UNIAN: Five countries align with EU move to extend sanctions over Crimea

By UNIAN.

Published July 19, 2018 at 9:19 am

Russian President Vladimir Putin walks to take part in the opening ceremony of the road-and-rail Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait on May 15, 2018. Vladimir Putin inaugurated the 19 kilometres (12 miles) bridge consisting of parallel road and railway sections that link southern Russia to the Crimean peninsula which was annexed from Ukraine in 2014, a highly symbolic project he has personally championed. Built at a cost of 228 billion rubles ($3.69 billion), the new structure connects the southern Krasnodar region with the Crimean city of Kerch, spanning a strait between the Black Sea and the Azov Sea.

Photo by AFP

After the EU Council adopted on June 18, 2018, a decision to extend until June 23, 2019, restrictive measures in response to the illegal annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia, the Candidate Countries Montenegro and Albania, and the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and Georgia, aligned themselves with the said declaration, according to a statement by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini released on July 18.

“They will ensure that their national policies conform to this Council Decision,” the statement reads.