This year’s World Festival of Youth and Students will be held in the territory of the Russian Federation, in Sochi. The Youth National Congress, the Youth National Council and other public organizations led by the Ministry of Youth and Sports call on Ukrainian youth to boycott the event. Among the main reasons is the festival participants’ visit to the annexed Crimea and invitations to representatives of the so-called DPR and LPR. “Participation of representatives of the ‘DPR’ and ‘LPR’ terrorist organizations is aimed at their legitimization, which we cannot allow,” said Ihor Zhdanov, Minister of Youth and Sports, at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
The Ministry has sent letters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Ministry for Temporary Occupied Territories, SBU and Foreign Intelligence Service with a request to take action within their competence. “We also call on the European Youth Forum to disseminate these […] messages among all-European youth movements, including international organizations uniting young people,” said Andriy Kolobov, Chairman of the Youth National Council of Ukraine.
According to Vasyl Dubovyi, Head of the Secretariat of the All-Ukrainian Union of Youth and Sports, “Youth Nationalist Congress”, the position of the festival does not correspond to the values it declares, like democratic principles and preservation of the values of peace.