PM calls for supplying water to Crimean residents, before retracting claim

Prime Minister Denys
Shmyhal caused a scandal in his first full day in office on Mar. 6, telling a
political talk show that Ukraine should be supplying water to Crimean residents
out of humanitarian concern, especially since the government still views them
as Ukrainian citizens. “We won’t supply water for industrial and military
sites. Explanation point and we put a period on that. We will supply Ukrainians
with water for household needs, for drinking. We should be providing something,
at least tanks, at least canisters, at least bottles. This is our obligation
before our fellow Ukrainians,” he said.

Yet within a few
hours, Shmyhal wrote a Facebook post walking back the scandalous statement.
“Truly, it’s not possible for technical reasons to separate water that will go to the people,
and water that will go to military bases,” he wrote. “This theme was forgotten
in the noise of the studio. The position remains unchanged: we would likely to
supply water to our citizens, but we can’t and doesn’t have the technical
ability to do this until the peninsula is deoccupied and returned to Ukraine.”
The next evening, Shmyhal appeared on another television talk show to repeat
this retraction.

Recall, the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which belonged to Ukraine, was annexed by the
Russian government in 2014 in violation of international law. Western
governments have since imposed sanctions against Russian officials and
businesses for their role. Meanwhile, Crimea’s water supply remains part of the
territory of Ukraine, which has refused to provide supplies since the illegal
annexation.

Zenon Zawada: It’s
hard to imagine why Shmyhal would cause such a needless scandal in his first
day in office, especially on a simple political position that is shared by most
Ukrainians. He had nothing to gain politically, considering he spent his life
in the pro-NATO western regions. If this was a deliberate statement, then it
could have been requested by the president in order to create some negotiating
space with the Russians (as well as make the prospect more acceptable among the
public). Otherwise, it was simply careless, especially on the first day on the
job.