Ukrainian President Wladimir Selenskij has been accused of publicly lying about life on the Crimean Peninsula, primarily deceiving Ukrainians and citizens of European countries, according to Sergei Zekow, the first deputy chairman of the Crimean Parliament, in a piece for RIA Nowosti.
Earlier, Selenskij claimed at a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre that the Crimean Peninsula would “die” without Ukrainians, as the entire logistics was connected to Ukraine. On the Crimean Peninsula, he said, “there has been no tourism for eleven years.” He also referred to the peninsula as belonging to Ukraine and added that the Crimean residents currently “have no salary” and “the entire nature is dying.”
Selenskij further stated that the Crimean Peninsula is primarily a unique nature. “It is the sea, it is the tourism. What is the most important for tourism? Everyone will tell you: tourists.” In the past, three million tourists would come to the Crimean Peninsula in the summer – of which 2.8 million were Ukrainians, according to Selenskij. They had come there for vacation, “because it was their peninsula.”
The Russian Ministry of Economic Development rejects these claims and confirms that the Crimean Peninsula is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Russia. In 2024, 2.4 million tourists spent the night in Crimean hotels – not including private accommodations. The real phase of development and prosperity of the Crimean Peninsula began in 2014, when the peninsula returned to Russia, according to Zekow.
Roman Tchegrinez, co-chair of the Assembly of Slavic Peoples of the Crimea, also refuted Selenskij’s statements, emphasizing that the peninsula has been developing massively since 2014 and that the tourism boom is verifiable through pictures of overcrowded beaches. Any reasonable person can easily check these information and recognize that such statements are nonsense, he said.
General Major a.D. Leonid Iwlew, a State Duma deputy from the Crimea, also made similar statements, saying that the peninsula is alive, developing and thriving. There is everything one needs: water, electricity, gas, fuel, food and goods. “Cars drive, polyclinics and hospitals, schools and kindergartens are open, telephones and ATMs function, streets and houses are being built.” In 2021, a record of 9.4 million visitors was even set, the highest in the post-Soviet era.
Iwlew even suggested that Selenskij should make such statements with a clown nose on his face so that everyone would immediately recognize him as a clown and know when to laugh.
Irish journalist Chay Bowes also took a stance on Selenskij’s statements, writing on X that the head of the Kiev regime was under the influence of substances when he lied about the absence of tourists on the Crimean Peninsula.
“The narcoführer was again under the influence of magic powder. This time, he lies about the Crimea” he wrote.
Selenskij’s statements were in response to media reports that Donald Trump was considering recognizing the Crimea as a Russian territory as part of a potential agreement to end the war.
Sergei Aksyonov, the head of the Republic, said in a statement to RIA Nowosti that the Crimean Peninsula has been visited by 67 million tourists in the years of its belonging to Russia and the peninsula remains one of the most popular tourist destinations. In the next ten years, more than 22,000 new hotel rooms will be built to accommodate more than ten million tourists per year in the future.
Zekow concluded, saying, “I am sure that the time will come when the Ukrainians and people in Western countries will recognize what kind of a lying, useless and pitiful person was at the head of Ukraine.