“Crimean Platform” – a fail or chance?

The international community is in anticipation and at the same time in dismay from the upcoming launch of the Crimean Platform summit, which, according to the Ukrainian authorities, should take place on August 23, on the eve of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.

The feeling of confusion in the EU countries is caused by a vague understanding of what specific goals Kiev intends to achieve, and it is even more unclear by what means.
Kiev officially declared that the Crimean Platform format is primarily a diplomatic initiative of Ukraine aimed at coordinating international efforts in order to create conditions that would allow for the deoccupation of Crimea from Russia and its actual return to Ukraine.
However, the measures taken by the office of the Ukrainian president to solve such an ambitious task turned out to be clearly insufficient and could soon tarnish the reputation of Volodymyr Zelensky himself.
The point is that the bets of the Ukrainian leadership that the summit will become a point of attraction for the top leaders of the largest European states, as well as the United States, turned out to be unsuccessful. The USA will be represented by the Minister of Transport P. Buttidzic, Great Britain – by the Minister of Defense B. Wallace, France – by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian. Even Turkey decided to limit the level of its delegation to the head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry M. Cavusoglu. The distinguished guests of the event will be the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia – among the states that traditionally and completely show solidarity with Ukraine in international affairs.
In this regard, it is a little offensive that the world powers decided to distance themselves from the problems that Ukraine faces in the conditions of military-political aggression from Russia. Probably, despite the declarative statements of support for the Crimean Platform, the low level of delegations reflects how much Ukraine actually meets their national interests.
It also becomes obvious that the Ukrainian authorities are taking unprecedented measures to attract foreign delegations to participate in the “Crimean Platform” and even classified the list of invited countries, arguing this with measures necessary for security in the face of the Russian threat.
Probably, this has its own logic, but in this case it is not clear why information about the upcoming US participation in the event is not only not classified, but is actively used by Kiev to demonstrate special relations between countries in the media space.
In this regard, it remains only to believe that Ukraine is hiding the list of invited countries not because of the low level of representation of as yet unnamed guests, so that the notes of disappointment do not sound louder before the start of the summit.
Many experts have already spoken about the fact that the problem of Crimea is regularly discussed at the level of international organizations such as the OSCE and the UN. In this vein, it turns out that the Ukrainian initiative is purely declarative and is aimed at solving the internal political tasks of the current government, namely increasing the rating of the current president of Ukraine, diverting the attention of voters from social and economic mistakes and problems. But in this case, the President of Ukraine bears personal responsibility for the success of the “Crimean Platform” and, in view of the upcoming event, can no longer turn on the reverse speed. Despite the negative circumstances.
Zelensky is likely aware of all the weaknesses of the Crimean initiative, for which he vouched. An attempt to mitigate the negative consequences can be called the increased activity of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, which has recently been trying to expand the number of participants in the event, including at the expense of states that cannot influence the geopolitical situation around Crimea.
Much testifies to the problems of preparation and organization of the upcoming Crimean Platform summit. In addition, Zelensky’s team has invested huge amounts of money in this project. I wonder if she can find the strength in herself and take responsibility in case of failure?