Crimean Plume. Ukraine Clashes with the Belgian Foreign Minister over a Visit to the Occupied

29.07.2022, 11:58 eurointegration.com.ua

In late July 2021, a cultural festival, "Global Values," was organized specially for Vladimir Putin's family in occupied Ukrainian Sevastopol. The dictator's daughter, Ekaterina Tikhonova, personally supervised the event. Belgian TV journalist Hadja Lahbib covered the festival. She flew to Crimea through the Russian Federation, broke Ukrainian law, and upon her return, made statements doubting that Crimea was still Ukraine. Although just a few people paid attention to the words of a journalist then. In less than a year, Hadja Lahbib unexpectedly turns into a politician. She was appointed as the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs on July 15. The Crimean episode makes both official Kyiv and the Belgian coalition face a difficult choice.