The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has protested Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Crimea, the land that Kyiv considers Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territory.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its strong protest over the visit by Russian President V. Putin to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol – without the consent of the Ukrainian side on August 10, 2019,” the Ukrainian foreign policy agency said on its website on August 11.
“This trip, like all the previous visits by Russian officials to the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, which were not duly approved by the Ukrainian side, is a gross violation of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country by the Russian side,” it said.
Kyiv “continues to adhere to the principled stance that any visits by Russian officials to the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders without the consent of the Ukrainian side are unacceptable.”
“The attempt by the Russian side and mass media to interpret such ‘visits’ as ‘usual’ domestic trips by Russian officials are null and void. Crimea and Sevastopol is an integral part of Ukrainian sovereign territory,” Kyiv said.
“Any journeys of Russian officials cannot change the status of those territories stipulated in the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, but this once again demonstrates neglect by the Russian Federation of generally recognized principles and norms of international law, including the UN Charter, resolutions of the UN General Assembly, as well as obligations Russia under bilateral and multilateral treaties to which Ukraine and the Russian Federation are signatories,” the ministry said.
