President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has signed the law "On amendments to some Ukrainian laws on determining the day of the launch of the temporary occupation of Crimea" as of Sept. 15, 2015.
The law states that Feb. 20, 2014 was the beginning of the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, the president’s website has reported.
The law amends the previous laws “On ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens in a legal regime in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine”, “On the creation of a free trade zone ‘Crimea'” and “On the peculiarities of conducting economic activity in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine” to set a definitive date of the beginning of temporary occupation and bring the aforementioned acts in line international legal norms to protect the rights of the state, citizens and legal entities.
The new amendments state that financial sanctions can be applied as a result of the violation of requirements on filing, calculating and the accuracy of tax declarations on behalf of tax payers who remained in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol after the occupation began.
As reported, on Sept. 15 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted in favor of the law “On amendments to some laws of Ukraine on fixing the date of the beginning of temporary occupation”, which sets February 20, 2014 as the official date of the beginning of the peninsula’s occupation by the Russian troops.
According to the adopted law, Article 1 of the law of Ukraine “On ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens in a legal regime in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine” has been amended to establish that the temporary occupation of the peninsula began on February 20, 2014.
In addition, the adopted law supports the initiative of the Ukrainian government, according to which Article 12 of the law of Ukraine “On the creation of a free trade zone ‘Crimea’ and on the peculiarities of conducting economic activity in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine” removes the provision stating that the start of Crimea’s occupation is marked by UN general Assembly’s resolution No. 68/262 coming into force (March 27, 2014)
When speaking in the parliament, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin said that the takeover of the Crimea Supreme Council took place on Feb. 26, and “Russian armed forces violated the order of [border] crossing on Feb. 20, which was confirmed by corresponding legal norms.”
He said that having two different dates to mark the beginning of Crimea’s occupation created uncertainty and was politically incorrect.
