The Ukrainian Security Service has barred French lawmakers who recently visited Crimea without Kyiv's authorization from entering Ukraine in the next three years.
“The Security Service has denied entry to ten members of the National Assembly and Senate of France for three years,” the Ukrainian Security Service said in an official statement on July 30.
“Ukraine believes that their trip to the autonomous republic of Crimea in July this year without the Ukrainian side’s consent and contrary to the procedure of entering and exiting the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine endorsed by Cabinet of ministers resolution No. 367 of June 4, 2015 was a destructive step,” the Security Service said.
“Such actions by French citizens go against the interests of national security and encroach on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said.
“In particular, the ban applies to Thierry Mariani, Yves Pozzo di Borgo, Nicolas Dhuicq, Claude Goasguen, Jerome Lambert, Yanniсk Moreau, Patrice Verchere, Marie-Christine Dalloz, Sauveur Gandolfi-Scheit, and Jacques Myard,” it said.
Ten members of the French National Assembly and Senate visited Crimea on July 23-24. The group included Nicolas Dhuicq and Jacques Myard (members of the National Assembly’s national defense and foreign affairs commissions respectively), and Senator Yves Pozzo di Borgo (a deputy president of the Senate’s foreign affairs commission).
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said earlier that the French lawmakers who visited Crimea without Ukraine’s authorization would be barred from entering the country.
