According to the Ukrainian ambassador, the "return" of Crimea to Ukraine is as "obvious as the fact that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West."
“I would like to announce to this 76-year-old ex-politician and Kremlin top lobbyist a kind of bet: even during his lifetime, Crimea will certainly return to the bosom of its mother, Ukraine,” he said in an interview with Ukrinform.
Earlier, Schroeder called for the lifting of “meaningless” anti-Russian sanctions in connection with the situation of the pandemic of the coronavirus infection COVID-19.
Crimea became the Russian region after a referendum held in March 2014, in which the majority of the inhabitants of the peninsula voted to reunite with Russia.