BRUSSELS – The Russian army drafting conscripts from Crimea undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, a European External Action Service (EEAS) representative said in statement in Brussels on Oct. 15.
“The Russian Federation is carrying out forced military conscription of residents in the illegally-annexed Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol,” it said.
“This is part of continued efforts to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, with further attempts to forcibly integrate the illegally-annexed Crimea and Sevastopol into Russia, and is a violation of international humanitarian law. The Russian Federation is bound by international law, and obliged to ensure the protection of human rights in the peninsula,” the statement reads.
It reiterates the European Union’s position of non-recognizing “the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and city of Sevastopol.”
“The European Union continues to expect Russia to stop all violations of international law in the Crimean peninsula. As reiterated unequivocally by EU leaders most recently at the EU-Ukraine Summit on Oct. 6, the European Union is unwavering in its support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders, and has sanctioned those responsible for the continuing violations of international law,” the EEAS representative said.
Crimea, which remained an autonomous republic within independent Ukraine after the Soviet Union’s breakup in 1991, became part of Russia following government change in Ukraine and a Russia-controlled local referendum in 2014. Ukraine has not recognized its results and considers the peninsula its territory temporarily occupied by Russia. European Union countries and the United States qualified Russia’s actions as illegal annexation and imposed sanctions on a number of companies, policymakers, and businesspeople. Russia has said the subject of Crimea is closed forever, and the peninsula belongs to it.
