The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, expressed confidence that Crimea and other occupied territories will return to Ukraine.
"We must send a message to the people in the occupied territories, in Crimea. These are our people. This is a tragedy - the occupation more than 8 years ago. Of course, all this time could have changed many, especially children. The war is not only fought with weapons. The information war attacks people. Russia attacks with television and other media," he said in an interview with journalists on Wednesday in Izyum.
"My message is we will be back. It doesn't matter what they've heard for these 8 years on propaganda TV. It doesn't matter to us. We know the truth is on our side. I don't know when that will happen. Nobody knows. We will come because this is our land and our people," he said.
Answering a question about his impressions of what he saw in Izyum, Zelenskiy said that he was "not surprised by what he saw here." "It's not a shock to me. We started to see the same pictures from Buchi - destroyed houses, killed people. This is part of our modern history," he said.
Speaking about the international investigation of Russia's crimes, he thanked the international investigative commissions for their work.
"We understand that this process is slow. The main thing for Ukraine is to continue to be open," he said.