Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy staunchly backed returning Crimea to Ukraine at the inaugural meeting of the Crimea Platform that attracted dignitaries from 44 countries in a show of solidarity on August 23. 

“The synergy of our efforts should force the Russian Federation to sit down at the negotiating table in order to return the peninsula to Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said, addressing representatives of delegations that included prime ministers and foreign ministers from a broad selection of Ukraine's allies at the summit in Kyiv. 

The Crimea Platform, currently underway, is a multi-level framework for devising actions that would raise the costs of Russia’s occupation and contradict Moscow’s position that the takeover of the peninsula is irreversible. It is taking place as Ukraine increasingly feels betrayed or abandoned by its Western partners.

However, in Ukraine itself, 44.4% of residents think Crimea will never be re-incorporated into Ukraine, a poll conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation jointly with the Razumkov Centre sociological service found, Interfax reports. The poll, conducted from July 29 to August 4, comprised 2,019 interviews.

The poll found that 9.3% who answered believed that re-incorporation could happen in the near future, 34% that re-incorporation was possible, but in a more distant future, 27.3% that it was “quite” impossible, and 17.1% that it was absolutely impossible to regain Crimea and that Ukraine had lost the peninsula forever.

Of those confident that Crimea might be re-incorporated into Ukraine, 41.7% view diplomatic efforts aimed at toughening international sanctions on Russia as the most efficient way to accomplish this; 46% favour reforms to increase standards of living in Ukraine, which could appeal to Crimeans; 12% believe that negotiations with Russia on the matter could be successful, and 13% propose Crimea's full isolation.

Zelenskiy, when talking about the newly created Crimea Platform, claims that “from today we are actually starting the countdown until the liberation of our land, the Ukrainian peninsula, and it is quite possible that August 23, 2021 will go down in history as the day of the beginning of the de-occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.” To achieve this, the president has suggested part of the process to re-incorporate Crimea into Ukraine should include: strengthening of sanctions against Russia, protection of human rights, overcoming the environmental and economic consequences of the occupation, and ensuring freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. According to the Ukrainian president, this is not "a summit for the sake of another summit.” 

Of those certain Crimea's re-incorporation into Ukraine is impossible, 52% said Russia's military presence on the peninsula was the reason. When mentioning other factors that prevent Ukraine from ever regaining Crimea, 39% described negative opinions of Ukraine among the peninsula's residents, 35% a long period of Crimea's being part of Russia, 29.3% the Ukrainian leadership's lack of interest in regaining Crimea, and 28.7% weak international support for Ukraine's efforts to regain the peninsula.

In Russia, support for the annexation of Crimea remains popular. In Crimea itself,  most residents believe the decision to incorporate the peninsula into Russia in 2014 was right, with 93% of the respondents considering this to be positive and only 4% being opposed to it, according to a poll by Russia's Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) published on 19 August. If a referendum on joining Russia were conducted now, 88% of Crimeans would support this decision again, 7% are undecided, and 5% would vote for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea's status within Ukraine.